Naomi B. Holocaust testimony

Identifier
HVT 2113
Language of Description
English
Level of Description
Collection
Source
EHRI Partner

Abstract

Videotape testimony of Naomi B., Who was born in Mukacheve, Czechoslovakia in 1924, the youngest of nine children in a Hasidic family. She recalls attending Czech school; Hungarian occupation in 1938; participating in Hashomer Hatzair; her brothers' draft into Hungarian slave labor battalions; her mother's death; German occupation in March 1944; ghettoization; the Judenrat encouraging obedience; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau in May; separation from her family, except one sister; their transfer to Stutthof, then to another camp; slave labor in a munitions factory; Allied POWs instructing them to sabotage the bombs; punishment for helping others; a death march in winter 1945; their escape with six others; hiding in abandoned houses; liberation by Soviet troops; traveling home; reunion with her brother; living with a kind Romani; the shock of realizing her losses (her father, three siblings, and ten nieces and nephews); living with her sister who had hidden in Budapest; leaving to emigrate to Palestine; traveling to Bucharest, Budapest, Graz, Modena, Rome, and Ostia; assistance from the Joint, Hashomer Hatzair, and the Jewish Brigade; boarding an illegal ship in Genoa; interception by the British; incarceration in ?Atlit; living in a kibbutz, then Jerusalem; joining the Haganah; being wounded in the 1948 Israel-Arab War; hospitalization; the siege of Jerusalem; marriage; emigration to England; raising two children; and studying sculpture. Ms. B. discusses prisoner relations in the camps and representing the Holocaust and her emotions through her sculptures.

Extent and Medium

3 videocassettes

Conditions Governing Access

This testimony is open with permission.

Conditions Governing Reproduction

Copyright has been transferred to the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. Use of this testimony requires permission of the Fortunoff Video Archive.

Rules and Conventions

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Process Info

  • compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies

People

Corporate Bodies

Subjects

Places

Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.