Naomi B. Holocaust testimony
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
- B., Naomi, -- 1924-
Corporate Bodies
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Stutthof (Concentration camp)
- World Hashomer Hatzair.
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
- Haganah (Organization)
Subjects
- Postwar effects.
- Postwar experiences.
- Mutual aid.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in art.
- Israel-Arab War, 1948-1949 -- Jerusalem.
- Death marches.
- Escapes.
- Sabotage.
- Prisoners of war -- Poland.
- Forced labor.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- Sisters.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Ukraine -- Mukacheve.
- Jewish councils.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Women.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
Places
- Czechoslovakia.
- Jerusalem -- History -- Siege, 1948.
- MunkaĚcs ghetto.
- ĘťAtlit (Israel)
- Palestine -- Emigration and immigration.
- Ostia (Italy)
- Genoa (Italy)
- Modena (Italy)
- Rome (Italy)
- Budapest (Hungary)
- Graz (Austria)
- Mukacheve (Ukraine)
- Bucharest (Romania)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat