Sonia P. Holocaust testimony

Identifier
HVT 2298
Language of Description
English
Level of Description
Collection
Source
EHRI Partner

Abstract

Videotape testimony of Sonia P., who was born in Paneve?z?ys, Lithuania in 1925. She recalls her Orthodox family background; attending Hebrew day school; helping in the family store in Troskunai; Soviet occupation; living with her brother while learning bookkeeping in Kovno; German occupation; learning her family perished in a mass murder; ghettoization; her brother's murder; forced labor at the airport; working two shifts to enable her sister-in-law to care for her niece; selections and killings; arranging, with others, for her niece to be hidden by non-Jews; forced labor with her sister-in-law in Kauen-Schanzen; witnessing the round-up of all children; deportation to a concentration camp with her sister and sister-in-law; transfers to several camps; and liberation in March 1945. Mrs. P. describes deciding not to return to Lithuania; working as an interpreter for the Soviets; fleeing with friends to Stettin; reunion with her sister-in-law and niece in Munich; working in the Zeilsheim displaced persons camp; assistance from UNRRA in contacting her aunt in South Africa; emigrating, with assistance from HIAS, to South Africa via Paris in 1947; marriage in 1950; and her children's births. She discusses her faith and reluctance to share her experiences with her children.

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

  • P., Sonia, -- 1925-

Corporate Bodies

  • United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.
  • Zeilsheim (Displaced persons camp)
  • HIAS (Agency)
  • Kauen-Schanzen (Concentration camp)

Subjects

  • Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
  • Women.
  • Video tapes.
  • Holocaust survivors.
  • Jewish ghettos.
  • World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
  • World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
  • World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
  • Child survivors.
  • Aid by non-Jews.
  • Survivor-child relations.
  • Mass killings.
  • Soviet occupation.
  • Mutual aid.
  • Postwar experiences.
  • Jews -- Lithuania -- Kaunas.
  • Sisters.
  • Faith.
  • Forced labor.
  • Lithuania.
  • Panevėžys (Lithuania)
  • Troskunai (Lithuania)
  • Refugee camps.

Places

  • Kaunas (Lithuania)
  • South Africa.
  • Munich (Germany)
  • Szczecin (Poland)
  • Kovno ghetto.
  • Paris (France)
  • Stettin (Germany)

Genre

  • Oral histories. -- aat
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.