Klara K. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Klara K., who was born in Mukacheve, Czechoslovakia (presently Ukraine) in 1926, one of three children. She recounts her family's long history in Mukacheve; Hungarian occupation; anti-Jewish restrictions; German occupation in 1944; her non-Jewish boyfriend's offer to hide her; declining so she could stay with her family; ghettoization; deportation to Auschwitz in May 1944; separation with her mother, aunt, and cousin from her father and brothers (one brother survived); a fellow prisoner giving birth (the infant was killed); a kapo protecting her and her mother; transfer to Altenburg in October 1944; slave labor in a munitions factory; helping her mother meet quotas; assistance from a German civilian worker when she was ill; a death march; liberation by United States troops in April 1945; traveling to Prague; recuperating with her mother in a sanitarium; reunion with one brother (her father and other brother had been killed); marriage to an American; and emigration to the United States in June 1946. Ms. K. discusses her mother's postwar depression; her continuing belief in God despite her experiences; never losing hope she would survive; residual fears based on her experiences; and inner sadness despite moments of happiness and laughter.
Extent and Medium
2 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
- K., Klara, -- 1926-
Corporate Bodies
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
- Altenburg (Concentration camp : Thuringia, Germany)
Subjects
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Ukraine -- Mukacheve.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Video tapes.
- Women.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Postwar effects.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Postwar experiences.
- Mothers and daughters.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Family relationships.
- Death marches.
- Faith.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Hungarian occupation.
- Childbirth in concentration camps.
- Mutual aid.
Places
- Czechoslovakia.
- Prague (Czech Republic)
- Mukacheve (Ukraine)
- MunkaĚcs ghetto.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat