Bella R. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Bella R., who was born in Sosnowiec, Poland in 1926. In this detailed testimony, Mrs. R. recalls antisemitic incidents; German invasion; briefly fleeing to Wolbrom; returning to Sosnowiec; anti-Jewish violence; ghettoization; conflicts between the Judenrat and the underground; avoiding deportation due to the family business; transfer to the Srodula ghetto; hiding in a bunker in August 1943; discovery (one brother was killed and her parents taken); remaining in the bunker with her sister and brother for seven days; leaving after her siblings had gone; capture by a Pole; transfer to the Kamionka ghetto; escaping to Be?dzin; help from a Polish family friend and a Polish woman; returning to Kamionka; reunion with her brother and sister; their transfer to Annaberg; transfer with her sister to another camp; slave labor in a textile factory; transfer to Gru?nberg; the death march in January 1945 to Christianstadt; her sister's escape, then her own with friends; liberation by Soviet troops; finding her sister; returning to Sosnowiec; reunion with her father; joining her mother and another sister in the Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp; marriage; and emigration to Israel in 1950, and then to the United States in 1963. She shows photographs and notes relatives who did not survive.
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
- R., Bella, -- 1926-
Corporate Bodies
- DP-Camp Bergen-Belsen.
- Annaberg (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Jewish ghettos.
- Escapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Sisters.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Jewish resistance.
- Jews -- Poland -- Sosnowiec (Województwo Śląskie)
- Jewish councils.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- Mutual aid.
- Postwar experiences.
- Death marches.
- Child survivors.
- Forced labor.
- Brothers and sisters.
- Bunkers.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Hiding.
Places
- Poland.
- Będzin (Poland)
- Israel.
- Sosnowiec (Województwo Śląskie, Poland)
- Wolbrom (Poland)
- Sosnowiec ghetto.
- Kamionka ghetto.
- Grünberg (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Christianstadt (Poland : Concentration camp)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat