Suzanne H. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Suzanne H., who was born in Vilna, Poland in 1931. She recalls her family's assimilated lifestyle; her grandfather living with them; attending a Jewish school; her brother's birth in 1937; Soviet occupation in 1939; German invasion in 1941; ghettoization; imprisonment with her mother, brother, and grandfather; separation from her grandfather (they never saw him again); release with assistance from her father's supervisor; transfer to Keilis; her father working in his former factory; clandestine schooling; transfer to the ghetto; hiding with her family during its liquidation; smuggling themselves back to Keilis; separation from her parents during a round-up; learning her mother was shot and her father was in the H.K.P. camp; living with relatives; a German officer helping her and her brother to join their father; public hangings; hiding during the 1944 "children's aktion"; hiding with her father and brother during the camp's liquidation; their escape; liberation by Soviet troops in late 1944; her father reclaiming his factory; traveling to Bia?ystok, ?o?dz?, Vienna, then Steiermark displaced persons camp; moving to Bindermichl via Linz; assistance from UNRRA; emigration to the United States with assistance from relatives there; marriage; and the births of two children. Ms. H. discusses the importance of her father's skills and ingenuity to their survival; therapy for issues resulting from her experiences, particularly her mother's death; and sharing parts of her story 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. This testimony or excerpts from it cannot be used until 2010.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- H., Suzanne, -- 1931-
Corporate Bodies
- H.K.P. (Concentration camp : Vilnius, Lithuania)
- United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.
Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Women.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Family relationships.
- Mothers and daughters.
- Fathers and daughters.
- Brothers and sisters.
- Families.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, German.
- Jews -- Poland -- Vilnius.
- Postwar effects.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Hiding.
- Bunkers.
- Soviet occupation.
- Child survivors.
- Refugee camps.
- Escapes.
- Postwar experiences.
Places
- Vienna (Austria)
- Linz (Austria)
- Białystok (Poland)
- Łódź (Poland)
- Poland.
- Vilnius (Lithuania)
- Steiermark (Austria : Refugee camp)
- Bindermichl (Austria : Refugee camp)
- Vilna ghetto.
- Keilis (Vilnius, Lithuania : Concentration camp)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat