Ruth M. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Ruth M., who was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1924. She recalls a wonderful childhood prior to her father's suicide; moving to her grandmother's with her mother and twin brother; German occupation; constant fear; she and her brother refusing to leave when her mother arranged their emigration to England; marriage; deportation to Theresienstadt with her husband and their families; transfer to Auschwitz; separation from her husband and twin brother; a last visit with her mother; useless slave labor; medical examinations; train transfer to a factory; attempting to help others during a death march; two weeks without food or water in cattle cars; transfer to another factory; traveling to Denmark in an exchange arranged by Count Folke Bernadotte; transfer to Malmo?, Sweden; living in Stockholm with a Czech-Jewish couple; the trauma of learning her entire family had been killed; moving to Oslo with the couple; remarriage; and emigration to the United States. Mrs. M. discusses her state of mind in the camps; bitterness toward her uncle who did not assist her family in escaping from Czechoslovakia; unwillingness to share her experiences with her husband and children; and deciding not to make the Holocaust a subject of her art work.
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
- M., Ruth, -- 1924-
- Bernadotte, Folke, -- 1895-1948.
Corporate Bodies
- Theresienstadt (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Mothers and daughters.
- Twins.
- Husband and wife.
- Child survivors.
- Mutual aid.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Prisoner exchange.
- Postwar experiences.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Death marches.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Women.
- Forced labor.
- Brothers and sisters.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
Places
- Oslo (Norway)
- Prague (Czech Republic)
- Czechoslovakia.
- Denmark.
- MalmoĚ (Sweden)
- Stockholm (Sweden)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat