Sonia W. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Sonia W., who was born in Mie?dzyrzec Podlaski, Poland in 1925, one of three children. She recalls attending public school; German invasion; forced labor; hiding with her family during deportations; ghettoization; her brother placing her sister in hiding with a non-Jew; her father and brother hiding with another non-Jew; their betrayal and execution; deportation with her mother to Majdanek; public hangings of escapees; separation from her mother (she never saw her again) when she was transferred to Auschwitz/Birkenau; hiding during selections; a beating when their work was not up to standard; a death march; transfer in open trains to Bergen-Belsen; working in the kitchen; sharing extra food with others; being shot during liberation; hospitalization; assistance from the Red Cross; returning home; learning her sister was alive; returning to Germany; marriage; her daughter's birth in Bad Nauheim displaced persons camp; and emigration to the United States. Ms. W. notes testifying against a guard at a war crime trial. She shows a scarf her sister had from their mother; sings a song her brother wrote; and recites poetry that she wrote immediately after the war.
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
- W., Sonia, -- 1925-
Corporate Bodies
- DP-Camp Bergen-Belsen.
- Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp)
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
- Madjanek (Concentration camp)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Refugee camps.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Poetry.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Poland -- Międzyrzec Podlaski.
- Mothers and daughters.
- War crime trials.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Death marches.
- Postwar experiences.
- Mutual aid.
- Child survivors.
- Hiding.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Songs and music.
- Forced labor.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
Places
- Międzyrzec Podlaski (Poland)
- Poland.
- Międzyrzec Podlaski ghetto.
- Bad Nauheim (Germany : Refugee camp)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat