Vida K. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Vida K., who lived in Thessalonikē, Greece. She recalls speaking Ladino and French; her father's death in 1936; marriage in 1938; her son's birth; the rabbi encouraging the Jews to cooperate with deportation orders; wanting to escape, but her husband's refusal; their round-up to the Baron de Hirsch quarter; deportation to Auschwitz; separation from her son and husband upon arrival (she never saw them again); a Blockälteste giving her a privileged assignment to the kitchen because she spoke French; assignment to Block 10; working with her friend Beinvenida M. in the clothing area; receiving injections from Dr. Carl Clauberg at least monthly as part of a specious medical experiment; transfer to Neustadt; a death march and train transport to Ravensbrück; French prisoners caring for her and others; liberation; transport to Brussels, then Athens; living with a nephew, then her employer; marriage; working in a Jewish school; her husband's death; and moving back to Thessalonikē. Ms. K. notes learning Greek after the war; her inability to have children due to the "experiments"; her continuing friendship with Bienvenida M.; and trying to forget her painful memories.
Extent and Medium
1 videocassette
Conditions Governing Access
This testimony can only be viewed at Yale by Yale faculty and/or students.
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 for publication.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- K., Vida.
- Clauberg, Carl.
Corporate Bodies
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Neustadt-Glewe (Concentration camp)
- Ravensbrück (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Death marches.
- Husband -- Death.
- Mutual aid.
- Postwar experiences.
- Postwar effects.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Children -- Death.
- Forced labor.
- Human experimentation in medicine.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Women.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
Places
- Thessalonikē (Greece)
- Brussels (Belgium)
- Athens (Greece)
- Greece.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat