Erna H. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Erna H., who was born in Krako?w, Poland in 1924. She recounts a detailed family history; her comfortable childhood; antisemitic incidents in school; German invasion; her father fleeing to the Soviet zone; expulsion from school; living in B?onie with her mother and grandfather; ghettoization in 1941; obtaining false papers which they did not use; forced labor at a factory; marriage on November 15, 1942; transfer to P?aszo?w with her mother and husband on March 13, 1943; obtaining permission to stay with her mother; sharing food with her mother and husband; her mother's futile attempt to protect her from beatings; assistance from a German officer; her mother's deportation to Auschwitz; being carried by a cousin during the death march to Auschwitz in January 1945; immediate transfer to Bergen-Belsen; liberation by British troops; reunion with her husband in Konstanz, then with her mother in Krako?w; returning to Konstanz; her son's birth in 1946; emigration to the United States in 1949; and her daughter's birth in 1954. Mrs. H. discusses meeting Oskar Schindler during the war and after; many trips to Poland; nightmares; restoring Jewish cemeteries in Poland; and sharing her experiences 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.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- H., Erna, -- 1924-
- Schindler, Oskar, -- 1908-1974.
Corporate Bodies
- Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp)
- Płaszów (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Marriage in Jewish ghettos.
- Mutual aid.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Postwar experiences.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Postwar effects.
- Mothers and daughters.
- Nightmares.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Husband and wife.
- Death marches.
- Child survivors.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- False papers.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Jewish ghettos.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Forced labor.
- Jews -- Poland -- Kraków.
- Holocaust survivors.
Places
- Kraków ghetto.
- Konstanz (Germany)
- Błonie (Poland)
- Poland.
- Kraków (Poland)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat