Celina L. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Celina L., who was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1918. She describes growing up in an affluent family in Siedlce; her younger sister's death in 1937; graduating from gymnasium; working as a legal assistant; German invasion in September 1939; the destruction of their home in a German bombardment during which her mother was killed; her father's imprisonment; bribing a guard to effect his escape; fleeing with her father to Siemiatycze, then Stolbt?s?y (Stou?btsy) in the Soviet zone; German invasion; ghettoization; forced labor; being hidden by a German during a round-up; her father being killed; escaping with a woman and a group of boys; joining Jewish partisans; hiding in the forests for three years; sabotaging German rail transports; obtaining supplies from Soviets; constantly moving to avoid capture; suspecting Armia Krajowa members of killing several Jewish partisans; liberation by Soviet troops; revenge taken on Germans and collaborators; meeting a man from her town, whom she married; and emigration to the United States in 1949. Mrs. L. discusses painful psychological adjustments after the war; her sense that "it was never over" for survivors; and sharing her story with her grandchildren. She shows photographs.
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
- L., Celina, -- 1918-
Subjects
- Partisans.
- Forests.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Hiding.
- Postwar effects.
- Postwar experiences.
- Resistance.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Belarus.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Jewish resistance -- Belarus.
- Escapes.
- Forced labor.
- Soviet occupation.
- Revenge.
- Sabotage.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Soviet Union.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Women.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Poland -- Stolbt︠s︡y.
Places
- Siedlce (Poland)
- Siemiatycze (Poland)
- Poland.
- Warsaw (Poland)
- Stoŭbtsy (Minskai︠a︡ voblastsʹ, Belarus)
- Stolbt︠s︡y ghetto.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat