Sara W. Holocaust testimony

Identifier
HVT 2955
Language of Description
English
Level of Description
Collection
Source
EHRI Partner

Abstract

Videotape testimony of Sara W., who was born in Jaworzno, Poland in 1911, one of nine children. She describes her mother's death in 1935; antisemitic boycotts; her father's emigration to Palestine; marriage in Krako?w in January 1939; German occupation; one brother's murder in a mass shooting; ghettoization; her husband's and son's disappearance in October 1942 (she never saw them again); working in the Wieliczka salt mine; her brother smuggling her to Chrzano?w; fleeing to Sosnowiec during Chrzano?w's liquidation; hiding in a bunker her brother built with assistance from a Polish woman; obtaining false papers; visiting her family in the ghetto; smuggling two nieces out of the ghetto; the younger niece's discovery; moving to Germany with assistance from the underground, posing as Polish slave laborers; working on a farm, then a convent; hiding her nephew and two friends (they had escaped); she and her niece being interrogated by German police; liberation by Soviet troops; returning to Jaworzno; fleeing to Frankfurt; marriage in Zeilsheim displaced persons camp; the birth of her two children; and emigrating in 1951 to the United States. Mrs. W. discusses the loss of all her siblings, and memorializing their names on her father's and husband's tombstones in Jerusalem. She shows photographs and documents.

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. This testimony or excerpts from it, can be used only for educational purposes. It cannot be used for commerial purposes or in any context which includes fiction or reenactment.

Related Units of Description

  • Associated material: Rose S. Holocaust testimony [niece] (HVT-2694), Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Rules and Conventions

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Process Info

  • compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies

People

Corporate Bodies

Subjects

Places

Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.