Pola N. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Pola N., who was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1919, one of seven children. She recalls attending a Jewish school; German invasion; two brothers and a sister fleeing to the Soviet zone; ghettoization; being smuggled out by a non-Jewish friend; living in Kielce; sending packages to her family; smuggling back to the ghetto once; deportation from the Kielce ghetto to Auschwitz; meaningless slave labor; friends assisting her at appell when she was sick; transfer to Ravensbru?ck; slave labor in a munitions factory; a German soldier shooting a Jewish child in the face, a memory which still haunts her; being taken to Malmo?, Sweden, via Denmark in the Bernadotte prisoner exchange; kindness from the Danes and Swedes; contacting her aunt in New York with assistance from the Red Cross; learning her siblings who had gone to the Soviet Union had survived; reunion with them in Germany; marriage; and emigration to Canada. Ms. N. discusses camp life; her emotional numbness in ghettos and camps; the importance of being with friends to her survival (they remain close); sharing her experiences with her children; and her pervasive sense of loss.
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
- N., Pola, -- 1919-
- Bernadotte, Folke, -- 1895-1948.
Corporate Bodies
- RavenbruĚck (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Poland -- Warsaw.
- Jews -- Poland -- Kielce.
- Forced labor.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Friendship.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Postwar experiences.
- Postwar effects.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Mutual aid.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
Places
- Warsaw (Poland)
- Kielce (Poland)
- Poland.
- MalmoĚ (Sweden)
- Denmark.
- Kielce ghetto.
- Warsaw ghetto.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat