Rebeka P. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Rebeka P., who was born in Bender, Romania (presently Moldava) in approximately 1918. She recalls growing up in Kishinev (presently Chis?ina?u); increasing antisemitism beginning in 1933; Soviet occupation in 1940; confiscation of her father's business; working in the agriculture department; Romania allying itself with Germany; fleeing east with her parents and younger brother by train; strafing by German planes; leaving the train with her father when he was injured; joining her mother and brother in Alma-Ata; moving to Zhambyl; marriage to a Russian Jew; her brother's mobilization at age fourteen to work in coal mines; obtaining an office job; learning her uncle was in the same mine as her brother and assisted him; her brother's enlistment into the military; the birth of her first child; registering as Poles at the end of the war so they could leave the Soviet Union; her mother's refusal to leave her brother (she never saw her parents again); antisemitic harassment when they arrived in Poland; illegally entering the United States zone in Germany; living in the Kassel displaced persons camp; and emigration to Canada, with assistance from her husband's relatives two years later. Ms. P. notes her brother remained in Soviet territory until the late 1970s when he joined them in Canada, and considering herself lucky despite the hardships she experienced.

2 videocassettes