Bella M. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Bella M., who was born in Hungary in 1904 and grew up in Csecse. She recalls studying in Koma?rom, Budapest, and Vienna; obtaining a permit to retain her lingerie workshop despite the law against it; her husband's compulsory service in a labor battalion; an unsuccessful attempt to hide after Szaloshi came to power in 1944; incarceration in a brick factory; escaping with sick women to Gyo?r; organizing treatment and food for the Jewish women with assistance from a doctor and men from a Jewish labor battalion; contacting their friends and relatives through a peasant; escaping to Budapest with assistance from the doctor and nuns; learning her husband was deported to Germany; using false papers to travel with her Catholic friend to Koma?rom; joining her sister in Semjen with assistance from her non-Jewish brother-in-law; her husband's arrival a week later (he escaped from Szombathely with assistance from a former employee and a friend); and liberation by Soviet troops. Mrs. M. recounts rebuilding their life in Budapest; her daughter's birth in 1945; emigration with her family to Canada in 1949; and her husband's continuing sense of being a stranger.
Extent and Medium
3 videocassettes (betacam sp)
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
- M., Bella, -- 1904-
Subjects
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Video tapes.
- Women.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Postwar experiences.
- Hiding.
- False papers.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Mutual aid.
- Husband and wife.
- Escapes.
Places
- Budapest (Hungary)
- Hungary.
- KomaĚrom (Hungary)
- GyoĚr (Hungary)
- Semjen (Hungary)
- Csecse (Hungary)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat