Helena B. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Helena B., a non-Jew, who was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1920. She recalls her family's history of socialist activism; cordial relations with assimilated Jews; friendship with a girl from a Hasidic family; her father's open opposition to antisemitism resulting in his job termination; German invasion; humiliating treatment of Jews by German soldiers; visiting friends in the ghetto; observing starving children, corpses on the street, and lack of sanitation; providing shelter for Jews, some of whom were later arrested and killed; her parents, fearing informants, sending her to De?blin; membership in Zwia?zek Walki M?odych (a leftist organization); assisting the ZOB (Jewish Fighting Organization) during the ghetto uprising; providing shelter, false papers, and medical care to her Jewish friend when she was wounded; her father's arrest; connecting her Jewish friends with Armia Ludowa; losing an arm during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944; liberation; and hospitalization in Krako?w. Mrs. B. discusses differences between assimilated and observant Jews; maintaining contacts with her friends in Israel; harassment by Communist security police due to her Israeli contacts; and receiving the "Righteous Among Nations" medal in Israel in 1985. Mrs. B. discusses her book and many leaders of the ZOB.

3 videocassettes