Anna L. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Anna L., who was born in ?o?dz?, Poland in 1915. Ms. L. recalls a large, extended family; their orthodoxy; visiting relatives in Skryhiczyn; attending school in Dubienka; a disproportionate failure rate for Jews taking exams in 1932; completing university in Warsaw in 1937; participating in a banned left-wing organization; working in a CENTOS institute for mentally handicapped children in Otwock, while living in Warsaw; German invasion; traveling to Skryhiczyn, then fleeing east to Kovel?; Soviet occupation; working in an orphanage; moving to L?viv; German invasion in 1941; arrest and immediate escape; joining her parents in the Warsaw ghetto; working in an orphanage; pervasive hunger; escaping with assistance from non-Jewish, leftist friends who hid her; working on an underground newspaper; obtaining false papers; joining the resistance in Wyszko?w; hiding in the forests; blowing up German trains and police stations; a colleague accidentally shooting her; traveling to Warsaw for treatment; marriage; working with her husband preparing munitions for the partisans; his arrest, torture, and escape; observing the ghetto uprising; hearing about the Hotel Polski, but not trusting the Germans (a relative went and was deported and killed); her husband's death in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising; escaping through the sewers; obtaining new false documents from Yitzhak (Antek) Zuckerman; crossing to the Soviet zone; her daughter's birth in Lublin; and returning to Warsaw. Ms. L. discusses relatives who survived because they left Poland before the war; the murders of almost all her family who remained; her careers in journalism and psychology; visits to relatives in Israel; and gratitude to many non-Jews who helped her survive.
Extent and Medium
5 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
- Zuckerman, Yitzhak, -- 1915-1981.
- L., Anna, -- 1915-
Subjects
- Postwar experiences.
- Partisans.
- Forests.
- False papers.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Refugees, Jewish.
- Jews -- Migrations.
- Orphanages -- Poland.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Poland -- Warsaw.
- Escapes.
- Forced labor.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Poland.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Jewish resistance.
- Husband and wife.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Soviet occupation.
- Hiding.
- Aid by non-Jews.
Places
- Łódź (Poland)
- Poland.
- Otwock (Poland)
- Dubineka (Poland)
- Warsaw (Poland)
- Skryhiczyn (Poland)
- Warsaw (Poland) -- History -- Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 1943.
- Wyszków (Poland)
- Lʹviv (Ukraine)
- Kovelʹ (Ukraine)
- Warsaw (Poland) -- History -- Uprising, 1944.
- Lublin (Poland)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat