Maria J. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Maria J., who was born in Krako?w, Poland in 1918. She describes her father's tannery in Dobczyce; cordial relations with non-Jews; living in Podgo?rze; participating in Akiba, a Zionist organization; marriage in 1937; German invasion in 1939; her husband's imprisonment as a spy (he was in the Polish military); his release after paying ransom; leaving her son with her parents in Dobczyce; working for the underground in Krako?w; ghettoization; obtaining a job distributing food rations, then as a waitress for German soldiers; secretly leaving the ghetto to visit her son; providing a Jewish boy with food; helping distribute medicines received from the Joint; contacts with Tadeusz Pankiewicz, a Pole who maintained a ghetto pharmacy (she is critical of him); a round-up when a friend was killed and she was whipped; escaping from the ghetto to her family in Dobczyce; returning to Krako?w; moving with her son to P?aszo?w; their escape; hiding with her husband and others in a bunker; and smuggling food disguised as a Pole. Mrs. J. discusses postwar antisemitism resulting in her husband's imprisonment; confiscation of their successful winery; meeting Oskar Schindler; her husband's friendship with Pope John Paul II; the murder of her entire family in the Holocaust; and the music of Mordecai Gebirtig.

6 videocassettes