Klara V. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Klara V., who was born in Shpola, Ukraine in 1927. She recalls cordial relations with non-Jews; religious observances ceasing due to Soviet secularization; German invasion; briefly fleeing east with her family; returning home; forced labor; a mass killing which included her father; ghettoization with her mother and young brother; a German warning them to leave; her mother hiding her with a non-Jewish acquaintance; returning to her mother; transfer to nearby labor camps; assistance from local peasants; contracting typhus; a doctor saving her when the sick were executed; escaping; returning to Shpola; her mother obtaining false papers for her; hiding with her mother's friend for a week; arrest in Novomirgorod; forced labor on a farm; other prisoners not revealing she was Jewish; liberation by Soviet troops; being shot in an attack; hospitalization; learning her sister had survived; joining her in Nizhniĭ Novgorod; attending school; returning to Shpola; and teaching in Kiev. Mrs. V. discusses learning her brother had been betrayed while in hiding; always hoping her mother would return (she did not); reluctance to share her war experiences; since her retirement, participating in a Babi Yar memorial organization, and speaking internationally about her experiences.

3 videocassettes