Sara O. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Sara O., who was born in Włodawa, Poland in 1924, one of three sisters. She recounts German invasion; round-up of her father and grandfather with others as hostages; German withdrawal weeks later; brief Soviet occupation; German return; formation of a Judenrat; forced agricultural labor; observing the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941; arrival of Jews from other towns; her father's arrest; paying for his release; witnessing the shooting of a rabbi; round-ups and deportations; her family hiding in a bunker while she and her sister reported to work; being forced to remove corpses; transfer to Włodawa labor camp; learning her father was dead; smuggling her mother and younger sister into the camp; her grandfather joining them; building bunkers; hiding during liquidation in spring 1943; escaping to the forest with others; traveling to Adampol; joining the partisans; assignment to Soviet partisans; meeting her future husband; heavy casualties during battles in March 1944; liberation by Soviet troops; living in Manevichi (Prilesnoye); marriage; traveling to several cities including Homelʹ and Minsk; returning to Włodawa seeking relatives (they had all been killed); moving to Szczecin; her daughter's birth; entering Bavaria illegally in May 1946; assistance from UNRRA; her son's birth; and emigration to Israel in November 1948 via Marseille. Ms. O. discusses details of partisan life; testifying at war crime trials in Hannover and Hamburg; and visiting Poland in 1992.

3 videocassettes