Vera M. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Vera M., who was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia in April 1920. She recalls her assimilated childhood in Proseč; attending school in Vysoké Mýto; antisemitic incidents; transfering to schools in Prague, then Jeseník; anti-Jewish restrictions, including her father's expulsion from a club and expropriation of their house in 1939; living in Prague with her sister; marriage in October 1941; her husband's deportation to Theresienstadt in December; voluntarily following him ten days later; sharing food; forced labor; sham improvements for a Red Cross visit; her parents' and sister's arrival in December 1942; their deportation to Auschwitz in December 1943; her mother's letter warning her not to leave Theresienstadt; volunteering to accompany her husband to Auschwitz; their separation upon arrival; random killings; transfer with her aunt to a munitions factory in Freiberg; sabotaging production; her aunt and others assisting her when she was in the infirmary; train evacuation in April 1945; a childbirth on the train; receiving food from bystanders in Klatovy; arrival at Mauthausen; and liberation by United States troops. Mrs. M. recounts transport to České Budějovice, then Prague with her aunt in May 1945; living in Proseč; learning her husband and family had perished; and marriage in Prague in June 1946. She shows photographs.
Extent and Medium
2 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
- M., Vera, -- 1920-
Corporate Bodies
- Theresienstadt (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
- Freiberg (Concentration camp)
- Mauthausen (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Forced labor.
- Family.
- Husband and wife.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Sabotage.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Family relationships.
- Mutual aid.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Husband -- Death.
- Childbirth in concentration camps.
- Hospitals in concentration camps.
- Postwar experiences.
Places
- Czech Republic.
- Prague (Czech Republic)
- Jeseník (Czech Republic)
- Klatovy (Czech Republic)
- Proseč (Czech Republic)
- Vysoké Mýto (Czech Republic)
- České Budějovice (Czech Republic)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat