Esther F. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Esther F., who was born in Kaunas, Lithuania in 1923. She describes a happy childhood in a family of seven children; Soviet occupation; German invasion; a futile attempt to flee; separation from her mother and sisters during a selection; learning of their murders in a mass killing from her brother, who escaped from the mass grave; transfer to a labor camp with her father and brothers; her fiancé joining her; sharing extra food with fellow prisoners; requesting her father's transfer to the ghetto hospital when he was ill; transfer to Stutthof; separation from her father, brothers, and fiancé; escaping with a friend from a death march; receiving food, clothing, and advice from a German priest; working while posing as German refugees; liberation by Soviet troops; working as a hospital nurse; joining a group of Jewish refugees in Breslau; traveling to Łódź; reunion with her fiancé in Wels displaced persons camp; learning her father had been killed; marriage; living in Munich; her son's birth in June 1947; reunion with her sister; and emigration to the United States in 1949.
Extent and Medium
2 videocassettes (betacam sp)
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
- F., Esther, -- 1923-
Corporate Bodies
- Stutthof (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Postwar experiences.
- Hiding.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Sisters.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Jews -- Lithuania -- Kaunas.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Fathers and daughters.
- Brothers and sisters.
- Escapes.
- Refugee camps.
- Forced labor.
- Death marches.
- Mutual aid.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Soviet occupation.
- Mass killings.
Places
- Wrocław (Poland)
- Kaunas (Lithuania)
- Munich (Germany)
- Łódź (Poland)
- Lithuania.
- Wels (Austria : Refugee camp)
- Kovno ghetto.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat