Matilda Z. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Matilda Z., who was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia in 1926, the third of six children. She describes her father's death in 1937; their subsequent impoverishment; support from relatives and the Ashkenazi community; their home being bombed in April 1941; living with relatives; anti-Jewish restrictions; going without her armband with Serbian friends; a German patrol identifying her as a Jew; forced labor washing toilets for a day; another older brother being shot in a mass killing; another older brother being caught and killed in 1942; orders for her family to report to the police; refusing to go; escaping with help from an aunt who was married to a non-Jewish Serb; living with her using false papers; transfer in winter 1942-1943 to her aunt's husband's relatives in Bogosavac; (they did not know she was Jewish); caring for their home and children; killings during Chetnik raids; liberation; traveling to Šabac, then Belgrade; learning her mother and siblings had been killed at Sajmište; denial of her losses (she continued to look for them); military enlistment; joining SKOJ; serving as a nurse; and marriage in 1951. Mrs. Z. notes her continuing support of the family that rescued her. She shows photographs and documents.

2 videocassettes