Rita W. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Rita W., who was born in Dămăcușeni, Romania in 1926, one of seven children from her father's second marriage (his first wife, with whom he had five children, died in childbirth). She recounts her father's leadership of the Jewish community; his beating by Nazi sympathizers; Hungarian occupation in 1940; draft of her sisters' husbands into slave labor battalions; moving to a married sister's home in Reghin to assist with her business and family; German occupation in spring 1944; ghettoization with her sister and her children; deportation to Birkenau; separation from her sister (she and her children were killed); her sense of isolation among thousands of people; transfer to a camp in Lithuania a few days later; slave labor repairing German uniforms; decent treatment by the German camp commander; crying constantly; three sisters befriending her; a group of about thirty caring for each other; the religious women praying and informing them of holidays; her continuing belief that God would save them; transfer to Stutthof; public hangings; discussing food and recipes when not working; praying often; and fasting on Yom Kippur.

15 videocassettes