Roma B. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Roma B., who was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1926. She recalls German invasion in September; ghettoization; joining Hashomer Hatzair; her brother's bar mitzvah; hiding during round-ups; her father arranging her transfer to a farm in July 1942; learning her family was deported (she never saw them again); returning to Warsaw; transfer to a labor camp; returning to Warsaw in January 1943; hiding with relatives during the April 1943 uprising; their discovery; deportation to Majdanek; transfer to Auschwitz; assignment to Canada Kommando; public hanging of Mala Zimetbaum who slit her own wrists; the Sonderkommando revolt; a death march, then transport to Ravensbrück; transfer to Malchow; sabotaging her munitions work; the guards leaving in May 1945; liberation; searching for relatives in Łódź and Warsaw; living with cousins in Allenstein (Olsztyn), posing as Christians; traveling to Berlin; living in the UNRRA camp, Schlactensee; moving to Eschwege; medical studies in Frankfurt; and emigration to Israel in May 1948 via Strasbourg and Marseille. Mrs. B. discusses details of camp and ghetto life; the importance of friends to her survival; loss of dignity and constant terror; reluctance to share her experiences; the Six Day War as the "first crack" in the "wall" around her memory; gradually sharing her experiences; and visiting Malchow and Ravensbrück in 1995.
Extent and Medium
3 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
- B., Roma, -- 1926-
- Zimetbaum, Mala, -- 1918-1944.
Corporate Bodies
- United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.
- Malchow (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Ravensbrück (Concentration camp)
- World Hashomer Hatzair.
- Majdanek (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Poland -- Warsaw.
- Bar mitzvah.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Forced labor.
- Death marches.
- Sabotage.
- Refugee camps.
- Child survivors.
- Mutual aid.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Bunkers.
- Hiding.
- Postwar experiences.
- Concentration camps -- Revolts.
- Postwar effects.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
Places
- Poland.
- Łódź (Poland)
- Warsaw (Poland) -- History -- Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 1943.
- Olsztyn (Województwo Warmińsko-Mazurskie, Poland)
- Berlin (Germany)
- Frankfurt am Main (Germany)
- Eschwege (Germany)
- Marseille (France)
- Strasbourg (France)
- Allenstein (Germany)
- Warsaw ghetto.
- Schlactensee (Germany : Refugee camp)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat