Helena B. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Helena B., who was born in Český Těšín, Czechoslovakia (presently Czech Republic) in 1927, the older of two children. She recalls moving to Kraków in 1934 to join relatives; attending a Jewish school; German invasion in September 1939; anti-Jewish restrictions, including expulsion from school; studying at home; ghettoization; working with her mother repairing damaged German uniforms; transfer to Płaszów in March 1943; public shootings by Amon Goeth; she and her mother seeing her father and brother in the men's camp; transfer with her mother to Auschwitz; remaining with her mother and the women from Płaszów who were on Schindler's list; transfer to Brünnlitz three weeks later; reunion with her father and brother; believing they would survive due to Oskar Schindler; liberation by Soviet troops; returning to Kraków; moving to Bratislava to join relatives; marriage to a survivor; and the births of three children. Ms. B. notes feeling like she "lived a hundred lives" when she was only eighteen; sharing her experiences with her children; and the trauma of viewing the film "Schindler's List," despite its differences from her own memories.
Extent and Medium
1 videocassette
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., Helena, -- 1927-
- Göth, Amon, -- 1908-1946.
- Schindler, Oskar, -- 1908-1974.
Corporate Bodies
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Brünnlitz (Concentration camp)
- Płaszów (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Postwar experiences.
- Postwar effects.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Child survivors.
- Fathers and daughters.
- Brothers and sisters.
- Mothers and daughters.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Forced labor.
- Jews -- Poland -- Kraków.
- Jewish ghettos.
Places
- Czechoslovakia.
- Český Těšín (Czech Republic)
- Kraków (Poland)
- Kraków ghetto.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat