Kazimiera B. Holocaust testimony

Identifier
HVT 3910
Language of Description
English
Level of Description
Collection
Source
EHRI Partner

Abstract

Videotape testimony of Kazimiera B., who was born in Łódź, Poland in 1918, an only child. Ms. B. notes her assimilated household; involvement in communism from age fourteen leading to school expulsions and brief imprisonment in 1936; university studies in Warsaw starting in 1937; antisemitism; returning to Łódź with her mother on August 31, 1939; German invasion; traveling to Warsaw with her parents; their return to Łódź; illegally entering Soviet-occupied territory with her parents; attending school in Lʹviv while her parents taught in Białystok; German invasion in June 1941; working in a children's home; leaving for an unsuccessful attempt to unite with her parents; returning to Lʹviv, then Warsaw; being smuggled into the ghetto; joining a Polish workers' organization; working in a Jewish orphanage; hiding during round-ups; the underground arranging her escape with another woman; living with a Polish family; working as a courier for the Polish workers' party; dying her hair blond to pass as a Pole; arrest as a Polish resistant in October 1942; imprisonment in Pawiak; not revealing her identity during beatings over several days; transfer with other Polish women in January 1943 to Majdanek; the women in her group exerting power within the prisoner hierarchy; assignment to the sewing workshop; receiving Red Cross packages; friends sharing packages they received from home; public hanging of a Jewish escapee; organized cultural activities within her group; bonding with communists and with two other Jews also posing as Poles in her group; everyone trying to help child prisoners; depression resulting from her privileged position compared to the Jews; deciding with a Jewish friend to join the Jews; and a Polish friend convincing them not to reveal themselves in order not to aid the Germans.

Extent and Medium

48 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

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Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.