Marie M. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Maria M., who was born in Bogumin, Czechoslovakia, the youngest of six children, and raised in Katowice, Poland. She recalls German invasion; fleeing with other youths to Lʹviv in the Soviet zone; German invasion; joining her family in the Chrzanów ghetto; deportation to Oberalstadt two months later; assignment as a nurse; approaching the camp head for permission to send her to visit her parents en route to another camp; her one week visit with them (she never saw them again); transport to Neusalz; the arrival of two of her sisters; being appointed "Judenälteste" (head of the Jews); trying to raise prisoner morale and encourage cooperation; sharing extra food with her sisters; a death march to Flossenbürg in January 1945; train transport to Bergen-Belsen; filth, starvation, and sickness; liberation by British troops; recovering from typhus; assistance from the Red Cross; going with her sisters and brother-in-law to Brussels in October with the Jewish Brigade, intending to emigrate to Palestine; meeting her future husband; marriage; and her sisters' departures for Israel. Ms. M. tells of always discussing food in the camps; never punishing others when she was "Judenälteste;" sharing only parts of her story with her children; and continuing nightmares.
Extent and Medium
5 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
- M., Marie, -- 1922-
Corporate Bodies
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
- DP-Camp Bergen-Belsen.
- Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp)
- Flossenbürg (Concentration camp)
- Neusalz (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Soviet occupation.
- Postwar effects.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Poland -- Chrzanów.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Video tapes.
- Women.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Postwar experiences.
- Nightmares.
- Refugee camps.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Family relationships.
- Forced labor.
- Sisters.
Places
- Brussels (Belgium)
- Lʹviv (Ukraine)
- Katowice (Poland)
- Czechoslovakia.
- Bogumin (Czech Republic)
- Chrzanów ghetto.
- Oberalstadt (Czech Republic : Concentration camp)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat