Paula S. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Paula S., who was born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1912. She recounts her family's evacuation to England during World War I; returning home; their poverty; her father's death; one sister emigrating to England (she had been born there); participating in communist youth activities; German invasion; organizing anti-Nazi activities; joining the partisans; defying anti-Jewish restrictions; her mother's and sister-in-law's deportations (she never saw them again); hiding using false papers; arrest; imprisonment in Antwerp and St. Gilles; transfer to Breendonk, then Malines; not revealing information about the resistance during torture; her trial in Essen; a six year sentence; imprisonment in Mesum; transfer to Gross Strehlitz, then Ravensbrück; the shock of the horrendous conditions; assistance from political prisoners; slave labor; bonding with French and Belgian prisoners; transfer to Binder, then Langenhorn; liberation by the Red Cross; transfer in May to Denmark, then Sweden; hospitalization; transport to Brussels in July; assistance from the Red Cross; reunion with her brother-in-law and niece; marriage to a camp survivor; continuing friendship with fellow survivors; and recent involvement in the Ravensbrück association and Jewish organizations. Ms. S. discusses details of camp life; the difficulty of surviving; her state of mind in camps; and inter-group relations.
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
- S., Paula, -- 1912-
Corporate Bodies
- Ravensbrück (Concentration camp)
- Malines (Concentration camp)
- Breendonk (Concentration camp)
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
Subjects
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Anti-Nazi movement.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Belgium.
- Trials -- Germany.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, German.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Women.
- World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- Partisans.
- Forced labor.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- False papers.
- Mutual aid.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Hiding.
- Postwar experiences.
- Postwar effects.
Places
- Belgium.
- Essen (Germany)
- Mesum (Germany)
- Antwerp (Belgium)
- England.
- Binder (Germany : Concentration camp)
- Brussels (Belgium)
- Sweden.
- Denmark.
- Langenhorn (Germany : Concentration camp)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat