Helen S. Holocaust testimony

Identifier
HVT 4136
Language of Description
English
Level of Description
Collection
Source
EHRI Partner

Abstract

Videotape testimony of Helen S., who was born in Vilna, Russia (presently Vilnius, Lithuania) in 1917, one of three children. She recounts a happy childhood; attending public school; marriage in 1939; her husband's draft into the Polish military; his return in 1940; her son's birth in 1941; German invasion; ghettoization; hiding with her son, husband, and aunt in a bunker with a hundred others; their discovery; the Germans taking her son (she never saw him again); her aunt committing suicide; deportation to Stutthof; separation from her husband; beatings from guards from which she still bears scars; slave labor digging anti-tank ditches; a death march; liberation by Soviet troops; hiding in a house in Szczecin; Soviet soldiers raping survivors; assistance from two of her father's friends; traveling with a friend to Łódź, then Feldafing displaced persons camp; learning her husband had died shortly after liberation; working for UNRRA: remarriage to a survivor whose wife and child had been killed; emigration to the United States, with assistance from HIAS; the births of two daughters; and her second husband's death in 1997. Ms. S. notes not knowing the fate of her parents. She shows photographs.

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

Corporate Bodies

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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.