Ruth B. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Ruth B., who was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1934, the first of two children. She recounts not knowing she was Jewish; attending Maccabi events; German invasion; her first sense of being Jewish based on anti-Jewish restrictions; her grandparents' deportation to Theresienstadt, then hers with her family in July 1942 (her grandfather died before their arrival); her father's assignments outside the camp; her mother and aunt working with the elderly, many of whom died; performing in the children's theater; sham improvements prior to a Red Cross visit; liberation by Soviet troops; living in her grandmother's village, Prague, and near TereziĚn; antisemitic harassment in school; emigration with her family to Israel in 1949; and living on a Hashomer Hatzair kibbutz. Ms. B. discusses their survival due to her father keeping them off the transport lists; Israeli lack of interest in the Holocaust; not discussing it, even in her family; nightmares; and always feeling like an outsider, both in Czechoslovakia and Israel.
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
- B., Ruth, -- 1934-
Corporate Bodies
- Theresienstadt (Concentration camp)
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
- Maccabi World Union.
- World Hashomer Hatzair.
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Brothers and sisters.
- Identification (Religion)
- Mothers and daughters.
- Fathers and daughters.
- Nightmares.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Family relationships.
- Public opinion -- Israel.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Public opinion.
- Antisemitism -- Postwar.
- Child survivors.
- Postwar experiences.
- Postwar effects.
Places
- Czechoslovakia.
- Prague (Czech Republic)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat