Berry N. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Berry N., who was born in Kastoria, Greece, the older of two daughters. She recounts her mother's death; her father's remarriage; the births of four half-siblings; attending a Jewish school, then secular gymnasium; cordial relations with non-Jews; benign Italian occupation; German occupation beginning in 1943; separation from the non-Jewish population; not going when her father encouraged her to flee to the partisans with a younger brother; round-up with some fifty relatives and others to a school in March 1944; encouragement from her friend Dora; deportation to Thessalonikē, then Auschwitz; separation from her family upon arrival (she never saw them again); remaining with Dora; slave labor carrying stones; losing her will to live; Dora encouraging her; transfer to Canada Kommando; improved clothing and food; sharing extra clothes with others; an attack by a guard dog; a revolt by the crematoria workers; a death march, then train transfer to Ravensbrück; finding a niece; remaining with her; another attack by a dog; transfer to another camp; liberation by Soviet troops in May 1945; recovering from typhus; living in a displaced persons camp in Berlin; transfer to Brussels; transport to Athens in September; traveling to Thessalonikē; meeting her husband; visiting Kastoria; and learning thirty-two of some 1,000 Jews had survived. Ms. N. discusses relations between prisoners in camps; attributing her survival to belief in her own power; active participation in a Greek survivor group; writing a book about her experiences, and sharing her story with others through speaking engagements in Greece. She shows photographs.

2 videocassettes