- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Irene W., who was born in Kobern, Germany in 1921. She recalls feeling secure and respected in the German community; her father's arrest during Kristallnacht; working as a nurse's aide in a Jewish hospital in Cologne; anti-Jewish regulations; sending packages to her parents who were deported to Lublin in March 1942; forced relocation of the hospital into a fortress on the outskirts of Cologne; deportation with about fifty Jews on a passenger train to Terezín in 1943; working in a hospital; assistance from her boyfriend's family; transport to Auschwitz; praying during selection; digging ditches in Trachenberg (presently Żmigród) in 1944; the death march to Gross Rosen in March 1945; Allied bombing during evacuation in open cattle cars to Bergen-Belsen; helping a friend to give birth; starvation and lack of water resulting in a high death rate; disappearance of German guards; and liberation by British troops. Mrs. W. recounts reunion with her fiance in Cologne; learning no one from her family survived; receiving a telegram from her brother in the United States; and emigrating to the United States in 1947. She discusses assistance from non-Jews and the importance of friendship to her survival.
- Author/Creator
- W., Irene, 1921-
- Published
- Peabody, Mass. : Holocaust Center of the Jewish Federation of the North Shore, 1991
- Interview Date
- May 30, 1991.
- Locale
- Germany
Kobern (Germany)
Cologne (Germany)
Żmigród (Poland)
- Cite As
- Irene W. Holocaust Testimonies (HVT-2268). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Darsa, Jan, interviewer.
Kaplan, Zelda, interviewer.
