- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Kazimiera B., who was born in Łódź, Poland in 1918, an only child. Ms. B. notes her assimilated household; involvement in communism from age fourteen leading to school expulsions and brief imprisonment in 1936; university studies in Warsaw starting in 1937; antisemitism; returning to Łódź with her mother on August 31, 1939; German invasion; traveling to Warsaw with her parents; their return to Łódź; illegally entering Soviet-occupied territory with her parents; attending school in Lʹviv while her parents taught in Białystok; German invasion in June 1941; working in a children's home; leaving for an unsuccessful attempt to unite with her parents; returning to Lʹviv, then Warsaw; being smuggled into the ghetto; joining a Polish workers' organization; working in a Jewish orphanage; hiding during round-ups; the underground arranging her escape with another woman; living with a Polish family; working as a courier for the Polish workers' party; dying her hair blond to pass as a Pole; arrest as a Polish resistant in October 1942; imprisonment in Pawiak; not revealing her identity during beatings over several days; transfer with other Polish women in January 1943 to Majdanek; the women in her group exerting power within the prisoner hierarchy; assignment to the sewing workshop; receiving Red Cross packages; friends sharing packages they received from home; public hanging of a Jewish escapee; organized cultural activities within her group; bonding with communists and with two other Jews also posing as Poles in her group; everyone trying to help child prisoners; depression resulting from her privileged position compared to the Jews; deciding with a Jewish friend to join the Jews; and a Polish friend convincing them not to reveal themselves in order not to aid the Germans.
Ms. B. recalls transfer to Ravensbrück, then a work camp; she and the other Jewish women “passing” a physical exam to identify Aryans; slave labor in a Felten aircraft factory; forming a “lager family” with five other women; the daughter of a Polish noble protecting her (she knew she was Jewish); receiving Red Cross packages and food from friends' family packages; sabotaging the work; being accused of doing so by a Hungarian prisoner; her prisoner supervisor vouching for her; ignoring frequent antisemitic remarks; transfer back to Ravensbrück in January 1944; return to her former block; participating in the Polish political prisoners' cultural activities; forming a group of friends for mutual support; friendships with Soviet prisoners; refusing transfer to a German industrial facility in order not to assist the German war effort; transfer with women she did not know to Oranienburg; refusing to work; cessation of rations as punishment; women smuggling food to her; return to Ravensbrück in April; assignment to the punishment block; difficult physical labor and beatings; assistance from her Soviet friends; hospitalization in late 1944; arrival of thousands of prisoners in terrible condition; reduced rations; Red Cross transfer of Jewish and French prisoners to Sweden in March 1945; transport out on April 28; liberation by Soviet troops; learning all the women had known she was Jewish; returning to Łódź with Red Cross assistance; learning her parents had survived; reuniting with them in Moscow in May; marriage; completing her education; returning to her Jewish roots; her parents' emigration to Israel in 1949; and hers with her family in 1960. Ms. B. discusses hierarchies within the camps; depression and nightmares resulting from her experiences; life-long friendships with fellow prisoners; sharing her experiences with her children; and difficulty grasping she survived with less suffering due to posing as a Pole.
- Author/Creator
- B., Kazimiera, 1918-
- Published
- Tel Aviv, Israel : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 1998
- Interview Date
- December 18, 1997 and January 1, 29, February 5, 19, and March 4, 1998.
- Locale
- Poland
Warsaw
Ukraine
Łódź (Poland)
Warsaw (Poland)
Lʹviv (Ukraine)
- Cite As
- Kazimiera B. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3910). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Notes
-
This testimony is in Hebrew.
