- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Isabella L., who was born in Kisvárda, Hungary, in 1924. Mrs. L. vividly recalls ubiquitous antisemitism during her childhood; her father's attempts to secure visas for them while in the United States organizing an exhibition for the 1939 World's Fair; their difficult situation during the early years of the war; German occupation; ghettoization of Kisvárda; deportation in cattle cars with her family to Auschwitz in May 1944; selection by Mengele; the killing of her mother and youngest sister; and receiving messages from her brother scrawled on scraps of wood. She tells of the pervasive stench of burning flesh; the close bonds among the four surviving sisters; their selection for death; a last minute change resulting in their transport to Birnbäumel in November 1944; digging tank traps in the forest; escaping with two of her sisters during a death march through Jagdschütz (today Jachcice) in January 1945; and liberation by Soviet troops. She relates their journey to Odessa; arrival in New York in May 1945; reunion with her brother; and learning of the torture and death of her other sister at Bergen-Belsen.
- Author/Creator
- L., Isabella, 1924?-
- Published
- New Haven, Conn. : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 1989
- Interview Date
- May 18, 1989.
- Locale
- Hungary
Kisvárda
Kisvárda (Hungary)
Jachcice (Poland)
- Cite As
- Isabella L. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1270). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Langer, Lawrence L., interviewer.
Cohen, Frances Proctor, interviewer.
- Notes
-
Related publication: Fragments of Isabella : a memoir of Auschwitz / by Isabella Leitner ; edited and with an epilogue by Irving A. Leitner. -- 1st ed. -- New York : Crowell, c1978.
Related publication: Saving the fragments : from Auschwitz to New York / by Isabella Leitner with Irving A. Leitner ; with an introduction by Howard Fast. -- New York : New American Library, c1985.
Associated material: Philip K. Holocaust testimony [brother] (HVT-1300 and HVT-1319), Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
