- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Margaret P., who was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1923. She recounts her father's death before she was born; her mother's return to her parents in Budapest; visits with her paternal grandparents in Czechoslovakia; and anti-Semitic incidents in school. Mrs. P. describes sudden changes when Germany occupied Hungary; her marriage on April 8, 1944 during her husband's leave from a Hungarian labor battalion; a round-up in December; a fascist guard giving her the opportunity to escape but refusing since she had no place to go; and arrival in Bergen-Belsen on the last transport from Budapest. She recalls conditions in Belsen; learning of gas chambers and crematoria; transfer to Raguhn to work in an airplane factory; sores all over her body, particularly her feet; a more humane camp commander; transfer to Terezín; and liberation. Mrs. P. remembers returning to Budapest; reunion with her mother and husband; spending one year at a Czech tuberculosis sanitarium; returning to Budapest; having to terminate a pregnancy due to ill health; emigration to Sweden in 1947; the births of her children; and emigration to the United States in 1950. She emphasizes the importance of having prayed to her grandmother and credits dreams about her with giving Mrs. P. the strength to survive. She also discusses her family with pride and joy.
- Author/Creator
- P., Margaret, 1923-
- Published
- New York, N.Y. : Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale, 1985
- Interview Date
- April 27, 1985.
- Locale
- United States
Newark (N.J.)
Budapest (Hungary)
Czechoslovakia
- Cite As
- Margaret P. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-566). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Kador, Maryann, interviewer.
Dwork, Bonnie, interviewer.
