- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Violet S., who was born in Berehovo, Czechoslovakia in 1928. She recounts Hungarian occupation in 1939; her father's mobilization into a Hungarian labor battalion (she never saw him again); German occupation; hardships encountered by her mother in caring for six children; round-ups of Jews from surrounding villages to a nearby brick factory; supplying food and medicine to the incarcerated Jews with other local youngsters; her own family's round-up; hunger; inadequate shelter; and her mother's efforts to provide strength and a sense of security. Mrs. S. tells of deportation to Auschwitz; separation from her mother and youngest siblings; efforts to remain with her sister and fear of separation from her; extreme hunger; the oppressive odor; their transfer to Christianstadt in 1944; kitchen work; help from other prisoners; a death march; and arrival at Bergen-Belsen. She describes piles of corpses; witnessing cannibalism; efforts to keep her sister alive; food received from a German guard; liberation by British troops; recovery in Sweden; and marriage. Other topics include interdependence with her sister, to which she attributes their survival; adjustment difficulties after liberation; and the effects of her experiences on her children.
- Author/Creator
- S., Violet, 1928-
- Published
- New Haven, Conn. : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 1991
- Interview Date
- September 25, 1991.
- Locale
- Czechoslovakia
Berehove (Ukraine)
Sweden
- Cite As
- Violet S. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1650). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Langer, Lawrence L., interviewer.
Kline, Dana L., interviewer.
- Notes
-
Related publication: Upon the head of the goat : a childhood in Hungary, 1939-1944 / Aranka Siegal. -- New York : Farrar Strauss Giroux, 1981.
Related publication: Grace in the wilderness : after the liberation, 1945-1948 / Aranka Siegal. -- New York : Farrar Strauss Giroux, 1985.
Related material: Aranka S. Holocaust testimony [sister] (HVT-1648), Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
Related material: Aranka S. and Violet S. Holocaust testimony [with sister] (HVT-1649), Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
