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Janet M. Holocaust testimony (HVT-1111) interviewed by Alan Lucas and Susan Lang,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-1111

Videotape testimony of Janet M., who was born in 1921 in Bęndzin, Poland. Mrs. M. details traditional Jewish life; German invasion; burning of the synagogue; confiscation of their valuables; ghettoization in late 1940; forced labor which they thought would save them; and liquidation of the ghetto in August 1943. She recalls hiding in an attic overnight; her father being found and shot; deportation to Auschwitz; living in a barrack next to the gas chamber; hearing screams and "shma's" day and night; becoming ill with typhus for six weeks; standing naked outside for hours during a delousing in January 1944 when many died in the snow; witnessing arrivals of transports from all over Europe, including a train of rabbis; the strong will to survive, resulting in some prisoners stealing food; a death march in January 1945; arrival at Ravensbrück; learning of medical experiments on humans; transfer to Neustadt Glewe; and liberation in spring 1945. Mrs. M. describes returning to Bendin; learning her sister had survived; traveling to Krakow to seek relatives; meeting a distant cousin, whose wife and child had been killed, and marrying him; Polish antisemitism; going to Germany; living in Stuttgart for five years; and emigration to the United States.

Author/Creator
M., Janet, 1921-
Published
Ventnor, N.J. : Federation of Jewish Agencies of Atlantic County/Stockton State College, Holocaust Oral History Project, 1988
Interview Date
May 6, 1988.
Locale
Poland
Będzin
Będzin (Poland)
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Janet M. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1111). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
 
View in Yale University Library Catalog: http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/1029485
Record last modified: 2018-05-29 11:58:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/hvt1029485