- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Helen R., who was born in Rozwadów, Poland in 1930, the youngest of three children. She recalls living with a loving, extended family; attending Polish and Jewish schools; German invasion; expulsion of all the Jews across the San River to Soviet territory; living with relatives in Z︠H︡ovkva for nine months; deportation with her immediate and extended family to Siberia; briefly living in a barrack, then with a family; her father organizing her brother's clandestine bar mitzvah; transfer to another barrack; one aunt's death; forced labor; meager rations; receiving Passover supplies from a Soviet officer; receiving a package from an uncle in the United States; their release after fourteen months; traveling to Zhizzakh; the deaths of her grandparents and some cousins; moving to Samarqand; establishing a weaving business; attending a Polish school; repatriation to Łódź after the war; learning of the death camps; witnessing the destruction in Kraków; her father selling their house; living in Paris, waiting to emigrate to the United States; staying in a Jewish orphanage; and emigrating to the United States in 1947. Ms. R. discusses learning English from the radio; becoming a speech pathologist; and attributing her family's survival to their Soviet exile. She shows objects and photographs.
- Author/Creator
- R., Helen, 1930-
- Published
- New Haven, Conn. : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 2011
- Interview Date
- September 13, 2011.
- Locale
- Soviet Union
France
Poland
Rozwadów (Stalowa Wola, Poland)
Z︠H︡ovkva (Ukraine)
Siberia (Russia)
Zhizzakh viloi︠a︡ti (Uzbekistan)
Samarqand (Uzbekistan)
Łódź (Poland)
Kraków (Poland)
Paris (France)
- Cite As
- Helen R. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-4447). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Kline, Dana L., interviewer.
Rudof, Joanne Weiner, interviewer.
