- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Irene F., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1924 and grew up in Kraków. She recalls her complete lack of Jewish identity; antisemitism at school; German invasion; her sense of foreboding about the future including a specific dream; fleeing with her parents to Ternopilʹ; work and school conditions under Soviet occupation; moving to Svarichov, then Lʹvov; German invasion in 1941; ghettoization; supporting her parents so they could avoid round-ups; her flight to Tarnów in December 1941 (she never saw her parents again); working in an aunt's medical practice; moving into the ghetto; receiving false papers from her mother; and posing as a Polish peasant. Mrs. F. describes joining a transport of Polish laborers to Germany; arduous conditions as a slave laborer in several towns including Bad Neustadt; receiving letters from her parents until July 1943; transfer to a Siemens factory; liberation by Americans; learning the fate of her parents; and joining relatives in the United States. Mrs. F. reflects on her enduring regret at not having been able to save her parents and the end of Polish Jewry and its impact on raising her own children.
- Author/Creator
- F., Irene, 1924-1997.
- Published
- New York, N.Y. : Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale, 1987
- Interview Date
- November 7, 1987.
- Locale
- Ukraine
Lʹviv
Poland
Tarnów (Województwo Małopolskie)
Berlin (Germany)
Germany
Kraków (Poland)
Ternopilʹ (Ukraine)
Lʹviv (Ukraine)
Bad Neustadt an der Saale (Germany)
Tarnów (Województwo Małopolskie, Poland)
Svarichov
- Cite As
- Irene F. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-947). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Sicular, Lilian, interviewer.
Dwork, Bonnie, interviewer.