Esther A. Holocaust testimony (HVT-639) interviewed by Kathy Strochlic and Eileen Anderson,

Videotape testimony of Esther A., who was born in Radautz, Bukovina (today Radauti, Romania), in 1908. In this vivid testimony, Mrs. A. tells of her family's ardent Zionism; fleeing with her mother and siblings to join her father in Berlin in 1914; Jewish life in inter-war Berlin; participation in the "Bar Kochba" sports club; work for a Jewish newspaper; courtship and marriage; her husband's emigration to America in 1941 with his parents; her attempts to emigrate; and forced labor. She relates her mother's and a brother's deportations (she never saw them again); preparing herself for deportation; Jewish community officials' attempts to save her; arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau; arduous conditions; her clerical job; an SS doctor saving her when she was ill; learning of the deaths of other family members; exchanging "love letters" with a kapo to get extra rations; evacuation from Auschwitz in January 1945; death marches; and liberation by Soviet troops in May. She describes aid from HIAS and the Joint in Paris; a year in Palestine; joyful reunion with her husband in America in 1946; and deciding to speak of her experiences after years of silence.