- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Rita K., who was born in Grodno, Poland (presently Hrodna, Belarus) in 1926. She recalls ubiquitous antisemitism; Soviet occupation; destruction of their home during the German invasion; executions of prominent Jews; Polish collaboration; ghettoization in November 1941; her father's round-up for forced labor; non-Jewish acquaintances who gave him food to smuggle into the ghetto; her brother being severely beaten; liquidation of the ghetto in November 1942 during which she was separated from her family (she never saw them again); and transport to Auschwitz. Mrs. K. recounts selections in Birkenau; forced labor; a prisoner revolt and subsequent executions; evacuation to Bergen-Belsen; and liberation. She tells of living in the Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp; marriage; emigration to the United States in 1949; having her tattooed concentration camp number removed; her children's response to her experience; and speaking frequently about the Holocaust. She attributes her survival to her mother, who gave her meager rations in the ghetto to her children.
- Author/Creator
- K., Rita, 1926-
- Published
- Peabody, Mass. : Holocaust Center of the Jewish Federation of the North Shore, 1989
- Interview Date
- April 13, 1989.
- Locale
- Belarus
Hrodna
Poland
Hrodna (Belarus)
- Cite As
- Rita K. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1432). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Umlas, Evelyn, interviewer.
Kaplan, Zelda, interviewer.
