- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Esther W., who was born in Łódź, Poland in 1929. She recalls her comfortable childhood; her brother's emigration to Palestine in 1936; German invasion; anti-Jewish restrictions; moving with her family to Warsaw and Falenica in 1940; ghettoization in Warsaw; fleeing to Stopnica; joining her aunt in Staszów in 1942; her father's deportation; deportation with her aunt to Skarżysko (she never saw her mother and sister again); forced labor in a munitions factory; public hangings; her father visiting, sharing his bread, and arranging her transfer to his camp; his deportation; transfer with her friend to a camp near Leipzig in the spring of 1944; her friend's pregnancy and childbirth; and liberation from a death march by Soviet troops in the spring of 1945. Mrs. W. describes reunion with her father in Łódź; traveling with him to Feldafing; joining her brother in Israel in 1948; marriage; the birth of her sons; and emigrating with her family to the United States. She reflects upon the loss of her childhood; constant fear of illness or going to the wrong side during selections; never sharing her experiences with her husband and children; and continuing reluctance to discuss the war years.
- Author/Creator
- W., Esther, 1929-
- Published
- New Haven, Conn. : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 1994
- Interview Date
- August 25, 1994.
- Locale
- Poland
Warsaw
Staszów
Israel
Łódź (Poland)
Stopnica (Województwo Świętokrzyskie, Poland)
Staszów (Województwo Świętokrzyskie, Poland)
Falenica (Warsaw, Poland)
- Cite As
- Esther W. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2609). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Rudof, Joanne Weiner, interviewer.
Katz, Helen, interviewer.
