Rachel O. Holocaust testimony (HVT-556)

Videotape testimony of Rachel O., who was born in Pabianice, Poland. She describes Zionist activities; marriage; German occupation; fleeing with her husband from Łódź to Warsaw; their unsuccessful flight to the Soviet zone; a trip to Pabianice, posing as a German, to help her family; organizing a soup kitchen in the Warsaw ghetto; moving to the Pabianice ghetto with assistance from Polish acquaintances; transfer to the Łódź ghetto; Ḥayim Rumkowski's efforts to help children through the Judenrat; deportation to Auschwitz in September 1944; separation from her parents and husband (she never saw them again); transfer to an ammunition factory in Freiberg; hiding her pregnancy with assistance from fellow prisoners; giving birth in a train during evacuation in April 1945; and liberation from Mauthausen by United States troops on May 8, 1945. Mrs. O. recalls returning with her sisters and son to Pabianice; remarriage in Munich; and emigration to Israel in 1948. She discusses caring for three younger sisters in the camps and after liberation; sharing her experiences with grandchildren; and her belief that people did not change during the war, but exposed their true selves.