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Magda S. Holocaust testimony (HVT-1660) interviewed by Sondra F. Kraff and Elsa Roth,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-1660

Videotape testimony of Magda S., who was born in Chop, Czechoslovakia in 1925 to a family of nine children. She recalls growing up in Uz︠h︡horod; Hungarian occupation in 1938; her father's arrest for assisting relatives escaping from Slovakia; German occupation in 1944; refusing to leave her family when non-Jews offered to provide false papers and hide her; forced relocation to a lumber yard; deportation to Auschwitz; separation from her parents and brothers upon arrival; twice going through selections as a replacement for her younger, weaker sister; their transfer to Stutthof; working at an ammunition factory; observing Yom Kippur; attempts to work less on Sabbath; receiving food and encouragement from French POWs; their escape from a death march; and liberation by Soviet troops. Mrs. S. describes walking to Bydgoszcz; assistance from the Joint in Warsaw; traveling to Chop and Uz︠h︡horod; avoiding rape by Soviet soldiers; learning no other immediate family members had survived; living with an uncle in Nyáregyháza and in an orphanage in Prague; and emigration to join relatives in the United States in 1946. Mrs. S. discusses the importance of the three sisters to each others' survival and her children's wish to learn about her experiences from this testimony. She shows photographs and drawings.

Author/Creator
S., Magda, 1925-
Published
Wilmette, Ill. : Holocaust Education Foundation
Interview Date
January 14, 1990.
Locale
Poland
Czechoslovakia
Chop (Ukraine)
Uz︠h︡horod (Ukraine)
Bydgoszcz (Poland)
Warsaw (Poland)
Prague (Czech Republic)
Nyáregyháza (Hungary)
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. master; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Magda S. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1660). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.