Ruth G. Holocaust testimony (HVT-1667) interviewed by Elsa Roth and Raya C. Schapiro,

Videotape testimony of Ruth G., who was born in Łódź, Poland in 1938. She recounts her mother's descriptions of an affluent life amidst a large, extended family; ghettoization; her father buying false papers for her and her mother; escaping with her mother (she never saw her father again); living with a non-Jewish family in Lublin; leaving due to fear of exposure; traveling on trains because her mother did not know what else to do; a non-Jewish woman offering them shelter in Warsaw; leaving when the woman's husband thought they were Jews; her mother working as a maid; changing jobs frequently due to fear of exposure; working for a countess who knew they were Jewish; liberation by Soviet troops; returning to Łódź; learning her father had perished; and reunion with an aunt. Mrs. G. describes antisemitic remarks and songs in school, and from Polish friends; pretending to be Christian; illegally traveling to Munich in 1946 with her mother; living in a Jewish community; feeling comfortable as a Jew; her mother's marriage; emigration to the United States in 1949; and her desire to "be American." She discusses her admiration for her mother and not sharing her experiences with her children until they were older.