Esther K. Holocaust testimony (HVT-2054) interviewed by Joni-Sue Blinderman

Videotape testimony of Esther K., who was born in Seredne, Czechoslovakia in 1922, the tenth of eleven children. She remembers one brother's emigration to the United States; Hungarian occupation; anti-Jewish laws resulting in confiscation of her father's business; moving to Budapest, then Debrecen; returning to Seredne in 1944; ghettoization in a brick factory in Ungvár (Uz︠h︡horod); deportation to Auschwitz in spring 1944; passing through a selection with her mother, sister, and other relatives; her sister, mother, and sister-in-law being taken in subsequent selections; pledging to remain with her two nieces; their transfer to Frankfurt in August, then Ravensbrück in December; arduous slave labor; evacuation in March 1945; brief detention near Berlin; liberation in Hamburg by the Swedish Red Cross; transfer to Malmö, Sweden via Denmark; recovering in Landskrona; the kindness of the Swedish people; and emigration to the United States in 1946. Mrs. K. recalls reunion with her brother; learning only one brother had survived; marriage in 1947; and the births of three sons. Mrs. K. discusses recurring nightmares of dogs and SS; difficulty believing what was happening when she was in camp; and the importance to her survival of being with her nieces. She shows photographs.