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Cyla S. Holocaust testimony (HVT-2224) interviewed by Joni-Sue Blinderman,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-2224

Videotape testimony of Cyla S., who was born in a Polish/Ukrainian village in 1927. She recounts living with her grandmother in Buchach to attend school with her brother; antisemitic violence against her parents; Soviet occupation; German invasion in 1941; her father's beating by Ukrainian police; hiding with a non-Jewish family; moving with her parents and brother to Tovste; her father's disappearance during a mass killing; her mother's disappearance; hiding with her brother in a bunker; paying a local farmer for food and protection; brief separation from her brother; attack and retreat of Soviet forces; hiding with a non-Jewish family; liberation by Soviet troops; her brother's military draft; moving to Chernivt︠s︡y, then Chortkiv; suffering from tuberculosis; moving with her boyfriend to Gliwice, then Wrocław; marriage; her son's birth; a pogrom; smuggling themselves to Vienna; living in Ebensee, Eichstätt, Giebelstadt, and Lechfeld displaced persons camps; working for ORT; assistance from UNRRA and the Joint; and emigrating to the United States with help from HIAS. Ms. S. discusses great hardships she suffered; reluctance to share her experiences with her children; learning in 1960 that her brother was alive in the Soviet Union; visiting him; and his refusal to join her. She shows photographs.

Author/Creator
S., Cyla, 1927-
Published
New York, N.Y. : A Living Memorial to the Holocaust-Museum of Jewish Heritage, 1992
Interview Date
November 3, 1992.
Locale
Poland
Buchach (Ukraine)
Tovste (Ternopilʹsʹka oblastʹ, Ukraine)
Chernivt︠s︡i (Ukraine)
Chortkiv (Ukraine)
Gliwice (Poland)
Wrocław (Poland)
Vienna (Austria)
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Cyla S. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2224). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
 
View in Yale University Library Catalog: http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/4286671
Record last modified: 2018-06-04 13:27:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/hvt4286671