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Bella R. Holocaust testimony (HVT-2585) interviewed by Gabriele Schiff and Helen W. Silverman,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-2585

Videotape testimony of Bella R., who was born in Sosnowiec, Poland in 1926. In this detailed testimony, Mrs. R. recalls antisemitic incidents; German invasion; briefly fleeing to Wolbrom; returning to Sosnowiec; anti-Jewish violence; ghettoization; conflicts between the Judenrat and the underground; avoiding deportation due to the family business; transfer to the Srodula ghetto; hiding in a bunker in August 1943; discovery (one brother was killed and her parents taken); remaining in the bunker with her sister and brother for seven days; leaving after her siblings had gone; capture by a Pole; transfer to the Kamionka ghetto; escaping to Będzin; help from a Polish family friend and a Polish woman; returning to Kamionka; reunion with her brother and sister; their transfer to Annaberg; transfer with her sister to another camp; slave labor in a textile factory; transfer to Grünberg; the death march in January 1945 to Christianstadt; her sister's escape, then her own with friends; liberation by Soviet troops; finding her sister; returning to Sosnowiec; reunion with her father; joining her mother and another sister in the Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp; marriage; and emigration to Israel in 1950, and then to the United States in 1963. She shows photographs and notes relatives who did not survive.

Author/Creator
R., Bella, 1926-
Published
New York, N.Y. : A Living Memorial to the Holocaust-Museum of Jewish Heritage, 1993
Interview Date
May 17, 1993.
Locale
Poland
Sosnowiec (Województwo Śląskie)
Sosnowiec (Województwo Śląskie, Poland)
Wolbrom (Poland)
Będzin (Poland)
Israel
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Bella R. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2585). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.