Celina L. Holocaust testimony (HVT-2930) interviewed by Marianne Kador and Edith Bayme

Videotape testimony of Celina L., who was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1918. She describes growing up in an affluent family in Siedlce; her younger sister's death in 1937; graduating from gymnasium; working as a legal assistant; German invasion in September 1939; the destruction of their home in a German bombardment during which her mother was killed; her father's imprisonment; bribing a guard to effect his escape; fleeing with her father to Siemiatycze, then Stolbt︠s︡y (Stoŭbtsy) in the Soviet zone; German invasion; ghettoization; forced labor; being hidden by a German during a round-up; her father being killed; escaping with a woman and a group of boys; joining Jewish partisans; hiding in the forests for three years; sabotaging German rail transports; obtaining supplies from Soviets; constantly moving to avoid capture; suspecting Armia Krajowa members of killing several Jewish partisans; liberation by Soviet troops; revenge taken on Germans and collaborators; meeting a man from her town, whom she married; and emigration to the United States in 1949. Mrs. L. discusses painful psychological adjustments after the war; her sense that "it was never over" for survivors; and sharing her story with her grandchildren. She shows photographs.