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Berta F. Holocaust testimony (HVT-3033) interviewed by Bob Gallagher,

Oral History | Digitized | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-3033

Overview

Summary: Videotape testimony of Berta F., who was born in Romania to a family of seven children. She recalls her father going to Belgium in 1939; his incarceration as a refugee (she never saw him again); her older brother's forced service in a Hungarian labor battalion; ghettoization in 1944; deportation with her siblings to Auschwitz in May (she never saw her mother again); separation from her siblings upon arrival (she never saw them again); digging ditches; transfer to Mittelsteine in November 1944; forced labor in an airplane factory; becoming a "lager sister" to four other prisoners; assistance from a German foreman and an SS woman; liberation; living with a Czech family; assistance from the Joint in Budapest; returning home; learning only two cousins had survived; fleeing to Germany; marriage in a displaced persons camp; and emigration to Canada four years later. She discusses the importance of friendship to her survival and emotional numbness in the camps.
Author/Creator: F., Berta.
Published: Vancouver, B.C. : Vancouver Holocaust Centre Society, 1983
Interview Date: April 13, 1983.
Locale: Romania
Budapest (Hungary)
Germany
Cite As: Berta F. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3033). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
Other Authors/Editors: Gallagher, Bob, interviewer.

Physical Details

Language: English
Copies: 2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Physical Description: 1 videorecording (1 hr., 54 min.) : col

Keywords & Subjects

Subjects (Local Yale): Hungarian occupation.
Aid by non-Jews.
Mutual aid.
Postwar experiences.
Subjects: Holocaust survivors. Video tapes. Women. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives. World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, Jewish. Jewish ghettos. Forced labor. Concentration camps--Psychological aspects. Friendship. Romania. Budapest (Hungary) Germany. Oral histories (document genres) Refugee camps. F., Berta. American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Auschwitz (Concentration camp) Mittelsteine (Concentration camp)

Administrative Notes

Holder of Originals: Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
Special Collection: Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies

Link to Yale University Library Catalog:: http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/4290112
Record last modified:: 2018-06-04 13:23:00
This page:: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/hvt4290112

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