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Pola N. Holocaust testimony (HVT-3064) interviewed by Jean Gerber,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-3064

Videotape testimony of Pola N., who was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1919, one of seven children. She recalls attending a Jewish school; German invasion; two brothers and a sister fleeing to the Soviet zone; ghettoization; being smuggled out by a non-Jewish friend; living in Kielce; sending packages to her family; smuggling back to the ghetto once; deportation from the Kielce ghetto to Auschwitz; meaningless slave labor; friends assisting her at appell when she was sick; transfer to Ravensbrück; slave labor in a munitions factory; a German soldier shooting a Jewish child in the face, a memory which still haunts her; being taken to Malmö, Sweden, via Denmark in the Bernadotte prisoner exchange; kindness from the Danes and Swedes; contacting her aunt in New York with assistance from the Red Cross; learning her siblings who had gone to the Soviet Union had survived; reunion with them in Germany; marriage; and emigration to Canada. Ms. N. discusses camp life; her emotional numbness in ghettos and camps; the importance of being with friends to her survival (they remain close); sharing her experiences with her children; and her pervasive sense of loss.

Author/Creator
N., Pola, 1919-
Published
Vancouver, B.C. : Vancouver Holocaust Centre Society, 1984
Interview Date
June 13, 1984.
Locale
Poland
Warsaw
Kielce
Warsaw (Poland)
Kielce (Poland)
Denmark
Malmö (Sweden)
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Pola N. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3064). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.