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Zelda S. Holocaust testimony (HVT-3228) interviewed by Michèle Ganem and Berthe Burko-Falcman,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-3228

Videotape testimony of Zelda S., who was born in Łódź, Poland in 1930, the youngest of four children. She recounts her family's move to Luxembourg shortly after her birth; their return to Łódź in 1938 (one sister remained); German invasion; ghettoization; her brother's deportation in 1942 (she never saw him again); joining a group of children tutored by teenagers in the cemetery; forced factory labor; public hangings; deportation to Auschwitz with her family in August 1944; separation from her parents (she never saw them again); remaining with her sister; frequent appels; transfer to another camp without her sister; slave labor in a factory; sabotaging the work, thinking she would be killed and see her mother; receiving extra food from a civilian supervisor; reunion with her sister; finding food for her; a death march to Bergen-Belsen; liberation; contracting typhus; her sister's death; transfer to Stockholm; recuperating for two and a half years in hospitals and sanatoria; emigrating to join her other sister in France; and several years of recuperation in sanatoria. Mrs. S. discusses the importance to her survival of taking risks; reluctance to share her story with her children; pervasive painful memories; nightmares and fragile health resulting from the Holocaust; and the impossibility of truly conveying her experiences.

Author/Creator
S., Zelda, 1930-
Published
Paris, France : Témoignages pour mémoire, 1995
Interview Date
January 12, 1995.
Locale
Poland
Łódź
Łódź (Poland)
Luxembourg
Stockholm (Sweden)
Language
French
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Zelda S. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3228). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
 
View in Yale University Library Catalog: http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/4291058
Record last modified: 2018-05-29 11:47:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/hvt4291058