Ružena G. Holocaust testimony (HVT-3654) interviewed by Peter Salner and Eva Riecanská

Videotape testimony of Ružena G., who was born in Breznica, Czechoslovakia, one of eight children. She recalls cordial relations with non-Jews; one brother's emigration to the United States; deportation to Auschwitz via Prešov and Poprad in March 1942; slave labor; transfer to Birkenau; obtaining a privileged hospital job; assignment to the Canada Kommando; sharing "stolen" food with her friends; helping other relatives; entering the Zigeunerlager (Gypsy Lager) and the family camps; their liquidations; learning from her cousin that her eldest brother was there; two meetings with him; destruction of a crematorium in the uprising; public hangings of the women who supplied the explosives; a death march and train transport to Ravensbrück in January 1945; encountering her future husband; transfer to Neustadt-Glewe; bribing an SS for a kitchen job; smuggling potatoes to others; liberation by Allied troops in May 1945; traveling to Prague from Prenzlau in July; living in Stropkov, then Bratislava, and marriage. Mrs. G. discusses Jozef Tiso's role in the destruction of Slovak Jews and hostility toward those who revere him; losing her family, except for her American brother; the importance of hope to survival; and responses of various national groups to camp conditions. She shows photographs.