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Molly A. Holocaust testimony (HVT-390) interviewed by Donna Yanowitz,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-390

Videotape testimony of Molly A., who was born in approximately 1924, the oldest of seven children. She recounts living in Bodzanoẃ; a large, extended family; their orthodoxy; participating in Bene ʻAḳiva; German invasion in 1939; her family briefly living with non-Jews in a nearby village; anti-Jewish restrictions; her father's deportation to Bełżec; securing his release; deportation with her family to Działdowo, then Częstochowa; ghettoization; escaping with four siblings (the two youngest remained with her parents and they all were killed); traveling to Warsaw; walking to a village where a farmer had previously helped them; hiding the children with different Polish families; her employer obtaining birth certificates for four of them (the youngest did not need one); one brother going to work in Germany; fleeing when she was recognized; hiding in many villages; occasionally visiting her sisters; their arrest; one sister's release (they never saw their other sister again); retrieving her younger brother; her other brother's return from Germany; hiding together in the forests; liberation by Soviet troops in January 1945; returning home; reunions with several relatives; antisemitic harassment of her siblings in school; registering them with the Joint in Warsaw, which cared for them; hospitalization for two months; marriage in Łódź in March 1946; entering Germany with assistance from the Joint; living in Pocking displaced persons camp; hospitalization in Munich; returning to Pocking; her son's birth in 1948; emigration to Montréal; arranging her siblings' emigration to the United States; and joining them. Ms. A. discusses the importance of luck to her survival; frequently praying while in hiding; health problems resulting from her experiences; and attending the survivor gathering in Israel in 1981.

Author/Creator
A., Molly, 1924?-
Published
Cleveland, Ohio : National Council of Jewish Women, Holocaust Archive Project, 1984
Interview Date
December 3, 1984.
Locale
Poland
Częstochowa
Bodzanów (Województwo Mazowieckie, Poland)
Częstochowa (Poland)
Warsaw (Poland)
Łódź (Poland)
Munich (Germany)
Montréal (Québec)
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Molly A. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-390). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.