- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Helen F., who was born in approximately 1930 in Crăciunești, Romania, an only child. She recounts her family's orthodoxy; a happy childhood; attending theater in Sighet; Hungarian occupation; anti-Jewish restrictions; her father's trip to Košice in 1944 (she never saw him again); transfer to a ghetto in April; deportation to Auschwitz in May; separation from her mother (she never saw her again); crying all the time; losing her belief in God; smuggling herself to her cousins' block; transfer a month later with four friends to a camp in Germany; slave labor in a munitions factory, then digging trenches; a back injury from which she still suffers; a beating by the guards; train transport; Allied bombings; a Wehrmacht soldier assisting her wounded friend; a death march; liberation by British troops; returning home via Bratislava and Budapest; threats from non-Jewish neighbors living in her home; living with cousins in Velykyy Bychkiv; moving to Germany in 1946; marriage; living in Frankfurt; and emigration to the United States in 1949. Ms. F. notes not sharing her experiences until a 1981 survivor gathering in Jerusalem; sharing her experiences with her son; pervasive painful memories; health problems resulting from the camps; and re-attaining her belief in God.
- Author/Creator
- F., Helen, 1930?-
- Published
- Cleveland, Ohio : National Council of Jewish Women, Holocaust Archive Project, 1984
- Interview Date
- December 11, 1984.
- Locale
- Romania
Crăciunești (Romania)
Bratislava (Slovakia)
Budapest (Hungary)
Velykyĭ Bychkiv (Ukraine)
Frankfurt am Main (Germany)
Sighet (Romania)
- Cite As
- Helen F. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-456). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.