- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Helen F., who was born in Khust, Czechoslovakia (presently Ukraine) in approximately 1926, one of eleven children. She recounts her family's orthodoxy; Hungarian occupation; anti-Jewish restrictions and harassment; ghettoization; deportation to Auschwitz in 1944; separation from her parents and younger siblings (she never saw them again); remaining with her sisters; transfer to a farm; slave labor with two sisters digging anti-tank trenches; another sister working for a German soldier and sharing extra food with them; a death march; escaping with her sisters and two other girls; posing as non-Jews; receiving aid and shelter from farmers; denouncement as Jews; imprisonment; release due to a friendly Pole; working in a lumberyard; liberation by Soviet troops; meeting a cousin; working for the Soviets; hospitalization in Leipzig; traveling to Prague, then Budapest in May 1945; reunion with an uncle; living in Debrecen, then Prague; reunion with her older sister; moving to Leipheim displaced persons camp; marriage in 1946; and emigration to the United States in 1949 with assistance from the Joint. Ms. F. discusses the importance of her sisters to her survival; recurring nightmares; pervasive painful memories; and not sharing her experiences with her son.
- Author/Creator
- F., Helen, 1926?-
- Published
- Cleveland, Ohio : National Council of Jewish Women, Holocaust Archive Project, 1984
- Interview Date
- December 20, 1984.
- Locale
- Ukraine
Khust
Czechoslovakia
Khust (Ukraine)
Leipzig (Germany)
Debrecen (Hungary)
Budapest (Hungary)
Prague (Czech Republic)
- Cite As
- Helen F. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-477). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Weinberg, Sally, interviewer.