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Beatrice B. Holocaust testimony (HVT-508) interviewed by Sidney Elsner,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-508

Videotape testimony of Beatrice B., who was born in 1923 in Czechoslovakia, one of seven children. She recounts her parents' emigration to the United States in 1900; her mother's return with three children in 1911; her father's return after World War I; their affluence; living in Solotvyno; siblings emigrating to the United States; her father's death in 1939; Hungarian occupation; anti-Jewish restrictions; her brother's conscription into a Hungarian slave labor battalion; ghettoization; deportation to Auschwitz in April 1944; remaining with one sister (she never saw her mother or younger siblings again); slave labor; her sister treating her for an infection; transfer to Frankfurt in August; slave labor constructing airfields; a German civilian worker providing encouragement and extra food; a death march to Zillerthal-Erdmannsdorf, Ravensbrück, then a camp in Czechoslovakia; slave labor in a factory; her sister "stealing" bread for her; another march; abandonment by German guards; assistance from Czech villagers; returning home with her sister; reunion with a brother-in-law; neighbors refusing to return her family's possessions; traveling to Budapest and Prague; emigration to the United States in 1948; marriage to a survivor; and her son's birth. Ms. B. attributes her survival to her father inspiring her "strong mind".

Author/Creator
B., Beatrice, 1923-
Published
Cleveland, Ohio : National Council of Jewish Women, Holocaust Archive Project, 1984
Interview Date
July 30, 1984.
Locale
Czechoslovakia
Solotvyno (Ukraine)
Prague (Czech Republic)
Budapest (Hungary)
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Beatrice B. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-508). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.