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Ala D. Holocaust testimony (HVT-724) interviewed by Diane Fagelman and Sarah Popowski,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-724

Videotape testimony of Ala D., who was born in Będzin, Poland in approximately 1931, one of eight children. She recounts her family's orthodoxy; German invasion; her brother's deportation in 1940; one sister never returning when she went to the bakery; another sister's deportation in 1941; arrest when she went to get food for her family; deportation to Sosnowiec, then another labor camp; slave labor in a weaving factory and on railways; losing three teeth when beaten by a guard; being injured when a train hit her work group (almost all were killed); transfer to Gross-Rosen, then Parschnitz; digging graves; losing faith in God; fellow prisoners sharing soup; liberation by Soviet troops; assistance from the Red Cross; hospitalization for six months; reunion with a sister; living with her in Stuttgart; re-hospitalization; her sister's emigration to the United States; assistance from UNRRA; another sister sending packages from Sweden; marriage to a survivor in 1947; moving to Garmisch-Partenkirchen; regaining her belief in God after her son's birth in 1948; emigration to the United States in 1949; the births of two more children; and her husband's murder in a robbery. Ms. D. attributes her survival to her hope of seeing her family again, and discusses nightmares resulting from her experiences.

Author/Creator
D., Ala, 1931?-
Published
Dallas, Tex. : Memorial Center for Holocaust Studies, 1985
Interview Date
December 14, 1985.
Locale
Poland
Będzin (Poland)
Stuttgart (Germany)
Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Germany)
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Ala D. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-724). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.