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Cypora G. Holocaust testimony (HVT-1600) interviewed by Michael Alpert,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-1600

Videotape testimony of Cypora G., who was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1920, one of seven children. She recalls her family's extreme poverty; her mother's efforts to feed them; attending a Bund school; working from age ten to help support her family; her mother's death; studying theater on a scholarship; meeting her future husband; performing in many locations with a theater group; the emigration of three sisters; German invasion; her future husband having her smuggled to Białystok; working in Yiddish theater; moving to Vilnius; traveling to Tashkent; living in Farghona; marriage; returning to Warsaw in 1946; disbelief at the total destruction; locating her husband's three year old nephew in Slonim (his parents were killed and he was hidden by a non-Jew) and adopting him; fleeing after the Kielce progrom and antisemitic violence against her son; living in Stockholm; and emigration to the United States in 1948. Mrs. G. notes her focus on raising her son; seldom working in Yiddish theater again; and no interest in returning to Poland or Warsaw, "a new place built on the blood and flesh of my relatives." She shows photographs and documents.

Author/Creator
G., Cypora, 1920-
Published
New York, N.Y. : A Living Memorial to the Holocaust-Museum of Jewish Heritage, 1990
Interview Date
September 24, 1990.
Locale
Europe, Eastern
Poland
Warsaw (Poland)
Białystok (Poland)
Vilnius (Lithuania)
Tashkent (Uzbekistan)
Farghona (Uzbekistan)
Stockholm (Sweden)
Slonim (Belarus)
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Cypora G. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1600). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.