- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Esther S., who was born in Mukacheve, Czechoslovakia (presently Ukraine) in 1929, one of five children. She recalls her family's orthodoxy; Hungarian occupation; hearing of events in Poland but thinking it could not happen to them; ghettoization in early 1944; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau; remaining with her two older sisters; once seeing her father beyond a fence; transfer to Stutthof, then Bromberg in summer 1944; trying to sabotage the work in the munitions factory; contact with French POWs; a death march in January 1945; stopping when one sister could not go on; realizing they were left behind; hiding in a cellar; liberation by Soviet troops; returning home through many Polish cities; learning only one uncle had survived from their entire family; living in Košice, then Chomutov; living in Pocking displaced persons camp; and emigrating to the United States in 1946. Mrs. S. discusses being told not to share their experiences when they arrived in the U.S. because no one would believe them; feeling her American relatives did not want to know; and eventually sharing her experiences with her children. She shows photographs.
- Author/Creator
- S., Esther, 1929-
- Published
- New York, N.Y. : A Living Memorial to the Holocaust-Museum of Jewish Heritage, 1990
- Interview Date
- November 27, 1990.
- Locale
- Ukraine
Mukacheve
Poland
Mukacheve (Ukraine)
Czechoslovakia
Košice (Slovakia)
Chomutov (Czech Republic)
- Cite As
- Esther S. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1723). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Pery, Jaschael, interviewer.