Overview
- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Rena S., who was born in Zduńska Wola, Poland in 1929. She recalls a comfortable life; visiting grandparents in Kalisz and Łódź; German invasion in September 1939; walking to Łódź; returning home shortly thereafter; confiscation of their home; living with grandparents in Kalisz; confiscation of their home; returning to her parents; ghettoization; her younger sister's selection in 1942 (she never saw her again); rail transport to the Łódź ghetto; living with relatives; forced factory labor; hospitalization for typhus; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau in 1944; separation from her father (she never saw him again); transfer with her mother to Hamburg; slave labor demolishing buildings; transfer to Poppenbüttel; doing roadwork; separation from her mother; transfer to Bergen-Belsen; finding her mother; liberation by British troops; hospitalization; her mother's death; marking her grave; living in the displaced persons camp; returning to Łódź with an aunt, then back to Germany; living in Munich; assistance from the Joint; living in Berck-Plage, Paris, a children's home in Versailles, and with relatives in Paris; emigration to London in 1949; marriage; and raising two children. Ms. S. discusses numbness in the camps; losing her belief in God; slowly recovering her faith; and never sharing her story before.
- Published
- London, England : British Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 1993
- Interview Date
- February 24, 1993.
- Locale
- Poland
Łódź
Zduńska Wola
France
Versailles (France)
Paris (France)
Berck-Plage (France)
Munich (Germany)
Kalisz (Poland)
Łódź (Poland)
Zduńska Wola (Poland) - Cite As
- Rena S. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2126). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
Physical Details
- Language
- English
- Copies
- 2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
- Physical Description
- 1 videorecording (56 min.) : col
Keywords & Subjects
- Subjects (Local Yale)
- Hospitals in Jewish ghettos.
Child survivors.
Postwar experiences.
Postwar effects. - Subjects
- Holocaust survivors. Video tapes. Women. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives. World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, Jewish. World War, 1939-1945--Children. Jewish children in the Holocaust. Jewish ghettos. Jews--Poland--Łódź. Jews--Poland--Zduńska Wola. Forced labor. Concentration camps--Psychological aspects. Mothers and daughters. Refugee camps. Faith. Orphanages--France. Versailles (France) Paris (France) Berck-Plage (France) Munich (Germany) Kalisz (Poland) Łódź (Poland) Zduńska Wola (Poland) Poland. Oral histories (document genres) S., Rena,--1929- Auschwitz (Concentration camp) Birkenau (Concentration camp) Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp) American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. DP-Camp Bergen-Belsen.
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
- Special Collection
-
Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
- Link to Yale University Library Catalog:
- http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/4296561
- Record last modified:
- 2018-06-04 13:25:00
- This page:
- http://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/hvt4296561
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