Bernice S. Holocaust testimony (HVT-175) interviewed by Laurel Vlock,

Videotape testimony of Bernice S., who was born in Łódź, Poland, in 1919. She describes the humiliation of her father after the German occupation; the ghettoization of Łódź; and conditions in the Łódź ghetto. She explains that, since her grandfather was a member of the Judenrat and knew Ḥayim Rumkowski, for a time members of her family were able to obtain extra food and to evade round-ups. Mrs. S. speaks of the liquidation of the ghetto and tells how she managed to save herself by crawling into the hole of a latrine. She describes her deportation to Auschwitz along with her mother and younger brother, the only other members of her family to survive the ghetto; their separation upon arrival (neither survived); and conditions in Auschwitz, where she spent six weeks before being sent to a slave labor camp in Germany, where she worked as a carpenter. She tells of her escape from this camp, along with a young friend, as it was about to be liquidated, and of their journey back to Łódź, where they arrived in March, 1945. Other topics discussed include Mrs. S.'s postwar life in Łódź; her and her husband's emigration to the United States; the kindness shown them by their American friends; their gradual adjustment to their new lives; and the sense of kinship among survivors.