Gitta B. Holocaust testimony (HVT-290) interviewed by Miriam Forman and Mark Blechner

Videotape testimony of Gitta B., who was born in Rudnik, Poland, in 1923. Mrs. B. describes moving at the age of five to Reichenberg, capital of the Sudetenland; the German cultural orientation of the Jews there; difficulties experienced by her father because of his east European Jewish orientation; and increasingly widespread antisemitism. She relates her family's move to Prague following the German occupation of the Sudetenland; the German occupation of Prague and the resulting anti-Jewish actions; her father's efforts to remain religiously observant despite prohibitions; and continuing attempts to maintain a semblance of normalcy. She recounts her family's transfer to Theresienstadt in 1942; the loss of a boyfriend; and conditions, cultural life, and government in Theresienstadt. She tells of her family's deportation to Auschwitz in late 1943; their six month stay in the family camp; and the separation from her father when she, her mother, and her sister were selected for a labor transport. She recalls their relationship (the three survived together); their journey in cattle cars to Hamburg; and their internment in Altona, then the Neugraben labor camp. Mrs. B. also speaks of the march to Bergen-Belsen; liberation; leaving for Sweden; her need to bear witness; and the inherent vulnerability of Jews.