- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Janka C., who was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1920, the older of two sisters. She recounts her family's move to Vienna in 1921; their assimilated lifestyle; attending public school; anti-Jewish harassment; the Anschluss; immediately deciding to emigrate to Belgium; traveling to Cologne; living with a Jewish family for several months; arrest when attempting to illegally enter Belgium; imprisonment in Aachen; release a week later; entering Belgium on her third attempt, with assistance from a man she had met in prison; arriving in Antwerp via Liège and Brussels in October; her mother and sister joining her in November; her father's deportation to Dachau; receiving his ashes; German invasion; her sister's flight to France; moving with her mother to Brussels; living under false papers; her mother's deportation to Malines then Auschwitz; a priest warning her of round-ups and hiding her; arrest on the street; imprisonment in Avenue Louise; deportation to Malines; her future husband assisting her; being assigned to work for a dentist, then as a nurse; observing women who gave birth, including Romanies with whom they were not allowed social contact; taking food from incoming packages for children; assignment to a room with Benita H.; liberation by British troops; returning to Brussels; searching for her mother in Vienna; learning she had not survived; locating her sister through the Red Cross; their reunion; marriage in 1946; and her decision not to have children based on her experiences. Ms. C. discusses constant fear and paralysis in Malines that continues to the present time; nightmares resulting from her experiences; testifying against camp officials; continuing hostility toward Germans and Austrians; and her sense that others do not want to hear about her experiences.
- Author/Creator
- C., Janka, 1920-
- Published
- Brussels, Belgium : Fondation Auschwitz, 1999
- Interview Date
- November 24 and 26, 1999.
- Locale
- Hungary
Budapest (Hungary)
Vienna (Austria)
Austria
Cologne (Germany)
Liège (Belgium)
Brussels (Belgium)
Antwerp (Belgium)
- Cite As
- Janka C. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-4243). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Rosenfeldt, Michel, interviewer.
Weyssow, Daniel, interviewer.
- Notes
-
This testimony is in French.
Related material: Benita H. Holocaust testimony [friend](HVT-4192), Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.