- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Tania R., who was born in Vilna, Poland, in 1928. She recounts living in Smorgonʹ; her family's affluence; childhood antisemitic harassment; attending a Tarbut school; Soviet occupation in September 1939; expropriation of their home and business; German invasion in June 1941; fleeing east; staying with relatives in Lebedevo; returning with her mother and sister to Smorgonʹ; her mother's return to Lebedevo, then to Smorgonʹ with her brother (her father had been killed); ghettoization; slave labor in a German officer's home; the Judenrat's refusal to supply lists for the Germans (her uncle was a member); transfer with a cousin to Žiežmariai; slave labor doing road construction; her sister's arrival; return to the ghetto in December; transfer with her mother and brother to the Šiauliai ghetto, then Žiežmariai in March 1943, then to the Kovno ghetto in summer 1943; factory slave labor with her sister; hiding during a round-up in fall 1943; a mass killing in March 1944, including her nine year old brother; transfer to a camp via Tilset; slave labor digging anti-tank trenches; a death march to Praust in January 1945; assistance from her mother and sister when she was ill; liberation by Soviet troops in March; traveling to Łódź; assistance leaving Poland from Beriḥah; living in Pocking and Heidenheim displaced persons camps; working as a teacher; joining Mizrachi, and being transferred to the Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp.
Ms. R. describes teaching at Bergen-Belsen; the leadership of Josef Rosensaft and Sam Bloch; her sister's emigration to Israel; her mother joining her in Belsen; marriage in January 1949; her son's birth in December; emigrating to the United States in 1950; assistance from HIAS; her second son's birth in 1954; bringing her mother from Germany in 1955; her teaching career; and speaking about her experiences in schools. Ms. R. notes a German officer who assisted her; the importance of being with her mother and sister; and her continuing belief in God. She shows photographs.
- Author/Creator
- R., Tania, 1928-
- Published
- New Haven, Conn. : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 2003
- Interview Date
- August 20, 2003.
- Locale
- Belarus
Smarhonʹ
Lithuania
Šiauliai
Kaunas
Poland
Vilnius (Lithuania)
Smarhonʹ (Belarus)
Lebedzeva (Belarus)
Tilsit (Germany)
Sovetsk (Kaliningradskai︠a︡ oblastʹ, Russia)
Łódź (Poland)
- Cite As
- Tania R. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-4259). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Herz, Sara Moss, interviewer.
Katz, Helen, interviewer.
