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Helen E. Holocaust testimony (HVT-4265) interviewed by Dana L. Kline and Joanne Weiner Rudof,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-4265

Videotape testimony of Helen E., who was born in Sosnowiec, Poland in 1925, one of three children. She recounts attending a Jewish public school; participating in Gordonyah; her father's death; German invasion; anti-Jewish restrictions; working as a tutor; a notice to report for forced labor in January 1942; hiding with an aunt, then a non-Jewish neighbor; arrest; transport to Neusalz; slave labor in a factory; a six week death march in January 1945; briefly escaping with two fellow prisoners in Karlovy Vary; train transport to Flossenbürg, then a week later to Bergen-Belsen; starvation, lice, and corpses everywhere; becoming immune to dead bodies; losing hope; liberation in April; living in Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp; moving to Feldafing; learning her sister had not survived; returning to Bergen-Belsen; assistance from the Joint; attending high school, then a dental technician course; attending movies in Bremen; emigration to the United States in 1949; assistance from HIAS; marriage in 1950; and the births of her children. Ms. E. discusses continuing pain resulting from not saying good-bye to her mother and a post card from her sister which she still has, but cannot look at.

Author/Creator
E., Helen, 1925-
Published
Evanston, Ill. : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 2003
Interview Date
November 6, 2003.
Locale
Poland
Sosnowiec (Województwo Śląskie, Poland)
Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic)
Bremen (Germany)
Language
English
Copies
3 copies: DVCam master; Betacam SP dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Helen E. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-4265). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.