- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Bessie K. and Jacob K. Mr. K. was born in Zwoleń, Poland in 1923. Mr. K. describes his childhood in a close-knit, observant family; celebration of Jewish holidays; social closeness of the community; attending a Polish school; anti-Semitic incidents; the beginning of the war; and the destruction caused by bombing, including his home. He recounts increasing tension; anti-Jewish legislation; forced labor; extreme hunger and hardship; atrocities committed against the Jews; the final deportation from Zwoleń (which he and his brothers avoided); their work in Zwoleń cleaning up the Jewish sector; deportation to Skarżysko-Kamienna; the murder of one brother; deportation to Buchenwald where his other brother remained; his transfer to Schleiben; evacuation to another camp; and the death march from which he was liberated on May 8, 1945 in Sudetenland. He recalls seeking family; anti-Semitic incidents; living in refugee camps in Feldafing and Landsberg; meeting his wife; the reunion with his brother; living in Stuttgart; and emigration to the United States in 1949. Mr. K. reflects upon the personal scars caused by these experiences; the satisfaction of having raised two children and having lived a creative life in a free country; and the moral and ethical implications of the Holocaust.
Mrs. K. was born in Vilna, Poland in 1924. She recalls a culturally rich childhood; harmonious relations with non-Jews; changes under Soviet occupation; moving to Kovno to live with her aunt until conditions improved; German occupation and ghettoization; her father's unsuccessful attempts to smuggle her back to Vilna; forced labor; and mass killings. She remembers her marriage in 1942; the birth of a son; separation from her infant in a selection; deportation by train to a camp in Estonia; her feeling of complete numbness and isolation; contracting typhus; surviving a selection with her aunt's and friend's help; liquidation of the camp; transfer by ship to Stutthof in Danzig; and surviving a final selection by posing as a non-Jew. She relates her experiences with the non-Jewish prisoners who protected her even though they knew she was Jewish; liberation by the Russians; and her feeling that she was the only Jewish woman left alive. Mrs. K. discusses her dismay that people knew what was happening and did not help; her reluctance to tell anyone about the loss of her child; psychological problems and the helpfulness of therapy; and her concerns for her children's futures.
- Author/Creator
- K., Bessie, 1924-2004.
- Published
- New Haven, Conn. : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 1983
- Interview Date
- May 20, 1983.
- Locale
- Poland
Vilnius (Lithuania)
Kaunas (Lithuania)
Estonia
Zwoleń (Radom, Poland)
Prague (Czech Republic)
Zwoleń (Radom)
Lithuania
Kaunas
- Cite As
- Bessie and Jacob K. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-206). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Vlock, Laurel, interviewer.
