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Jaffe M. Holocaust testimony (HVT-296) interviewed by Gloria Demby and Gabriele Schiff,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-296

Videotape testimony of Jaffe M., who was born in Onod, near Miskolc, Hungary, in 1931. She describes prewar family and community life; Hungarian anti-Jewish legislation; and her family's transfer to Diosgyor, where her father was made head of the ghetto. She relates her parents' futile attempt to secure a hiding place for their children; life in the ghetto; the deportation of her father and brother in May 1944; the liquidation of the ghetto three days later; and transfer to a brick factory in Miskolc. She remembers the journey from Miskolc to Auschwitz; separation from her mother upon arrival; her work as a food carrier in Birkenau; the extermination of the Romanies in Auschwitz; and escaping from a selection by joining her sister, with whom she survived the war. She recounts their transfer after three months to Bergen-Belsen, then to Rochlitz and Grasslitz in Czechoslovakia; the death march from Grasslitz in spring 1945; escaping with her sister and two other girls to a nearby forest; liberation by a Russian Jew in May 1945; and emigration to Palestine in 1946. She also speaks of the importance of becoming a mother and a recent visit to Auschwitz/Birkenau and Schloss Hartheim (a gassing center for Mauthausen and Flossenbürg) where her father perished.

Author/Creator
M., Jaffe, 1931-
Published
New York, N.Y. : Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale, 1984
Interview Date
November 4, 1984.
Locale
Hungary
Diósgyőr (Miskolc)
Ónod (Hungary)
Miskolc (Hungary)
Diósgyőr (Miskolc, Hungary)
Language
English
Copies
3 copies: 3/4 in. master; 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Jaffe M. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-296). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.