Isabella L. Holocaust testimony (HVT-1270) interviewed by Lawrence L. Langer and Frances Proctor Cohen,

Videotape testimony of Isabella L., who was born in Kisvárda, Hungary, in 1924. Mrs. L. vividly recalls ubiquitous antisemitism during her childhood; her father's attempts to secure visas for them while in the United States organizing an exhibition for the 1939 World's Fair; their difficult situation during the early years of the war; German occupation; ghettoization of Kisvárda; deportation in cattle cars with her family to Auschwitz in May 1944; selection by Mengele; the killing of her mother and youngest sister; and receiving messages from her brother scrawled on scraps of wood. She tells of the pervasive stench of burning flesh; the close bonds among the four surviving sisters; their selection for death; a last minute change resulting in their transport to Birnbäumel in November 1944; digging tank traps in the forest; escaping with two of her sisters during a death march through Jagdschütz (today Jachcice) in January 1945; and liberation by Soviet troops. She relates their journey to Odessa; arrival in New York in May 1945; reunion with her brother; and learning of the torture and death of her other sister at Bergen-Belsen.