Betty D. Holocaust testimony (HVT-1267) interviewed by Susan Millen and Joanne Weiner Rudof

Videotape testimony of Betty D., who was born in Bodrogkeresztúr, Hungary in 1927. She recalls pleasant experiences in an observant home; attending Hungarian schools; friendships with non-Jews; disbelief in the horror stories of Polish refugees; unexpected change in 1944; anti-Jewish measures; transfer to the Sátoraljaújhely ghetto; deportation three weeks later to Auschwitz; separation from her father, mother and brother; efforts to always remain with her sister; work in the Canada Kommando; the emotional trauma of being beaten; her sister's efforts to protect her; and the public hanging of prisoners who had blown up a crematorium. Mrs. D. recounts evacuation to Bergen-Belsen; dreaming of her mother; transfer to Braunschweig to clean up bombing rubble, then to Bernsdorf to work in a salt mine; liberation from a train; transfer to Denmark, then Sweden for recovery; the kindness of the Swedish people; attending school; discovering her brother had survived and lived in Palestine; emigration to the United States in 1950; adjustment difficulties; marriage; and the birth of her children. She discusses ignorance of outside events while in the camps; wondering "where God was;" the loss of almost her entire family; regrets that she had not told her children of her experiences; and discovering her photograph in The Auschwitz Album.