- Summary
- 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.
- Author/Creator
- D., Betty, 1927-
- Published
- New Haven, Conn. : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University, 1989
- Interview Date
- July 10, 1989.
- Locale
- Hungary
Sátoraljaújhely
Braunschweig (Germany)
Bodrogkeresztúr (Hungary)
Denmark
Sweden
- Cite As
- Betty D. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1267). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Millen, Susan, interviewer.
Rudof, Joanne Weiner, interviewer.
- Notes
-
Related publication: The Auschwitz album : a book based upon an album discovered by a concentration camp survivor, Lili Meier / text by Peter Hellman. -- 1st ed. -- New York : Random House, c1981.
