Overview
- Interview Summary
- Paula Dash, born December 3, 1920 in Łódź, Poland, discusses the German invasion; how Jews were beaten by the Germans; having to wear a star; Jews having to turn in their valuables; her life in the Łódź ghetto from 1940 to 1944; the rations in the ghetto and “ghetto sickness”; the death of her father in the ghetto due to starvation; the deportation of her sister to Treblinka and murder in the gas chamber; the deportation of her brother to Auschwitz and his death during a death march; the hanging of Jews in the street; deaths in the winter of 1943 due to cold and hunger; the daily deportations; how the deported Jews communicated with the ghetto by leaving notes in the wagons and described the atrocities they were seeing; the execution of Jews in Chelmno, Poland; a “Kinder Aktion”, during which the Nazis rounded up children from their homes, put them in a wagon, and burned them alive; being deported in August 1944 with her mother and youngest brother; arriving at Auschwitz and being separated from her family; being given a number but no tattoo; the conditions in the camp; using the latrine; the sleeping conditions; how one afternoon she was sent to the gas chambers, told to undress, made to wait until the next morning to be gassed, and being saved by a sudden need in the camp for 300 women; being sent to Breman to do hard labor until February 1945; being sent on a death march to Bergen-Belsen in March 1945; being crammed with other prisoners in a dark barrack where Nazis poured boiling water on them to quiet them down; seeing piles of dead people; sickness in the camp; watching a mass grave being dug and prisoners dragging bodies to it; seeing some male prisoners become cannibals and how one of these men was then kicked and beaten to death; coming down with typhus and being saved by four friends; being liberated the next day by the British; how she still has a towel she had during her imprisonment and a piece of soap made out of Jewish fat; and her immigration to the United States June 1, 1951.
- Subtitle
- Paula Dash Remembers
- Date
-
interview:
1987 November 23
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Holocaust Eyewitness Project and Edith Fierst
Physical Details
- Language
- English
- Extent
-
1 videocassette (U-Matic) : sound, color ; 3/4 in..
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
- Conditions on Use
- Restrictions on use. Donor retains copyright. Third party use requests must be submitted to the donor.
- Copyright Holder
- Holocaust Eyewitness Project
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- Cannibalism--Germany. Death marches. Forced labor--Germany. Gas chambers. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Poland--Personal narratives. Holocaust survivors--United States. Jewish children--Crimes against--Poland. Jewish ghettos--Poland--Łódź. Jewish property--Poland. Jews--Legal status, laws, etc.--Poland. Jews--Persecutions--Poland. Jews--Poland--Łódź. Massacres--Poland. Mass burials--Germany. Mass murder--Poland--Chelmno (Konin) Mass murder--Poland--Łódź. Typhus fever. World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Liberation. World War, 1939-1945--Deportations from Poland. Women--Personal narratives.
- Geographic Name
- Łódź (Poland) Poland--History--Occupation, 1939-1945. United States--Emigration and immigration. World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--Poland.
- Personal Name
- Dash, Paula, 1920-
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The Holocaust Eyewitness Project produced the testimony of Paula Dash on October 23, 1987 in the Washington, D.C. area. Edith Fierst, on behalf of the Holocaust Eyewitness Project, donated a copy of the interview to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1989.
- Funding Note
- The cataloging of this oral history interview has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
- Special Collection
-
The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2023-11-16 07:57:54
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn39547
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