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Oral history interview with Michal Efrat

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1995.A.1272.283 | RG Number: RG-50.120.0283

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    Oral history interview with Michal Efrat

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Mickal Efrat, born in 1926 in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia (presently Czech Republic), discusses being the younger of two children; her family's assimilated lifestyle; attending a Czech school; cordial relations with non-Jews; participating in a Zionist youth group; expulsion from school in March 1939 due to German occupation; confiscation of the family's business; moving in with her grandparents; her father's deportation for forced labor, her mother leaving to earn money in Prague, and her brother moving to a hachshara; forming a subgroup with four other girls within the Zionist youth groups; her parents' return; studying with her group for a year at a Youth Aliyah school in Prague; their return to Ostrava; deportation with her family to Theresienstadt in fall 1942; living with her group; working in the garden, then the laundry; obtaining extra food for her parents; contacts only with her Zionist friends; her father's death in December; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau a year later; separation from her brother; a Greek prisoner helping her and her mother retain their coats and boots; assignment to the family camp; slave labor moving stones; transfer after six months with six girls to a privileged position in a weaving factory; receiving extra food and privileges for her high productivity; occasionally sabotaging her work; sharing food with her brother and the pain of watching him die; harsh treatment by Polish prisoners; her mother's transfer to her work detail; their transfer to Hamburg; slave labor clearing bombing debris; Russian POWs passing her extra food; singing satirical songs to raise their morale; French POWs passing them food and clothing; transfer to Neugraben, then another camp; transfer to Bergen-Belsen after eight months; horrendous conditions; observing cannibalism; liberation by British troops; her mother's transfer by British medical staff; learning she had died shortly thereafter; returning to Prague; living with an uncle and aunt there, then another uncle in Kopřivnice; leaving due to his refusal to return her mother's jewelry and feeling unwelcome; returning to Prague; a couple inviting her to live with them and arranging her entry to art school; meeting young Israelis; joining a Zionist group; and legal emigration to Israel in 1949; not sharing her experiences with Israelis due to their indifference to survivors; feeling comfortable only with fellow Czech survivors; winning prizes in children's literature; nightmares resulting from her experiences; and increasing emotional burdens with the passage of time.
    Interviewee
    Michal Efrat
    Date
    interview:  1996 July 18
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, courtesy of the Jeff and Toby Herr Foundation

    Physical Details

    Language
    Hebrew
    Extent
    6 videocassettes (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
    No restrictions on use

    Keywords & Subjects

    Topical Term
    Antisemitism. Brothers and sisters. Cannibalism. Concentration camp inmates--Sexual behavior. Concentration camps--Psychological aspects. Concentration camps--Sociological aspects. Fathers and daughters. Forced labor. Holocaust survivors--Israel--Interviews. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Public opinion. Jewish children in the Holocaust. Mothers and daughters. Nightmares. Prisoners of war--France. Prisoners of war--Germany. Prisoners of war--Soviet Union. Public opinion--Israel. Sabotage. Sexual harassment. Women concentration camp guards--Sexual behavior. Women--Personal narratives. World War, 1939-1945--Children. World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Germany--Hamburg. World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, Jewish. World War, 1939-1945--Women.
    Personal Name
    Efrat, Michal.

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    Nathan Beyrak conducted the interview with Michal Efrat in Israel on July 18, 1996. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received the tapes of the interview on December 3, 1997, as an accretion to the original collection of Israel Documentation Project interviews received by transfer in February 1995.
    Funding Note
    The production of this interview was made possible by Jeff and Toby Herr.
    The cataloging of this oral history interview has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
    Record last modified:
    2023-11-16 08:15:57
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn503135

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