Advanced Search

Learn About The Holocaust

Special Collections

My Saved Research

Login

Register

Help

Skip to main content

Oral history interview with Sara Karp

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1995.A.1272.363 | RG Number: RG-50.120.0363

Search this record's additional resources, such as finding aids, documents, or transcripts.

No results match this search term.
Check spelling and try again.

results are loading

0 results found for “keyward

    Oral history interview with Sara Karp

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Sara Karp, born in Bedzin, Poland in 1923, describes being the oldest of six children; her father having a shoe store and a bakery; attending school until she was 15, when she began an apprenticeship as a seamstress; antisemitism before the war; German Jewish refugees arriving in 1939; the German invasion and the burning of the synagogue; Poles luting Jewish homes; her family escaping and returning to find her father’s store had been burned; her father’s death; her family surviving by gradually selling their belongings; her oldest brother being sent to Buchenwald in 1940; the Judenrat sending her to a clothing factory near Auschwitz; Zionist youth activities before and during the war; her family being separated in 1941 and bribing Germans to let her young brother remain with her; the Jewish police taking their house to force her oldest brother out of hiding, but relatives bribing the police; fear, friends, relatives, and the resistance movement; her mother changing their last name to her maiden name, Zemer; going to the ghetto in 1942; the living quarters, hardship, work, hunger, and food stamps from the Judenrat; hearing about the liquidation and hiding in a bunker but the Germans discovering them; being taken to Birkenau; the train ride there; selections; her group of four friends who protected her when she was sick; her work in the crematoria sorting clothing and an explosion that took place at the end of 1944; the hanging of a woman who was involved with the explosion; hearing of an underground movement in Auschwitz; being sent on a death march to Ravensbrück and then Malchow; working in a weapons factory until it was bombed; the Red Cross coming to the camp and taking 300 Polish nationals to Sweden; living in a school building in Malmö, where they were taken care of and fed; being taken two weeks later to Doverstock; being taken by the Israeli Hechalutz to the village of Jungsbrav; working in a chocolate factory; her work at camp Malchow filling bullets and explosives; receiving letters from France from surviving relatives; deciding to go to Israel and going to Kibbutz Dror in Sweden in preparation for Aliyah; the British Army stopping the boat to Israel and spending a year in Cyprus, where she met her husband; and going to Israel in April 1948.
    Interviewee
    Sara Karp
    Date
    interview:  2000 January 06
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, courtesy of the Jeff and Toby Herr Foundation

    Physical Details

    Language
    Hebrew
    Extent
    10 videocasettes (Betacam SP) : sound, color ; 1/2 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--Poland. Concentration camp inmates--Selection process. Death march survivors. Death marches. Forced labor. Hanging--Poland. Hiding places--Poland. Holocaust survivors--Israel. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives. Jewish councils--Poland--Bedzin. Jewish police officers--Poland--Bedzin. Jewish refugees--Germany. Jewish refugees--Sweden. Jewish women in the Holocaust. Jewish youth--Poland--Societies and clubs. Jews, German--Poland. Jews--Poland--Bedzin. Rationing--Poland. Synagogues--Destruction and pillage. Weapons industry. Women concentration camp inmates. World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Cyprus. World War, 1939-1945--Conscript labor--Poland. World War, 1939-1945--Deportations from Poland. World War, 1939-1945--Destruction and pillage--Poland. World War, 1939-1945--Jewish resistance--Poland. World War, 1939-1945--Underground movements--Poland--Oswiecim. Zionists. Women--Personal narratives.
    Personal Name
    Karp, Sara, 1923-

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    Nathan Beyrak, project director for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Oral History Branch, coordinated the interview with Sara Karp on January 6, 2000. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received the tapes of the interview on August 31, 2001.
    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 08:16:25
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn509346

    Additional Resources

    Download & Licensing

    In-Person Research

    Contact Us