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Oral history interview with Celia Yewlow

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1998.A.0119.2 | RG Number: RG-50.471.0002

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    Oral history interview with Celia Yewlow
    Transcript
    And mark.
    Camera seven, mark one.
    What's that?
    OK, Celia, why don't you first tell me
    when and where you were born.
    I was born in Lithuania in a little town.
    And the name was Sviadoshz.
    In Lithuanian-- Svedasai.
    And tell me what you remember of your childhood.
    Tell me when you were born and what your town was like.
    It was a nice little village, town.
    Call it whatever you like.
    But it there were a lot of Jews.
    And that was white.
    It was nice.
    I had a happy home.
    We were five children.
    And I had a nice life in the house.
    Tell me about school, and growing up,
    and getting married.
    I went to--
    I start in Lithuania school.
    But you know, Jewish people don't eat pork.
    So the children start to smear our face, the lips with pork.
    So my father said, it's not good.
    So he sent me to another town where
    they have a Jewish school.
    And the name was Aniksht, Anyksciai.
    So you went to school there in that town?
    Yeah.
    And then I went--
    I was a scientist--
    scientist, you say?
    Yeah.
    And I went to [HEBREW],, you call it, to teach how to work hard
    and how to have enough to eat.
    I should be ready to go to Israel, to build Israel.
    But then I fell in love with a boy and I got married there.
    And when the war began, when things started to change,
    what do you remember of that?
    At first, nothing.
    We didn't realize what it will be.
    And if somebody said they are going to kill us or what,
    we didn't believe it.
    We thought they didn't know what they are talking about.
    But in a couple days, we find out.
    First, when I went for bread, you
    have to have a card, when the Germans came in.
    And they didn't give me a card because I'm Jewish.
    Then they took my husband.
    The Lithuania army took my husband to the army.
    Because they thought that they will fight.
    But he came right back.
    And then we had to go to the ghetto, the 15th of August.
    I don't remember exactly the year.
    We went to the ghetto.
    And I was already pregnant then.
    Tell me a little more about going to the ghetto.
    Do you remember how you got there?
    I don't remember exactly.
    I don't remember even how we can carried a little bit of clothes
    or what to sleep.
    I don't remember.
    But we stayed in one room with more people.
    I was in ghetto with my husband for three days.
    And then they took him to work.
    They took them 15--
    500, I think, and 30 people.
    And they never came back.
    And my husband was there too.
    And they always used to tell us wives
    that they send them to work.
    They will finish the work.
    They will be back.
    Where did your husband think he was going?
    To work.
    They said they need people, educated people--
    the Germans said-- to put together a library.
    And they took them right away to their graves,
    but we didn't know.
    When did you figure out that he wasn't coming back?
    Do you remember?
    I always hoped, always.
    I didn't see him dead.
    What I think, a year later or two years later,
    I start to think he'll never come back.
    So tell me about the place where you lived in the ghetto.
    Tell me about the people that you lived with.
    There was a kitchen with one room.
    And we had money.
    And where we lived, they were very poor.
    So we pay them.
    And they gave us the room and they stayed in the kitchen.
    And I came with my husband and a cousin in one room.
    What we stayed-- we were together just three days.
    And then I stayed with my cousin.
    And I don't remember where, but they
    took the people who took us in.
    They took them and killed them too.
    It was a mother, a son, and my daughter, and my husband.
    And did they-- you don't remember how they took them.
    Did they just kill them there in the ghetto?
    I don't remember, but they didn't kill them in the house.
    They took them-- a lot of Jewish people.
    What was life like in the house?
    Did you have enough to eat?
    No.
    Tell me how you survived in that?
    When I am buying, we used to pay a Lithuanian who
    used to watch us in the ghetto.
    He used to watch us.
    We paid him.
    He took us, another couple, Jewish people.
    They took us out of ghetto and say they are taking us to work.
    But they really took us to--
    we had clothes or something to sell for food, for bread.
    So, when we came back, I had what to eat.
    Not really.
    And when I used to get somehow a loaf of bread,
    I thought I would eat it for a week.
    But I couldn't fall asleep that I knew
    there was still bread there.
    I used to finish the whole loaf.
    And I could sleep.
    And then the Germans--
    the Germans gave us frozen potatoes.
    It used to smell.
    But we used to eat it.
    And do you remember going in and out of the gate
    and being searched?
    Yes.
    Tell me about that.
    When they took us to work, on the way back they searched us.
    If somebody had something, they find something--
    what can they find?
    Bread.
    So they used to hide them or shoot them.
    But I never had nothing with me, so I went to through OK.
    Do you remember at the beginning, did they take away
    your valuable things?
    Did they take away jewelry and things like that?
    Sure.
    They asked us to bring in the electrical appliances.
    They asked us to bring in a certain place.
    If not, if they'll come and they'll see, they'll kill us.
    So we did.
    We took there where we supposed to.
    OK, we have to reload.
    Marker two.
    OK, let's go back and talk about when the war actually
    started, what you heard, what you saw, and what you did.
    See, were we lived in [? Šančiai ?] The army was
    there.
    So we thought we'll run from Kovno.
    First of all, food in the little towns was better.
    So my two brothers, and myself, and my husband,
    we ran from Kovno.
    And I had sterling with me.
    So, we buried the sterling.
    And we went to his parents.
    But when we had to go through a village, the Christians,
    they went out with--
    how you say, hack?
    Axes.
    And they were going to kill us.
    We shouldn't go through their village.
    So, we have to go around and around.
    And we came to my husband's parents.
    But before we came, it took us a day and a night.
    So, we were all sleeping in a forest.
    And then we saw the--
    everywhere, the forest everywhere, it's fire.
    We didn't have where to go.
    It's good that we were next to a river.
    So we walked by the end of the river.
    And then we walked to where my husband was.
    And when we came there, it was trouble.
    My husband's family lived next to a synagogue.
    First of all, they came in and they took my husband and two
    brothers to work.
    But they came right away back.
    Then they burned the synagogue.
    And there was another synagogue.
    They burned the other synagogue.
    And they told us that we didn't live there.
    We have to go back home in Kovno.
    So we left.
    And my two brothers went to where I was born.
    And who burned the synagogues?
    The Lithuanians, the Germans, who knows?
    We just saw the fire.
    And even on the way when we walked,
    the German army came in.
    And I don't know how you call them.
    He was-- and they walked.
    The German army was walking.
    But one was on a horse.
    And he asked us what we are, are we Jews?
    We said, yes.
    So with his horse, he was riding around and around.
    And then he said to himself in German, later, we have time.
    And he let us go.
    So then the ghetto got formed.
    Yeah.
    And then your husband went where he
    thought he would help build the library.
    Yeah, the 15th of August.
    And he never came back.
    And in those early months in the ghetto,
    can you tell me other things that happened?
    I don't remember exactly.
    OK, let's go to October 28th.
    That was a couple of months later.
    Tell me what happened and how you
    knew to go to the big field, Democracy Place.
    [INAUDIBLE],, they used to drive on the street and call us--
    we should all go out from the house
    and go in a special place.
    It was like a field where you play.
    All the Jews should go there.
    So, we went.
    I was pregnant.
    I went with my cousin and my friend, who
    was a boyfriend of my cousin.
    He took us both.
    And we went, one was on the right side and one
    on the left side.
    And it was cold.
    And I couldn't stay anymore on my legs.
    On one side, it was going faster.
    So I said, let's go to the left side there, it's faster.
    But the Germans didn't let us.
    And they pushed us in--
    in the right side.
    And the right side was for the ghetto.
    On the left side was already to kill them.
    It was 10,000, over 10,000 people.
    What time of day did you go there?
    Home?
    No, what time did you go to the field?
    What was the weather like that day?
    Cold, winter.
    It was very cold.
    And we came back.
    This was in the morning.
    We came back.
    It was already dark.
    And do you remember actually passing by the man who
    did the selection at that time?
    Yeah, but I wouldn't recognize him.
    But tell me about it.
    He was just standing like this, with a--
    and well, a couple people left, a couple people right.
    And he wasn't only one.
    There were a lot, Germans and Lithuanians.
    They watched us, we shouldn't run away.
    And which people went to the bad side
    and which people went to the good side?
    I don't know if it was a difference.
    It's how their mind worked.
    I don't know.
    Because I was pregnant.
    What can I do in the ghetto.
    Maybe-- it was from somewhere that I hear this is not my day.
    I don't know.
    I'm wondering how I am alive.
    And then I see Lithuanian who went through everything.
    We just say to ourselves how come we are still normal?
    Because it's hard to describe when every minute
    from your day, every second your wait somebody should tell out
    and shot you.
    I was already by myself.
    And then I gave birth to my little girl
    by myself with my cousin, no doctor.
    But I had a girlfriend, who she had a sister, a nurse.
    She came.
    She took the baby from me.
    OK.
    Then when you had the baby, you couldn't work.
    So how did you survive?
    Did your cousin take care of you?
    No, she went to work in the ghetto.
    We call it [? warstatten ?] for the Germans.
    Clothes-- I don't know, I don't remember even what.
    She went to work.
    And I stayed with her baby.
    But I had money.
    So, if I know somebody who went through the gate
    or came back with bread, they used to sell it.
    So I used to buy bread.
    And then when the baby got older, I had to go to work.
    So one day my cousin stayed with the baby.
    Another day, a girlfriend.
    Another day, a girlfriend from my town what I was born.
    And most of the time I used to pay somebody
    should take my card and how you say,
    stamp my name that I walked the day.
    And I used to pay them.
    OK, I think we have to change roles.
    We got a minute?
    When I tell you it is just a story,
    but to go through these things, you don't know.
    And even to raise a child, this was my breath.
    [INAUDIBLE]
    Breath.
    Breath.
    And to take away.
    I don't know, I still don't know how did I go through.
    And at night, day and night, I am with my family,
    where and how.
    Three.
    Three marker.
    Set.
    Celia, I want to go back a little more to that day
    in Democracy Square.
    I want you to describe for me more what it was like.
    Where?
    In the square when they had the big selection.
    And were people afraid?
    Some were screaming or crying.
    But the most were quiet.
    We didn't rebel.
    They lied to us a lot.
    No matter what we saw or what we knew, still
    we couldn't believe that people can
    do that, what they did to us.
    And did you-- you noticed that one side was moving faster
    than the other?
    Yeah.
    Tell me about that.
    I don't know why, but one side was moving faster.
    And where I was, where we were staying, they moved slower.
    I couldn't stay anymore.
    I was pregnant.
    It was cold.
    And it was too much for us.
    So I said, let's go on the other side.
    We tried to go on the other side, where
    they're moving faster.
    So a German or a Lithuanian pushed us back.
    But you would go through the ghetto the next day
    and hear the crying from the houses,
    because some families who were together are not anymore.
    But some lost families, some the most.
    So they were crying.
    Nobody can-- I was in the museum.
    It's OK.
    But for me, nothing, because it's hard in a museum,
    in a book, or to tell.
    It's hard to describe what we went through.
    Where did those people go, the people
    who went to the bad side?
    Where did they go?
    They took them to the fort.
    How do you know?
    Because this is what we heard.
    And they shot the--
    the graves was ready.
    So they used to come in the ghetto.
    So we heard they are digging graves again.
    So we knew already for what it is, the graves.
    I used to say, don't tell me.
    I don't want to hear.
    When I will be there, then I will know it's me.
    Right now, I don't want to.
    I don't want to know.
    So we used to tell dirty jokes, our mind to take away.
    What a [? way. ?] There wasn't a day,
    a day didn't went through where they didn't
    shot somebody by the gate.
    People used to walk by the--
    where the planes are coming.
    Airport.
    Airport.
    So one plane came over a lot Jewish people,
    over the Jewish people, and kill them.
    Every day was something, every day, every minute.
    I had my child there.
    She was my breath.
    I don't know if I would live through if I wouldn't have her.
    And I always used to look at her and see
    how the blood from the veins are running.
    And I used to think to myself, this, they would stop?
    I couldn't believe it.
    And then, then they took the children
    from in [INAUDIBLE] from the camp, I came in with my child.
    And she got scared.
    And I said, don't cry, my child.
    Don't cry, I am with you.
    I will be with you.
    And when I came in the bus, some German
    took a stick with a handle.
    And the handle, put around my neck.
    And he start to pull me.
    So I went with my child.
    He run in.
    He took the child and tore away on me.
    He pushed me out.
    And that's why I am alive.
    I didn't go with my child.
    Some of us-- most of the mothers did.
    And I am always--
    when I see a stick like this, I always remember.
    And I don't know who he was and why he did it.
    I don't know.
    I always think about, and I am wondering, who was he?
    That day was much later.
    Let's go back a little bit to life in the ghetto before then.
    That was 1944.
    In those years after the great action,
    before the Kinder Aktion, did you ever
    have a good time in the ghetto?
    How can you?
    How can you have good times?
    You are just waiting.
    First of all, you thought, where can I
    get a little piece of bread?
    I'm hungry.
    And then some people whom I know used to come in.
    And they were swollen from hunger.
    We were just waiting, waiting to be killed.
    Still, I don't know how to explain it.
    We had a feeling, it cannot be.
    Maybe I'll still be alive.
    You know?
    What about working?
    What kinds of work did you do?
    I didn't work a lot.
    Once, I worked where they kill chickens.
    How you will say?
    The feathers.
    I don't know.
    Plucked the feathers.
    Plucked the feathers.
    And I came back with lice.
    And once, in the woods, we saw the--
    it was a tree, hard to move.
    And it was left a little piece.
    And under the little piece was written,
    we are Jews from France, please--
    [NON-ENGLISH],, please, Jews, take--
    how do you say it, [NON-ENGLISH]??
    Revenge.
    Revenge.
    Tell me that whole thing again, how you came on that stump
    in the woods.
    They took us with a [INAUDIBLE] to the woods to work there,
    to cut wood for them, and to send it to Germany.
    So we saw a piece of wood, a piece of tree, what it was cut.
    On the top was written, Jews, take revenge.
    We are Jews from France.
    And it was written with blood.
    I think we saw that in Kovno.
    Did we?
    I don't remember.
    [INAUDIBLE] there.
    I don't remember.
    What did you do with your little daughter?
    Did you ever have a good time with her in the ghetto?
    Well, I was never out with her, just in the house.
    We were just waiting.
    That's all, waiting or to be killed, or to the war
    should be over.
    That's all.
    Tell how she'd react to men.
    Hmm?
    Tell how she'd react to men.
    How did your daughter react to men?
    Oh.
    We had a friend who--
    yeah, my cousin.
    He took us from the 10,000.
    And he used to come to me sometimes if I have something.
    And then he used to play with her.
    She used to tremble.
    Of course, she never saw a man.
    Marker.
    So tell me about the incident where
    you went to scrub the floors.
    Why did you go there?
    This was a privilege, because it was by the guards.
    And they had bread.
    So I used to go there, me and a couple women.
    They took me in there.
    And I used to get bread there.
    I used to get bread for my friends, too.
    But one Lithuanian came, a guard.
    And I think he was a little bit drunk.
    And he told me that he was in Vilkomir.
    It's another town.
    They took from Kovno to shoot the Jews in Vilkomir.
    So he said, some girls were so beautiful and so young.
    And he start to cry.
    He said they used to give them whisky to make them drunk
    they should be able to do it.
    What did you say to him?
    I was afraid.
    My nature is not rebellious.
    How do you say it?
    Quiet.
    And I never say anything special.
    I was afraid.
    How long did he talk to you?
    Not too long, because they don't supposed to talk to Jews.
    What he told, this was--
    I remember he told me, what he told me.
    And he cried.
    Not a young Lithuanian.
    He was maybe 40 years old in this age.
    And you think that he had been one of the ones who
    did the killing?
    He told me, in Vilkomir.
    He did.
    He told me-- he, and the rest of them.
    Tell me again this whole story, Celia,
    as if you haven't told it to me before.
    I used to work to wash the floors
    by the guards from Lithuania.
    They were our guards, the Jewish guards.
    And one Lithuanian start to talk to me.
    And he told me that he was in Vilkomir when they
    shot there the Jewish people.
    And the girls, some of them were so young, were so beautiful.
    He start to cry.
    So I asked him, how could you do it?
    He said, they gave us whisky we should be able to do it.
    And I did.
    Now I want you to tell me again about that day in March, later
    in 1944, when the buses came, or the trucks came.
    Buses for the children?
    Yeah.
    Buses.
    They asked we should bring out all the children.
    And the mothers, with the children,
    used to go in the bus.
    And I went with my child.
    She started to cry.
    She got scared.
    And I always have this on my mind.
    I lied to her.
    I said, Lena, Lena, don't cry.
    I am with you.
    I will be with you.
    Don't cry.
    So she stopped crying.
    And meanwhile, from outside, a guard called me.
    So I didn't go.
    Then he took a stick around my neck.
    He start to pull me.
    So I start to go with my child.
    He said, put the child away.
    I didn't.
    So he run in.
    And he took the child.
    And he threw it, I don't know where, there.
    And he pulled me out.
    And that's why I am alive then, because the rest of the mothers
    went with their children, and they were killed.
    And some cried, let me out.
    Some ran to the door.
    Let me out.
    They got crazy.
    Did you know what was happening that day?
    Sure.
    How did you know?
    Because there was a mine.
    Where did they need children?
    And then we heard what they did in the other ghettos.
    And I remember one was--
    he had a little boy.
    And he was standing by the barrack.
    And he was looking.
    I don't remember his name.
    And he was looking how they took his child.
    He was stolen.
    He fell on the ground.
    He fainted.
    At night, at night, at night on that day, I know everything.
    I can't look at her.
    [? Aranovski. ?] [? Aranovski ?] was his name.
    Tell me about the ghetto police.
    Were the Jewish police in the ghetto good?
    Or were they not good?
    I never had anything bad to talk about them.
    And if they did something wrong, you can get crazy.
    You want to leave, or you lose your mind.
    Some are strong, and they can take it.
    Or some, just let me leave, if they did something.
    And tell me about your friend Janina.
    Yeah.
    Tell me how you ended up leaving.
    When they took us out, all of us, from the [? Sammellager ?],,
    we went four or five.
    And there were a lot of people.
    And the crowds were already--
    how do you call it?
    Guns.
    With guns, one to another.
    You couldn't go through.
    But meanwhile-- and the whole time when I was working,
    I thought, they are taking guns to the Ninth Fort to shot us.
    So I thought, I'll try to run away,
    because let them shot me in the back.
    Then they take everybody.
    I should fall first in the grave, and be still alive.
    Then the German army can pull back.
    And it was a big dust.
    And there was no [NON-ENGLISH].
    Huh?
    Order.
    Huh?
    Order.
    No--
    Organization, it wasn't organized.
    Yeah.
    So I saw that my girl, Janina, are not from the--
    so I thought, I will do it while I had a chance.
    In the side, they were right here between the--
    Ditches.
    Hmm?
    Ditch.
    A ditch.
    So I fall in there.
    And I was waiting till they left.
    And I thought, I'll go somewhere,
    maybe somebody will take me in.
    I'll stay there, because it was already maybe 4 o'clock.
    I don't remember-- late.
    So I thought, I will sleep over there.
    And then I will go to look for somebody.
    So I heard three Lithuanian talking that they are looking
    for the Jews, [NON-ENGLISH].
    So I got scared they will find me.
    I took off my Magen David in the front and in the back.
    And I [INAUDIBLE].
    And I walked over the--
    it was not a street.
    It was a road.
    And I saw there a house.
    So I thought, I'll go over there.
    Maybe they'll help me.
    But they had dogs.
    So I got scared.
    And there was a little--
    it's wet.
    How do you call it?
    And it's around with little trees.
    Swamp.
    A "joomp."
    Swamp.
    Yeah, a little swamp.
    So I went in there.
    And I stayed overnight.
    And the next day, I went to Kovno.
    I was wandering.
    Jewish people even couldn't recognize.
    Nobody recognized me.
    So first, I went to one girl from Lithuania.
    Five marker.
    This would look better, if you were to hold it on my face.
    [LAUGHS] No matter how bad it is, I make a joke.
    If not, I would not be alive.
    Thanks husband and the family.
    If not, nothing would be worth.
    I lost interest in everything.
    I lived just within that.
    Tell me about the hospital burning.
    We had a hospital in the ghetto.
    I don't remember when it was.
    But Yom Kippur, they burned the hospital with the doctors,
    with the mothers, with the children-- everybody.
    Everybody who was in Kovno in the ghetto knows it.
    We saw the fire.
    And this was Yom Kippur.
    They knew the day was, for us, the best.
    Tell about your friend that had the baby in the hospital.
    It's better that I don't think--
    I never talked, I never mentioned nothing.
    My cousins-- I had here uncles, aunts, cousins.
    Once my cousin asked me, you know, you don't tell nothing.
    Now, I start to tell everybody who listens, especially not
    Jewish people.
    I don't think even lot of American Jewish people
    who want to hear and want to know.
    That's my feeling.
    Did you have a friend in the hospital with a baby?
    Yes.
    Yes, I knew her.
    I knew her husband.
    I knew them.
    A little boy.
    For so many years, and everything,
    every day was something new.
    One, his name was Mack.
    I don't remember if he shot a German or he wanted to shoot.
    But he went on over the--
    how you call it?
    To go out.
    The gate.
    Yeah.
    And they caught him.
    And they hang him.
    And they ask all the Jews to come and see how he's hanged.
    His name was Mack.
    When I see here the trucks Mack, I always remember.
    Tell me the story of marching out
    of the ghetto when you thought you
    were going to the Ninth Fort and you saw Janina get away.
    Yeah.
    I wanted to go out, but I was--
    I couldn't decide.
    Start in the ghetto.
    In the ghetto?
    Yeah.
    Start with they made us line up in fives and march.
    And we thought we were going to the Ninth Fort.
    Yeah.
    When they took us all out, it wasn't from the ghetto.
    It was from the camp in [PLACE NAME]..
    They took us out.
    And we were walking.
    And we thought they'd take us to the Ninth Fort to kill us.
    And I thought to myself, I would like--
    I would like to be killed with everybody and try to run away.
    And if they'll see me, let them kill me in the back.
    I will not see.
    Then I saw my girlfriend, Janina.
    She ran out.
    So I thought to myself, if she can, she plain blind,
    I'll do it too.
    So I did.
    And I was in the--
    Ditch.
    --in the ditch.
    And I was waiting till the rest, everybody passed me.
    And I will stay overnight in the ditch or the woods.
    And then, I'll go back in Kovno.
    So I saw that two Lithuanian was walking in the woods
    and looking for Jews.
    And they talked to themselves, if you'll find
    somebody-- you know, a Jew.
    So I thought this is not a place for me.
    So I took off my star from front and from the back.
    And I burned those.
    And I went over the route.
    And I thought I saw from far away a house.
    I thought I'll ask them.
    Because they see already the Russians coming and the Germans
    aren't here anymore.
    So I thought they'll let me in.
    But a dog started to bark, so I got scared.
    And there was a little--
    Gazebo.
    Hm?
    Gazebo.
    I don't know.
    Gazebo.
    Yeah.
    Anyway, it was wet.
    Oh, a swamp.
    A swamp.
    A little swamp and around and around tree.
    So I went there in the swamp under the three little trees.
    And I stayed there overnight.
    And then I came back to Kovno.
    But I was so surprised nobody recognized me.
    Because Jewish people, you could recognized.
    And I went [? to the ?] front.
    I thought maybe she'll try to help me.
    So I rang the bell.
    Anyway, she wasn't there.
    She was-- she went to her parents
    because there was more to eat.
    But I was wrong.
    So I went to another family.
    And she took me with her husband.
    And she had two boys.
    And she said I don't know if I can keep you here
    because there are a lot--
    This part we got.
    Let's go to-- did you see the ghetto after it was liquidated?
    Tell me about that.
    I went with my second husband.
    He wasn't then a husband--
    with my friend.
    The bridge wasn't there from Kovno in Slabodka.
    They had to go with a boat, a little boat.
    And he went to his house.
    And he thought maybe he can find his wife.
    And there was a dead woman.
    And he starts to take out the clothes
    because the top was burned.
    Maybe he'll recognize her.
    But he didn't.
    And there was families from the ghetto burned there.
    Because friends of mine--
    and mother, two sons, and my girlfriend's mother
    --they made a basement.
    And they were all there.
    And they died from the smoke.
    A lot people were.
    They burned them there.
    And if somebody were to run out, they shot them.
    But I was there.
    I was there.
    Tell me how you thought if Janina,
    who's big and tall and half blind, can get away, so can I.
    Yeah.
    I saw her running out of the--
    when we were walking.
    So I thought if she can, if she's doing it, I'll do it too.
    And I saw the ditch.
    And right away I came down.
    But they took her in.
    And she went in Germany to the camps.
    And she came back.
    I saw her in Minneapolis.
    And she went to Israel with her husband.
    And now she passed away.
    As soon as she came, passed away.
    OK, let's cut for a sec.
    [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
    Six marker.
    I saw my girlfriend, Janina, run away.
    She was tall and blonde and she couldn't see.
    So I thought, if she can do it, I'll do it too.
    And I did.
    OK.
    We got that.
    Cut.
    Well, I thought I'll go out, I'll
    run out, run away, when we thought
    they are taking us to kill us.
    So I wasn't sure if I should do it.
    But then I saw my girlfriend, Janina.
    She was tall.
    She was blonde.
    And she couldn't see.
    And she did it.
    So I thought, if she can do it, I'll do it too.
    And I did.
    [AUDIO OUT]

    Overview

    Interviewee
    Celia Yewlow
    Interviewer
    Sandra Bradley
    Date
    interview:  1997 May 27

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Extent
    3 videocassette (VHS) : 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

    Administrative Notes

    Legal Status
    Permanent Collection
    Provenance
    Sandra Bradley, a film production consultant for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, conducted the interview with Celia Yewlow on May 27, 1997 in preparation for the exhibition "Hidden History of the Kovno Ghetto," which opened in November 1997. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received a copy of the interview on July 11, 1998.
    Funding Note
    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 08:41:39
    This page:
    http:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn511019

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    Time Coded Notes (3)

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