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Oral history interview with Frances Kornmehl

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1990.338.37 | RG Number: RG-50.037.0037

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    Oral history interview with Frances Kornmehl

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Fances Leder Kornmehl, born in 1925 in Tarnow, Poland, describes growing up in a Chassidic home; being the youngest of three sisters and two brothers; being an outstanding student in a Polish school; her father’s business selling feed to farmers; the war starting and not being able to attend school; the restrictions on Jews and the random shootings in the streets; the black market; living on their savings; her brothers being shot; her mother being sick and dying; helping her sick father; the two ghettos; working for the Germans; seeing children being buried alive while some music was playing; people being from hospitals and shot; being taken to a very large camp, where she sewed and did other work for German soldiers; staying in the camp for over one year until November 1944; being taken to Treblinka; the selection process and being tattooed; being taken in a cattle car to the Sudeten part of Germany where things were better; conditions in the camp and working in a spinning mill; the Germans leaving one morning and being liberated by the Russians the next day; a Jewish Russian taking them into town and giving them clothes; walking in groups to Katowice, Poland; the Russians sending them by train to Kraków, Poland; returning to her hometown, where a non-Jewish woman took her in; writing poems; staying in Tarnow for a year and working in an office; the pogroms and people being killed; going to Germany and working in a post office, where she met her future husband who was head of the office; immigrating to the United States in 1947 and getting married; going to New York, NY and Buffalo, NY; never telling her experiences to her children because she did not want to take their innocence away; and her feelings that freedom and liberty for everybody are the most important things in life.
    Interviewee
    Frances Kornmehl
    Interviewer
    Mrs. Toby Back

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Extent
    1 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

    Personal Name
    Kornmehl, Frances, 1925-

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    Toby Ticktin Back of the Holocaust Resource Center of Buffalo conducted the interview with Frances Kornmehl with the cooperation and support of WIVB-TV in Buffalo, NY. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Oral History branch received copies of interviews from the Holocaust Resource Center of Buffalo from 1990 - 1993. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received the collection by transfer from the Oral History branch in February 1995.
    Record last modified:
    2023-11-16 08:08:23
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn511796

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