Oral history interview with Rachel Gurmanova

Oral History | Not Digitized | Accession Number: 1998.A.0159.37 | RG Number: RG-50.472.0037

Overview

Interview Summary: [The interview is also available at: https://iit.aviaryplatform.com/collections/231/collection_resources/17617]
Interviewee: Rachel Gurmanova
Interviewer: David P. Boder
Date: interview: 1946 August 17
Geography: creation: Paris (France)
Credit Line: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, acquired from the Library of Congress

Physical Details

Language: Yiddish German
Extent: 3 sound cassettes (60 min.).

Rights & Restrictions

Conditions on Access: No restrictions on access

Keywords & Subjects

Topical Term: World War, 1939-1945--Refugees. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives. World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, Jewish.
Geographic Name: Warsaw (Poland) Getto warszawskie (Warsaw, Poland)

Administrative Notes

Holder of Originals: Library of Congress - Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division (MBRS)
Legal Status: Permanent Collection
Provenance: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum acquired a copy of the interview from the Library of Congress in 1998.
Special Collection: The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive

Record last modified:: 2022-07-28 17:49:36
This page:: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn734566

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Also in Illinois Institute of Technology Psychology Laboratory Project MH 156 : David P. Boder oral history interviews with displaced persons, 1946

Contains oral history interviews with displaced persons in Europe recorded from June to October 1946

Date: 1946

Oral history interview with Leon Shachnovski

Oral History

Leon Shachnovski, a Munich representative for the ORT Displaced Persons convention in Paris, discusses his arrest by the Germans in August 1941 and his time in the Kovno (Kaunas) ghetto; the mass execution of 12,000 Jews from the Kovno ghetto in one day, including his parents; his participation in forced labor at the airdrome along with Russian prisoners near Kovno; his deportation to Dachau concentration camp and his time working as a "specialist technician" in the various shops in Dachau; his recollections of how some prisoners were killed while working on several construction projects in the camp; and his time working in the Messerschmitt subcamp of Dachau in Augsburg, Germany. The tape begins with a brief conversation between David Boder and Michail Vasilievich Khichenko, janitor for the ORT offices in Paris. This conversation is unrelated to the interview with Leon Shachnovski. [The interview is also available at: https://iit.aviaryplatform.com/collections/231/collection_resources/17681]

Oral history interview with Polia Bisenhaus

Oral History

Polia Bisenhaus, a Jewish displaced person, discusses her experiences working in forced labor at a labor camp for ammunition in Poland; her time in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp; her recollections of the appel and how prisoners died in Bergen-Belsen; the mistreatment of prisoners by the Jewish lager leaders in Bergen-Belsen; her experiences with the physicians in Bergen-Belsen; her time in Burgau, Turkenheim (possibly Turkheim), and Dachau concentration camps; her transport between camps and how war planes dropped bombs near the transports; her liberation from Dachau; her reunion with family members in Paris, France after World War II; and her memories of her family's deportation from Kielce, Poland, in 1942. At the end of the interview, David Boder conducts a Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) with Bisenhaus. [The interview is also available at: https://iit.aviaryplatform.com/collections/231/collection_resources/17587]

Oral history interview with Raisel Roset

Oral History

Raisel Roset, a Jewish displaced person (born circa 1896), discusses her husband's death in Russia; her deportation from Janów, Poland, to the ghetto in Czestochowa, Poland; her participation in forced labor in the "labor lager" in Czestochowa; how she acquired false identification papers top pass as an Aryan woman; being deported from Poland by the Germans to work in Germany; her recollections of an "action" in Czestochowa when only 4,000 of the original 50,000 Jews survived, and how the survivors of the action went to forced labor in munitions factories; her liberation from forced labor by the Americans; and how she made her way to the ORT school in Paris after liberation. At the end of the interview, David Boder conducts a Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) with Roset. [The interview is also available at: https://iit.aviaryplatform.com/collections/231/collection_resources/17672]

Oral history interview with Adam Krakowski

Oral History

Adam Krakowski, a Jewish displaced person, discusses being deported with his family from Łódź, Poland, to Neusatz in Galicia (possibly Nowy Sącz, Poland); his memories of the fate of the Jews who remained in the Łódź ghetto; the deaths of his family members in Belzec concentration camp; his time in a labor camp in Neusatz where he worked on road construction in Roznox (Roznow, Poland) near Kraków, Poland; his memories of the appell in the forced labor camp; the type of food he received in the camp; the conditions in the barracks; his time in an airplane factory in Rzeszów, Poland; his experiences in Płaszów, Wieliczka, Flossenbürg, Colmar, Sachsenhausen, Braunschweig, Ravensbrück, and Ludwigslust concentration camps; his liberation by American troops from Ludwigslust; his return to Poland after liberation to search for family members; and his journey to Paris, France to find his brother, a longtime resident of the city. The interview continues as David Boder conducts the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) with Krakowski. During the test, Krakowski describes a figure in one picture as looking like a "Muselmann" (Muselmänner). The term is unfamiliar to Boder and he asks Krakowski to explain the word. Krakowski describes a "Muselmann” as a sick one and as weak people who cannot walk anymore. To conclude the interview, Boder states that Krakowski's brother is a long time practicing physician in Paris and that he is studying to be a radio technician at the ORT school. [The interview is also available at: https://iit.aviaryplatform.com/collections/231/collection_resources/17639]

Oral history interview with Marko Moskovitz

Oral History

Marko Moskovitz, a Jewish displaced person, discusses his memories of the Hungarian invasion of Czechoslovakia; the establishment of a ghetto in Zlotwina (possibly Solotvyno, Ukraine); his family's deportation to Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps; the death of his mother and younger siblings in Auschwitz; his transport from Auschwitz to work building a railroad station near Breslau, Germany (Wrocław, Poland); his memories of Auschwitz prisoners killed in the gas chambers and their bodies burned in the crematoria and in a large pit near the camp; his memories of the “Muselmänner" in Auschwitz; the fate of his younger brother in Gleiwitz concentration camp; his memories of the camp evacuations in January 1945 and his time in Flossenbürg and Offenburg concentration camps; his liberation by French troops in the Black Forest and his stay in Inerringen, Germany utilizing the facilities and food left by fleeing Germans; his time in Turin, Italy after liberation; his decision to travel to France in order to attend the ORT trade school. The interview continues with a discussion about HIAS services for displaced persons and a Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) administered by David Boder. During the test Moskovitz discusses the concept of "Muselmann" (Muselmänner). [The interview is also available at: https://iit.aviaryplatform.com/collections/231/collection_resources/17656]

Oral history interview with Samuel Isakovitch

Oral History

[The interview is also available at: https://iit.aviaryplatform.com/collections/231/collection_resources/17624]

Oral history interview with Ms. Rudo

Oral History

Ms. Rudo, born circa 1909 in Castelló d'Empúries, Spain, describes going to France during the Spanish Civil War; living in the refugee center and learning to sew; living in Sant Cugat del Vallès, a town near Barcelona, at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War; living in Corbie, France when the German occupation began; moving to Amiens, France with a friend; and being deported to Germany and working in a factory. [The interview is also available at: https://iit.aviaryplatform.com/collections/231/collection_resources/17673]

Oral history interview with Mendel Herskovitz

Oral History

Mendel Herskovitz, a Jewish displaced person, discusses his memories of the German invasion of Poland, and how the Jews of Łódź attempted to flee during the invasion; his family's experiences in the Łódź ghetto; his memories of Chaim Rumkowski (Mordecai Ḥayim Rumkowski), the Jewish elder in Łódź; his father's work as a locksmith and the various shops and industries in the Łódź ghetto; his time doing forced labor camp and ammunition factory in Czestochowa, Poland; his time in Skarzysko-Kamienna concentration camp working in a large ammunition factory; his memories of the evacuations of Czestochowa and Skarzysko-Kamienna concentration camps; his experiences in Buchenwald concentration camp; his experiences with SS guards during Buchenwald's liberation; his encounter with a Jewish-American soldier during Buchenwald's liberation; his brief time in Dachau concentration camp; and his life in France learning the fur trade after liberation. At the conclusion of the interview, David Boder conducts a Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) with Herskovitz. [The interview is also available at: https://iit.aviaryplatform.com/collections/231/collection_resources/17621]

Oral history interview with Jurek Kestenberg

Oral History

Jurek Kestenberg, a Jewish displaced person, discusses his memories of the occupation of Warsaw, Poland, by the Germans; his experiences in hiding in the Warsaw ghetto where his family built a bunker under their home; his memories of the Warsaw ghetto uprising and the destruction of the ghetto by fire; his experiences at the "Umschlagplatz" after the evacuation of the Warsaw ghetto; his escape from a transport of Warsaw children to Treblinka by train; the gunshot wound he received in his leg during his escape from the Treblinka transport; his return to Warsaw and his family's eventual deportation to Majdanek concentration camp near Lublin, Poland; his experiences in Majdanek including the appels, gassing of prisoners, and encounters with the Ukrainian guards in the camp; his transfer to Skarzysko-Kamienna concentration camp where he was forced to labor as a stoker on a locomotive ferrying ammunition; his experiences with a Jewish doctor in Skarzysko-Kamienna; his transfer to Buchenwald concentration camp; how Buchenwald prisoners retaliated against the SS guards from the camp shortly before liberation by Allied troops; and his journey from Buchenwald to France with aid from the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). David Boder administers the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) at the conclusion of the interview. After the TAT, youth from Chateau de Boucicaut perform songs from Buchenwald. Also includes a portion of the interview with Kalman Eisenberg from spool 12B. [The interview is also available at: https://iit.aviaryplatform.com/collections/231/collection_resources/17635]

Oral history interview with Kalman Eisenberg

Oral History

Kalman Eisenberg, a Jewish displaced person in France, discusses his life with his family in Starachowice, Poland, before the World War II; torture and beatings suffered at the hands of the Germans during the occupation; his time in the Starachowice ghetto and the eventual round up and deportation of Jews from Starachowice; his time in a concentration camp near Starachowice and his participation in forced labor in an ammunition factory; his encounters with Jewish elders and leaders in the camp; his failed attempt to escape from the concentration camp; his time in Auschwitz concentration camp and his witness to the murder of Roma there; his time in Gleiwitz and Flossenbürg concentration camps; his survival of a death march through Germany; his encounter with a Jewish American soldier during liberation by Allied troops; his retraining work with leather goods; and his plans for a new life in the United States. At the end of the interview, Eisenberg sings a song that he learned while in a concentration camp. [The interview is also available at: https://iit.aviaryplatform.com/collections/231/collection_resources/17600]

Oral history interview with Fela Nichthauser

Oral History

Fela Nichthauser, a Jewish displaced person in France after World War II, discusses how she came to Chateau de Boucicaut with her brother, and how she was studying to be a dental technician at an O.S.E. (Union Oeuvre de secours aux enfants) school near Paris, France; her experiences in Wadowice, Poland during the early days of the German occupation; her experiences during a round up of all the Jews in Wadowice, and how the Germans selected her and her brothers for work and not deportation; her mother's deportation to and death in Auschwitz concentration camp; her time in Bolkenhain concentration camp working on a loom; her time in a spinning factory in Weidenberg, Germany; her time in a flax camp, Breden, Germany, near Gross-Rosen concentration camp; her experiences on a railroad transport to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, and her experiences with typhus in the camp; her memories of Irma Grese, a female guard in Bergen-Belsen; her experiences with block trustees (or Blockälteste) in Bergen-Belsen; her liberation from Bergen-Belsen in April 1945; and her memories of the surrendering SS troops in Bergen-Belsen. [The interview is also available at: https://iit.aviaryplatform.com/collections/231/collection_resources/17660]

Oral history interview with Israel Unikowski

Oral History

Israel Unikowski, a Jewish displaced person at the OSE (Oeuvre de secours aux enfants) school at Chateau de Boucicaut, discusses his life in an orphanage in Kalisz, Poland at the outbreak of World War II; the abandonment of his orphanage in Kalisz and the orphans' journey to Łódź, Poland; his experiences in the care of Chaim Rumkowski, head of the Łódź Jewish Council; witnessing episodes of Jewish persecution at the hands of Germans in the Łódź ghetto; his memories of Hans Bukov, "Führer of selections" in the Łódź ghetto; how Chaim Rumkowski turned over the children of the Łódź ghetto to the Germans for deportation in 1942; how he and a few friends escaped the 1942 round-up and hid in a nearby Jewish cemetery to avoid deportation; the problem of tuberculosis in the Łódź ghetto and the death of his brother in the Łódź ghetto hospital; his deportation to Birkenau concentration camp and how he received his tattoo of his prisoner number B-7687; his work at the Buddy "estate" for SS officers near Birkenau; his death march to Buchenwald concentration camp after the evacuation of Birkenau; his experience with the Blockältest Gustav, a former SS man, in Buchenwald; his time in the "youth block" in Buchenwald and how he and other youth participated in theatrical and educational activities; the liberation of Buchenwald and his participation in the capture and beating of fleeing SS guards; his memories of the gas chambers and crematoria in Birkenau; his recollection of how Birkenau officials killed all the Romanies in the camp to make room in the camp for the Jews from Łódź; and his life after liberation studying to be a dental technician at an OSE school. At the end of the interview, David Boder invites Unikowski to sing any songs that he might have learned while in the camps. Unikowski sings for him the song, "Es brent," lyrics and melody by Polish-Jewish songwriter Mordecai Gebirtig. He sings two more songs, both untitled during the interview. Those songs have been identified by USHMM staff as: "Dort, tif in a vald" (songwriter unknown) and the 3rd song is "Shtiler, shtiler," lyrics by Shmerke Kaczerginski, melody by Aleksander Wolkowyski. Before administering the TAT (Thematic Apperception Test), Boder encourages Unikowski to write down any recollections that he might have of his experiences during the war. [The interview is also available at: https://iit.aviaryplatform.com/collections/231/collection_resources/17691]

Oral history interview with Jola (Yetta) Gross

Oral History

Jola (Yetta) Gross, a Jewish displaced person living at the Jewish home for adults in Paris, France, discusses her and her family's experiences in an assembly camp in Munkács, Hungary (Mukachevo, Ukraine), before being deported to Auschwitz concentration camp; her experiences on the railroad transport to Auschwitz; her memories of the entrance process at Auschwitz and a selection by Dr. Josef Mengele; how she received her tattoo, 7768, shortly after entering Auschwitz; how she participated in forced labor near Birkenau concentration camp; her memories of the Birkenau band playing at the camp gate for the prisoners as they went to and from work; how her brother worked in the special commando (or Sonderkommando), burning the bodies of gassed prisoners in the Birkenau crematoria; how she left Auschwitz in January 1945 on a transport into Germany; her liberation by Russian troops in Germany; how certain members of her family went directly to the gas chambers after entering Auschwitz; how she found her older sister in Budapest, Hungary after liberation; and her desire to live in Palestine. At the conclusion of the interview, David Boder asks Gross if she remembers seeing Roma in Auschwitz. She responds by saying that she remembered the area of Auschwitz known as the "Gypsy" camp, but never saw Roma there. [The interview is also available at: https://iit.aviaryplatform.com/collections/231/collection_resources/17616]

Oral history interview with Helena Neufeld

Oral History

Helena Neufeld, a Jewish displaced person in Paris, France, discusses her memories of the early days of World War II in Warsaw and Lwów, Poland (now Lʹviv, Ukraine); her witness to a pogrom against Jews in Lwów carried out by Ukrainians; her return to Warsaw posing as a Catholic; her time living in the Warsaw ghetto; her memories of the hospital and Jewish cemetery in the Warsaw ghetto; her memories of her father and his death in 1939; witnessing the German’s deportation of Jews from the Warsaw ghetto to concentration camps; her time hiding in Warsaw to avoid deportation; witnessing the Warsaw ghetto uprising in April 1943; eventually being arrested and deported to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp; her memories of doctors and the hospital in Bergen-Belsen; and the evacuation of Bergen-Belsen and her liberation by Russian troops during a train transport through Germany on the way to Theresienstadt. The interview concludes with a discussion concerning Helena Neufeld's husband, the fact that she married while in the Warsaw ghetto, and the fact that she had studied dentistry before the war. David Boder also questions her about any songs or poetry that she might have learned in the concentration camp, but she does not remember any. [The interview is also available at: https://iit.aviaryplatform.com/collections/231/collection_resources/17659]

Oral history interview with Maximillian Lipschitz

Oral History

Dr. Maximilian Lipschitz, born circa 1911 in Neuschonstau, Czechoslovakia, describes spending most of the war in the Kraków Ghetto in Poland; conditions in the overcrowded ghetto; being a laborer in German military factories; being spared with many of his family members from the initial deportations to the Belzec extermination camp; and being able to save his sister and children. [Note that the interview ends abruptly.] [The interview is also available at: https://iit.aviaryplatform.com/collections/231/collection_resources/17644]

Oral history interview with Nino Barzilai

Oral History

Nino Barzilai, born in 1892 in Salonika (Thessalonike), Greece, describes his family, which was originally from Portugal; working in the jewelry business in Spain from 1916 to 1936; returning to Salonika and his work selling fabrics for women's clothing; his wife and son; the outbreak of war between Greece and Italy; fleeing with his family to Athens, Greece; the German conquest of Greece in April 1941; obtaining Portuguese citizenship for himself and his family; life under the Italian occupation; the German takeover of Athens; enduring five and a half months of slave labor under German occupation despite his Portuguese citizenship; being deported with his family to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp; being evacuated by train in March 1945; being liberated by the American army from the train in Börgermoor; being a Jewish refugee in Paris, France, and deciding with his family to remain in France; finding work as an electrician; his son training as a carpentry; the help his family has received; and believing they survived because of their Portuguese citizenship. [The interview is also available at: https://iit.aviaryplatform.com/collections/231/collection_resources/17582]

Oral history interview with Bella Zgnilek

Oral History

Bella Zgnilek, a displaced person at the Jewish home for adults in Paris, France, discusses her work with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in Paris after liberation; learning English in school in Sosnowice, Poland before the outbreak of World War II; how her brother was shot for violating a curfew; her time in a work camp, and learning from other prisoners about the killing in Auschwitz concentration camp; her experiences in Gross-Rosen concentration camp; working in a flax spinning factory near Gross-Rosen; her experiences in Gabersdorf concentration camp; working in an office as a typist in Gabersdorf until the time of liberation; her liberation by Russian troops; and her journey from Germany to France after liberation. At the conclusion of the interview, David Boder invites Zgnilek to sing a song that she remembers from the camps. She also reads a poem that she wrote while in Gabersdorf. Before ending the interview, she adds her regards to friends in America. [The interview is also available at: https://iit.aviaryplatform.com/collections/231/collection_resources/17697]

Oral history interview with Janine Binder

Oral History

Janine Binder (now Oberrotman), a Jewish displaced person in Paris, France, discusses her family life in Lemberg (L'viv, Ukraine) before World War II; her memories of the German occupation of Lemberg and how Ukrainians collaborated in the persecution of the Jews in Lemberg; her family's experiences in the Lemberg ghetto; how the occupying Germans forced her and her father into hard labor in construction; how she posed as an Aryan woman by purchasing false identification documents, and the importance of false identification documents as a means of survival; her family's time in hiding in an attic in the Lemberg ghetto; her escape from the ghetto and her time working on a farm and posing as an Aryan woman; her eventual arrest and her time doing forced labor in a factory near Stuttgart, Germany; and her liberation from forced labor by French troops near Stuttgart. [The interview is also available at: https://iit.aviaryplatform.com/collections/231/collection_resources/17586]

Oral history interview with Bertha Goldwasser

Oral History

Bertha Goldwasser, a Jewish displaced person and former resistance fighter in France, discusses her marriage to Kuba Goldwasser and how they, with their young daughter, were arrested on several occasions by the Gestapo; her and her husband's time in Drancy concentration camp after their arrest by the Gestapo; jumping with her infant daughter from a railroad car during her deportation to the east, and the death of her daughter as a result of the fall; being discovered by the French resistance in the forest after her jump from the transport train, and how they helped nurse her injuries; receiving additional help from a French clergyman; how she remained with the resistance fighters and became a member of the SEK resistance group; how she originally came to France from Poland in order to study chemical engineering; her mother's deportation from Barash, Poland (Barashi, Ukraine) and her death in Treblinka concentration camp; her brother's escape to the east during the war and his draft into the Russian army; how her brother left Russia after the war and entered an UNRRA camp in Vierenwald, Germany; the possibility of contacting her aunts, Rosa Kupferstein and Anna Drah in Brooklyn, NY; how she came to work for the Jewish newspaper, Neue Frie Presse; and her thoughts on the future for Polish Jews. Near the end of the interview David Boder invites Goldwasser to sing any songs she remembers from the war. She sings for him a song she learned as a resistance fighter and a song that she learned from someone who had been in a concentration camp. [The interview is also available at: https://iit.aviaryplatform.com/collections/231/collection_resources/17614]

Oral history interview with Jacob Button

Oral History

Jacob Button, born on August 5, 1905 in Salonika (Thessalonike), Greece, describes surviving the Holocaust, along with his wife and two children, due to their Spanish citizenship; his family’s unsuccessful attempt to escape from German occupied Salonika by boat to Athens when the deportations began in March 1943; his wife and children successfully escaping to Athens by train; being arrested, interrogated, and incarcerated for four months; being freed with the help of the Spanish government; going to Athens in the summer of 1943; the German occupation of Athens after September 1943; being sent to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp with his family seven months later; how they were treated better than other prisoners, but food rations diminished during the last months of the war; witnessing the brutal treatment of the general prison population in Bergen-Belsen; being liberated by British troops on April 15, 1945; and his family’s hope to immigrate to Palestine. [The interview is also available at: https://iit.aviaryplatform.com/collections/231/collection_resources/17597]

Oral history interview with Eda Button

Oral History

Eda Button, born circa 1912 in Salonika (Thessalonike), Greece, describes getting married to an attorney in October 1939; having a child in May 1942; the German occupation of Salonika on April 9, 1941; the persecution of Jews in the summer of 1942; the creation of a Jewish ghetto in 1943; the restrictions placed on Jews; her husband fleeing to the mountains; entrusting her baby daughter to an Italian woman who turned the baby over to be cared for by a convent of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul; fleeing to Athens, which was occupied by the Italians; staying with her sister and then with her husband's relatives; reuniting with her husband in Athens; reinstating the Spanish citizenship she had held as a child; the German occupation of Athens on September 8, 1943; how many Athenian Jews went into hiding when the Germans ordered all Jews in Athens to register; living in fear; her husband’s successful escape by boat to Turkey and then to Palestine; being deported along with her brother and mother on April 12, 1944 to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp; being liberated by the British army on April 15, 1945; going to Paris, France and reuniting with her daughter; and preparing to join her husband in Tel Aviv. [The interview is also available at: https://iit.aviaryplatform.com/collections/231/collection_resources/17596]

Oral history interview with Rita Bennayor

Oral History

Rita Bennayor, born circa 1926 in Salonika (Thessalonike), Greece, describes being 17 years old when in 1943 she was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau along with her parents, two brothers, and her elder brother's wife and four children; how she and her elder brother were the only ones in her family to survive; working as a slave laborer in Auschwitz, working in road construction and then in a shoe repair detail; being force marched to Ravensbrück in the fall of 1944; doing road construction work in the camp; being transferred to a Ravensbrück subcamp; being liberated by the Russians; walking across Germany with around two dozen other liberated prisoners for three weeks until they reached the American zone of occupation; going to Paris, France, where she received help from refugee relief organizations; living in a home for adult displaced people; and her hope to join her uncles in Hartford, Connecticut. [The interview is also available at: https://iit.aviaryplatform.com/collections/231/collection_resources/17584]

Oral history interview with Andre Richard

Oral History

André Richard describes being a singer in the Théâtre National de l'Opéra in Paris; joining the French Resistance movement under Major Bordé and Colonel Goisé's command during the German occupation; being a lieutenant in La Marseillaise group; his thoughts on the birth of the Resistance movement; working in the Turenne group led by Colonel Goisé at the beginning of the Resistance; the risk of being involved with the Resistance; his admiration for General Charles de Gaulle; his sympathy for the plight of the Jews under German occupation; and his defense of liberty and his belief that religion divides people. [The interview is also available at: https://iit.aviaryplatform.com/collections/231/collection_resources/17669]

Oral history interview with Henja Frydman

Oral History

Henja Frydman, born in 1924 in Pinsk, Poland (now in Belarus), describes being one of six children; her three brothers and two sisters; moving with her family to Paris, France in 1931; her father’s clothing business; being a student prior to the German occupation of France in 1940; the drastic change in life after the arrival of the Germans; the arrest of one of her brothers in the summer of 1941, his internment in Drancy detention camp, and death from typhus in Auschwitz; joining the communist element of the French resistance and working for the propaganda section; living separately from her family and the emotional pain it caused her; being arrested in 1943 and sent to Drancy, where she remained for three months; conditions in the camp; being deported to Auschwitz and singing “La Marseillaise” during the train journey with others from the Resistance; the deportation of her parents and brother to Auschwitz, where they perished; the train journey to Auschwitz; staying in the camp for a year; her first day in the camp; being forced to sing German songs in the camp; her survival of the camp and the solidarity she maintained with her fellow female prisoners; her friendship with Mala Zimetbaum; working as nurse in the camp’s hospital; staying at the camp while other inmates were sent on a death march in January 1945; being liberated by the Red Army on January 27, 1945; going to Paris, where she worked in an administrative capacity for a survivors’ organization; her two sisters and brother in Palestine; and her plan to remain in France. [The interview is also available at: https://iit.aviaryplatform.com/collections/231/collection_resources/17612]