Erika J. and Marvina E. Holocaust testimony (HVT-423) [videorecording] / interviewed by Florabel Kinsler and Sarah Moskovitz, May 1, 1983.

Los Angeles, Calif. : UCLA Holocaust Documentation Archives, 1983.

1 videorecording (1 hr., 26 min.) : col.

English

Associated material: Engel, Malvina. Interview 3. Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation. Access at https://vha.usc.edu.

Videotape testimony of Marvina E. and her daughter, Erika J., who were born in Miskolc, Hungary in 1901 and 1928. They recall their sense of Hungarian identity; faith in the Horthy regime; disbelief that events in Germany and Poland would affect them; and German invasion in March 1944. Mrs. J. describes prewar antisemitic incidents; her uncles' draft into Hungarian labor battalions; German occupation; her brother's draft; ghettoization; confinement with her parents in a brick factory; her revulsion at the lack of sanitation; her grandfather's arrival; helping sick people and children; separation from her father and grandparents upon arrival at Auschwitz; her humiliation and shame at being naked and shaved; transfer to Płaszów with her mother; slave labor; return to Birkenau; assistance from a kapo; transfer to another camp; helping her mother with assistance from a soldier; digging trenches and working in a munitions factory in another camp from December 1944; saving bread for Shabbat; liberation by Soviet troops in May 1945; returning with her mother to Miskolc; reunion with her brother; and their emigration to Cuba, then the United Sates. Mrs. E. notes she could tell many unbelievable stories.

June 01, 2002

Erika J. and Marvina E. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-423). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Erika J. and Marvina E. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-423). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)