Irene W. Holocaust testimony (HVT-1020) [videorecording] / interviewed by Sandy Hoffman and Mary Hughes, May 7, 1987.

Milwaukee, Wis. : Generation After of Milwaukee, 1987.

1 videorecording (1 hr., 55 min.) : col.

English

Associated material: Wolnerman, Irene. Interview 21416. Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation. Access at https://vha.usc.edu.

Videotape testimony of Irene W., who was born in Zawiercie, Poland in 1925, one of six children. She recounts her father's death in 1936; moving to Warsaw to join two older siblings living with relatives; German invasion; anti-Jewish violence; ghettoization; her older brother leaving for home; being smuggled out by non-Jews from Zawiercie; traveling to Wolbrom, then Pilica; living with her uncle and grandfather; smuggling herself with a cousin to Zawiercie; difficulties obtaining food since she was not registered; deportation with other girls to Sosnowiec, then Gabersdorf in February 1942; slave labor in a textile factory; receiving letters from home for a while; deteriorating conditions as time passed; arrival of Hungarians in 1944; learning from them of extermination camps (she wanted to die then); liberation; returning to Zawiercie; meeting a cousin; smuggling themselves to Germany; living in Feldafing displaced persons camp; marriage; her son's birth; and emigration to the United States in 1949. Ms. W. discusses relations between women in the camp; assisting each other; the camp organization; continuing fears and nightmares resulting from her experiences; not sharing her story with her children; and recently visiting her father's grave in Poland. She shows photographs.

June 01, 2002

Irene W. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1020). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Irene W. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1020). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)