Celia O. Holocaust testimony (HVT-2699) [videorecording] / interviewed by Joni-Sue Blinderman, December 20, 1993.

New York, N.Y. : A Living Memorial to the Holocaust-Museum of Jewish Heritage, 1993.

1 videorecording (1 hr., 54 min.) : col.

English

Videotape testimony of Celia O., who was born in Dubienka, Poland in 1928. She recalls antisemitic incidents; German invasion in 1939; a German soldier assaulting a Polish child; her mother convincing her father that they should flee; being smuggled with her family to the Soviet zone; living with an uncle for several months; round-up by Soviet soldiers; their two-month train trip to Siberia with 1,500 others; incarceration in a camp in Irkutsk; forced labor, starvation, and cold; her brother's death in 1941; prisoner solidarity; transfer to Kazakhstan (only 750 remained); improved, but harsh conditions; attending school; attending an opera in Alma-Ata when her father won a tailoring contest; traveling to Kraków after the war; fleeing to Berlin after encountering antisemitism; living in a displaced persons camp near Frankfurt; attending German public school; emigration to the United States with her family in 1949; attending medical school in Switzerland; meeting her future husband (a survivor from Kraków); marriage; and working as a pediatrician in New York. Dr. O. discusses not sharing her experiences with her children (she did not want them to have a "persecution mentality"); her emphasis on relationships rather than materialism resulting from her war experience; and continuing close relationships with fellow prisoners.

June 01, 2002

Celia O. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2699). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Celia O. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2699). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)