Helena B. Holocaust testimony (HVT-3890) [videorecording] / interviewed by Peter Salner and Ingrid Antalová, January 22, 1996.

Bratislava, Slovakia : Milan Šimečka Foundation, 1996.

1 videorecording (1 hr., 50 min.) : col.

Slovak

This testimony is in Slovak.

Videotape testimony of Helena B., who was born in Český Těšín, Czechoslovakia (presently Czech Republic) in 1927, the older of two children. She recalls moving to Kraków in 1934 to join relatives; attending a Jewish school; German invasion in September 1939; anti-Jewish restrictions, including expulsion from school; studying at home; ghettoization; working with her mother repairing damaged German uniforms; transfer to Płaszów in March 1943; public shootings by Amon Goeth; she and her mother seeing her father and brother in the men's camp; transfer with her mother to Auschwitz; remaining with her mother and the women from Płaszów who were on Schindler's list; transfer to Brünnlitz three weeks later; reunion with her father and brother; believing they would survive due to Oskar Schindler; liberation by Soviet troops; returning to Kraków; moving to Bratislava to join relatives; marriage to a survivor; and the births of three children. Ms. B. notes feeling like she “lived a hundred lives” when she was only eighteen; sharing her experiences with her children; and the trauma of viewing the film "Schindler's List," despite its differences from her own memories.

June 01, 2002

Helena B. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3890). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Helena B. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3890). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)