Jean M. Holocaust testimony (HVT-988) [videorecording] / interviewed by Martha Schulwolf and Phyllis O. Ziman Tobin, May 14, 1988.

New York, N.Y. : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 1988.

1 videorecording (2 hr., 6 min.) : col.

English

Associated material: Melzer, Jean. Interview 4122. Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation. Access at https://vha.usc.edu.

Videotape testimony of Jean M., who was born in Zawalów, Poland, in 1922 to a well-established family. She relates attending school in Marijampolé and Stanislav; anti-Semitic incidents; German invasion; forced labor; German humiliation of the Jews; her brother's death at age fourteen in a labor camp; transfer to the Podhajce ghetto; her father's deportation; and her mother's death from typhus, though she herself survived it. Mrs. M. describes "aktions"; hiding in bunkers; the resulting physical and psychological difficulties; mass killings; liquidation of the ghetto; escaping; hiding in the woods; being recaptured; escape from a mass grave when she was left for dead; assistance from Jehovah's Witnesses; reluctance to trust anyone; hiding in a forest bunker with other Jews; liberation by Soviet troops; moving to Buchach; help from a Soviet soldier; fleeing from Buchach because of returning Germans; hiding in a village; working after liberation; return to Podhajce; marriage; moving to Germany; living in a displaced persons camp; and emigration to the United States. Mrs. M. discusses the psychological effects of her experiences and her nightmares in which she is still hiding.

June 01, 2002

Jean M. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-988). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Jean M. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-988). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)