Clara K. Holocaust testimony (HVT-1922) [videorecording] / interviewed by Jaschael Pery, December 24, 1991.

New York, N.Y. : A Living Memorial to the Holocaust-Museum of Jewish Heritage, 1991.

1 videorecording (1 hr., 40 min.) : col.

English

Associated material: Knopfler, Clara. Interview 764. Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation. Access at https://vha.usc.edu.

Videotape testimony of Clara K., who was born in Cehu Silvaniei, Romania in 1927. She describes cordial relations with non-Jews; Hungarian occupation; anti-Jewish laws; confiscation of her father's business; attending a Jewish school in Cluj-Napoca; ghettoization in Szilágysomlyó (Simleul-Silvaniei) in May 1944; public hanging of her boyfriend; transport to Auschwitz in June; separation from her father and brother (she never saw them again); transfer with her mother five days later to Kaiserwald; slave labor in a munitions factory; transfer by ship to Stutthof; transfer three days later to Dorbeck, Germany (Próchnik, Poland); slave labor digging antitank ditches; transfer to Guttau; a fellow prisoner giving birth; a German hiding the birth and the baby (it died); a death march in January 1945; abandonment by the guards; liberation; her mother protecting her from rape by a Soviet soldier; returning home; learning they were the only family survivors (thirty-six relatives were killed); marriage; and emigration to France in 1958, then the United States in 1962. Ms. K. discusses the importance to her survival of being with her mother and of luck; her mother's faith in God throughout; and sharing her experiences with her children and students (she is a retired teacher). She shows photographs.

June 01, 2002

Clara K. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1922). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Clara K. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1922). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)