Title
Maria G. Holocaust testimony (HVT-3267) [videorecording] / interviewed by Pinchas Agmon and B.M. Zabarko, August 2, 1994.
Notes
Associated material: Grinberg, Maria. Interview 17210. Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation. Access at https://vha.usc.edu.
Associated material: Olga R. Holocaust testimony [rescuer] (HVT-3268), Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
This testimony is in Russian.
Summary
Videotape testimony of Maria G., who was born in Zhornishche, Ukraine in 1928. She recalls her family's move to Kiev in 1934 due to the famine; attending a Ukrainian school; German invasion in 1941; her father's draft; German occupation in September; the order for all Jews to assemble on Melnikov Square on September 29; losing her mother and younger siblings en route to Babi Yar; watching the shooting of all Jews; her terror and fear; moving out of line with her neighbor's daughter; pretending to be Ukrainian sisters, with assistance from a Ukrainian translator; hiding with their Ukrainian neighbor, Olga R.; obtaining false papers with help from Olga and another neighbor; fearing exposure, fleeing to Kharkiv, posing as non-Jews; joining Soviet troops; marriage, and eventual reunion with her father in Kiev. Mrs. G. discusses the importance of help from non-Jews; her continuing emotional trauma and illnesses resulting from her experiences, including nightmares; bearing these memories in silence for fifty-three years due to Soviet policy; and the impossibility of describing the horror of the massacre. Part of the testimony is recorded at her hiding place and Babi Yar, as Mrs. G. reconstructs her experiences.