Edith P. Holocaust testimony (HVT-107) [videorecording] / interviewed by Laurel Vlock, Eva Benda, and Nanette Auerhahn, February 18, 1980.

New Haven, Conn. : Holocaust Survivors Film Project, 1980.

1 videorecording (1 hr., 32 min.) : col.

English

Associated material: Edith P. Holocaust testimony (HVT-974), Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Videotape testimony of Edith P., who was born in Michalovce, Czechoslovakia 1920 and raised in Uz︠h︡horod. In an unusually poetic and expressive way, Mrs. P. describes her childhood in a middle class Jewish family; the Hungarian occupation in 1940-1941; anti-Jewish legislation; the indifference of her non-Jewish neighbors and friends; the deterioration of the Jewish situation under German occupation; the internment of her family in a brick factory outside her town; and their transfer two weeks later to Auschwitz. She recalls in detail the train ride to Auschwitz, then her arrival, upon which she was separated from her mother and taken to Block 23; and her reunion with her sister-in-law, who took her to Block 16 and thereby saved her life. She vividly details life in Auschwitz and tells of her and her sister-in-law's selection for slave labor in Salzwedel, northern Germany, where they worked as cooks for the SS. Mrs. P. also discusses her liberation by United States troops, including African-Americans; the loyalty and support she has received from her husband, enabling her to rebuild her life; and her distress at the world's, and her own, complacency while suffering and inhumanity continue.

June 01, 2002

Edith P. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-107). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Edith P. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-107). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)