Description
Object description
Polish Jewish inmate of Warsaw Ghetto, 1940-1943; in hiding in Warsaw, Poland, 1943-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Warsaw, Poland, 1924-1939: family circumstances; education; religious character of family; incidents of Polish anti-Semitism including demonstrations on Polish holidays. Aspects of German invasion of Poland, 9/1939: German Air Force bombing of Warsaw; problems of obtaining food. Recollections of German occupation of Poland, 1939: sight of German Army troops marching into Warsaw; behaviour of Poles towards Germans; altering state of flat to make it look less affluent; protecting father during German searches; introduction of restrictions on Jewish holidays. Recollections of period as inmate in Warsaw Ghetto, Poland, 1940-1943: enclosure of ghetto; father's business situation and his establishing shop inside ghetto; curfew in ghetto.
REEL 2 Continues: question of how life in ghetto promoted dishonesty; attempt by poorer Jews to extort money from father, Henryk Litwak; father Henryk Litwak's attempts to help weaker ghetto dwellers; brutality of German guard Frankenstein; method employed by uncle (later husband) Arnold Zabielak to obtain pass; start of deportations and need to obtain factory work, 6/1942-7/1942; obtaining factory work; sight of Dr Janusz Korczak leading column of orphans to railhead, 6/7/1942; work repairing German uniforms; behaviour of Poles towards Jews; fate of grandmother and other hospital patients; sight of mother who suffocated her child to survive selections; deportation of brother.
REEL 3 Continues: Aspects of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Poland, 1943: preparations for uprising; Arnold Zabielak's obtaining weapons; method employed to smuggle small children out of ghetto; German searches of flat; father's fate during uprising. Recollections of period in hiding in Warsaw, Poland, 1/2/1943-18/8/1944: dangers encountered in hiding; story of hidden diamond which became engagement ring; description of hiding place in flat; question of how Jewish appearance worked against her on street; treatment of step-daughter by Poles.
REEL 4 Continues: lack of rights for Polish Jews; arrival of Soviet Army troops and liberation; last hiding place with Grzegoz Korczynski's family. Aspects of period in Poland, 1945: attempts to find mother in Otwock and Lublin; knowledge of extent of Holocaust; post-war Polish anti-Semitism; marriage to Arnold Zabielak and move to GB, 1946; question of lack of interest in Holocaust experience in immediate post-war.