Description
Object description
Czechoslovakian Jewish schoolchild in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia and Budapest, Hungary, 1934-1944; inmate in Dachau and Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camps, Germany, 11/1944-4/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Bratislava, Czechslovakia, 1934-1939: father's work as teacher; family; Adolf Hitler's visit to her Kindergarten, 1938; attending Jewish school. Aspects of period as schoolchild in Budapest, Hungary, 1939-1944: father's attempts to help refugees; accommodation in Yellow Star House; difficulties of daily life under German occupation. Recollections of deportation from Budapest, Hungary, 10/1944: arrival of Germans at Jewish school to deport children; suggestion of Arrow Cross guard that she escape.
REEL 2 Continues: efforts of father to save his family; start of march; decision not to try and escape from march; rations; blessing received from Roman Catholic bishop; conditions during train journey; Allied bombing of train. Recollections of period as inmate in Dachau Concentration Camp, Germany, 11/1944-1/1945: prior awareness of concentration camps; reaction to arrival in camp; assistance received from experienced inmate; description of camp; relations with inmates; sanitation.
REEL 3 Continues: work in kitchen; work on farm; punishment for stealing grain from farm; opinion of Jewish kapo; story of shooting of friend Alex Petrushka; punishment for keeping a diary; appell; memories of fellow child inmate; rations; conditions during brief stay in sample camp shown to Red Cross; dental treatment.
REEL 4 Continues: psychological state. Aspects of march towards Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, 2/1945-4/1945: conditions on march; her shooting by guard; rescue by Germans and French prisoners of war; being taken to Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp for treatment. Aspects of period as inmate in Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, Germany, 1945: corpses littering camp; question of dehumanisation of Jewish inmates. Aspects of liberation of Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, 4/1945: being rescued from pile of corpses; hospital treatment; question of diet; physical state; refusal to testify against Schutzstaffel (SS) guard; how she was cared by Major Thomas Chutter.
REEL 5 Continues: Reflections on Holocaust experience: emotional impact of experience; question of whether Jews could have fought back; reunion with family; background to emigration to Israel.