Description
Object description
Lithuanian Jewish civilian in Siauliai, Lithuania, 6/1940-9/1941; inmate of Siauliai Ghetto, Lithuania, 9/1941-7/1944; inmate of Stutthof Concentration Camp and Bromberg-Ost Subcamp, Stutthof Concentration Camp in Poland, 7/1944-1/1945; escaped from march away from Bromberg-Ost Subcamp, Stutthof Concentration Camp, Poland, 1/1945; evacuated as 'German refugee' from Poland to Germany, 1945; displaced person in Germany, Austria and Italy, 1945-1947
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Siauliai, Lithuania, 1922-1939: family; education; anti-Semitism; Jewish boycott of German goods, 1933; reaction to events in Nazi Germany during 1930s. Aspects of period as civilian during Soviet occupation of Siauliai, Lithuania, 6/1940-6/1941: attitude towards Soviets; creation of Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, 7/1940, deportation of some Jewish civilians from area. Aspects of period as civilian during German Occupation of Siauliai, Lithuania, 6/1941-9/1941: German attack on Lithuania, 6/1941; Lithuanian attacks on Jewish communities; arrival of German Army troops.
REEL 2 Continues: introduction of anti-Jewish legislation; arrest and execution of father, 7/1941; relations with family servant; billeting of German Army troops in family home. Recollections of period as inmate in Siauliai Ghetto, Lithuania, 9/1941-7/1944: creation of ghetto, 9/1941; accommodation; role of Judenrat administration; a public hanging; transportation of children from ghetto, 5/11/1943.
REEL 3 Continues: Jewish police chief who gave his daughter to Germans; contact with partisans outside of ghetto; work as secretary for Judenrat; attitude of inmates towards Judenrat; curfew in ghetto; escape from ghetto with husband, 11/1943; hiding in countryside; discovery and arrest, 1/1944; imprisonment; threat of being shot; disposal of valuables; return to Siauliai Prison; degree of support received from Judenrat.
REEL 4 Continues: conditions in Siauliai Prison; interrogation by Gestapo; work repairing German Army uniforms; return to ghetto, 5/1944. Recollections of period as inmate in Stutthof Concentration Camp, Poland, 1944: train journey from Siauliai Ghetto to Strutthof Concentration Camp, 7/1944; arrival in camp; lack of knowledge of concentration camps; initial impressions of camp; procedure on arrival.
REEL 5 Continues: reasons for suspension of menstruation amongst female inmates; character of rations; nature of appells; awareness of gas chambers; barrack accommodation; categories of inmates; on working party outside main camp; accommodation in tents; work digging trenches; conditions and morale; rejection of supervisory role. Recollections of period as inmate in Bromberg-Ost Subcamp, Stutthof Concentration Camp, Poland, 1944-1945: nature of train journey to camp; awareness of Soviet Army's advance; accommodation.
REEL 6 Continues: conditions in camp; medical problems; lice; work chopping wood. Recollections of escape from march away from Bromberg-Ost Subcamp, Stutthof Concentration Camp, Poland, 1/1945: evacuation of camp on approach of Soviet Army; conditions on march; frostbite; fate of mother and sister; escape from march; assistance received from Poles and Soviet women's work camp.
REEL 7 Continues: receiving aid for frostbite from German Army unit. Recollections of evacuation as 'German refugee' from Poland to Germany, 1/1945-2/1945: physical condition; journey in cattle truck to Gdynia, Poland; medical treatment for frostbite in hospital in Gdynia, Poland; description of frostbitten feet and hands; amputation operation; attitude of Polish nurses who thought she was German; evacuation aboard SS Deutschland to Rügen Island, Germany; removal in hospital ship to Rügen Island, Germany. Aspects of period as patient in Nazi Party hospital in Bergen, Germany, 2/1945-5/1945: arrival at hospital; use of false German name.
REEL 8 Continues: avoiding nurse's questions on origins; relations with Czech doctor; state of feet and hands; medical treatment received; German preparations for defence of Rügen Island; awareness of sinking of SS Deutschland; news of war's end and German reaction to defeat; relations with German patients and their attitude towards concentration camps and extermination of Jews; liberation by Soviet Army, 5/1945; revealing Jewish identity.
REEL 9 Continues: Recollections of period as Displaced Person in Germany, Austria and Italy, 1945-1947: period in hospital after liberation, 5/1945-6/1945; release from hospital, 6/1945; work as interpreter to Soviet Army unit; billeting with German civilian family; making clothes from parachute silk; acting as interpreter during interrogation of German Schutzstaffel (SS) suspects; lack of awareness of end of war in Far East; decision not to return to Lithuania; travelling with German friend to Berlin, Germany, 12/1945; chaotic state of Germany; finding friends in Jewish refugee camp in Berlin, Germany and discovery of fate of Lithuanian Jews; train journey to Hanover, Germany.
REEL 10 Continues: journey from Hanover to Munich, Germany; incident of American anti-Semitism during train journey; physical state on arrival in Munich, Germany; reunion with cousin; further hospital treatment; discovery of husband's survival; desire to emigrate to Palestine; psychological and physical condition of former concentration camp inmates; reaction to conditions in refugee camps; difficulties of emigrating to Palestine.
REEL 11 Continues: circumstances of reunion with husband, 1/1946; reaction of husband and friends to her injuries; reunion with surviving friends; brief stay in Bavarian Alps; story of relative who visited Lithuania and his reaction to loss of extended family; illegally crossing Austrian border; period in Salzburg, Austria; obtaining Hungarian passports.
REEL 12 Continues: story of crossing Austrian/Italian border; operation to smuggle Jews into Palestine and the impossibility of her using the route due to physical condition; failure to obtain legal permit to emigrate to Palestine; obtaining Southern Rhodesian residence permit, 1947; attitude towards living in Italy; relations with Italian civilians. Reflections on Holocaust experience: impact of experiences; opinion that a revolt by Jewish people against the Nazis was impossible.