Description
Object description
Polish Jewish schoolchild in Kalisz and Warsaw, Poland, 9/1939-11/1940; inmate of Warsaw Ghetto, Poland, 11/1940-12/1942; in hiding in Warsaw, Poland, 1/1943-1/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Kalisz, Poland, 1930-1939: family circumstances; education; anti-Semitism experienced during education; father's aid to German Jewish refugees; religious character of family; question of emigration to Palestine; parental loyalties; languages spoken; reaction to Polish anti-Semitism. Recollections of German invasion of Poland, 9/1939: flight from Kalisz to Warsaw prior to invasion; German bombing of Warsaw; initial sight of German troops.
REEL 2 Continues: aid recieved from German soldier. Recollections of period as schoolchild in Kalisz and Warsaw, Poland, 9/1939-11/1940: loss of personal property; initial false feeling of invulnerability; confiscation of house; reasons for move to Warsaw, winter 1939/1940. Recollections of period as inmate in Warsaw Ghetto, 11/1940-12/1942: initial accommodation; lack of personal pocessions; food situation; continuing education; nature of religious and cultural life; character of accommodation; father's return from Soviet occupied eastern Poland; atmosphere in ghetto.
REEL 3 Continues: German behaviour on streets; father's role as Jewish policeman; living conditions; illnesses experienced by family; relations between inmates; hearing escapee from Treblinka Extermination Camp story; effects of starvation; suffering from cold.
REEL 4 Continues: escape from ghetto, 12/1942. Aspects of period in hiding in Warsaw, Poland, 1/1943-10/1944: initial hiding place with Polish family; refuge in convent; narrow escape from Gestapo. Recollections of period in hiding in Warsaw, Poland, 10/1944-1/1945: German reprisals; aid from German officer; sight of devastated Warsaw; flight from Warsaw; behaviour of German troops at railway station; refuge in second convent; attitude towards Germans; arrival of Soviet Army, 1/1945; behaviour of Soviet Army troops. Story of leaving Poland, 1946. Recollections of Warsaw Uprising, 8/1944-10/1944: looking after wounded.
REEL 5 Continues: insurgents' preparation of hospital; building barricade; burial of dead insurgents; eating pig; weapons training; question of German military superiority; fate of father. Reflections on Holocaust experiences: question of apportioning blame; attitude towards Germans and Poles; effect of experiences; adjusting to life in Australia; question of writing about experiences in English.
REEL 6 Continues: sense of being Jewish; betrayal of Jews by Poles; sheltering of Jews by Poles; problems of getting truth portrayed in film of her book, 'Square of Sky'.