Description
Object description
Polish Jewish child inmate in Działoszyce Ghetto, Poland, 4/1940-10/1942 and Fort Benedict Labour Camp, Kosciol, Kraców, Poland, 10/1942-11/1942 lived under false identity in Kraków, Poland and Kezmarok, Slovakia, 1942-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Kraców, Poland, 1935-1939: family. Aspects of period as child in Działoszyce Ghetto, Poland, 4/1940-10/1942: move to Działoszyce, 1939; accommodation; father's Menachem Apelzon's employment; grandparent's business; sense of Jewish identity; normality of life in Działoszyce; description of Jewish family life; parent's relationship and far-sighted actions; leaving Działoszyce Ghetto on eve of mass deportation, 10/1942; fate of family and friends.
REEL 2 Continues: train journey to Kraców; attitude towards Germans; attitude towards family situation. Aspects of period as inmate of Fort Benedict Labour Camp, Kraców, Poland, 10/1942-11/1942: character of camp; conditions in camp; deportation of children to Kraców Ghetto orphanage; rescue from deportation by father; wearing of yellow Star of David. Recollections of period in hiding in Kraców, Poland, 1942-1944: education situation; arrest and imprisonment of father; fate of extended family during war.
REEL 3 Continues: effect of father's arrest; question of Christian help for Jews; question of reasons for Polish anti-Semitism; stress of living under false identity with Christian family; advice received from mother, Lydia Apelzon. Aspects of journey from Poland to Slovakia, 1944: crossing Polish border; refuge in farm on frontier; missing her father. Recollections of period in hiding in Kezmarok, Slovakia, 1944-1945: living with large family; languages spoken; concealing Jewish identity.
REEL 4 Continues: cover story used by mother; attending Passover meal; revealing Jewish identity to daughter of the house; lack of education; relations with mother; method of hiding money and valuables; German retreat and arrival of Soviet Army, 1945. Aspects of period as schoolchild in Czechoslovakia, 1945-1946: situation after liberation; mother's return to Poland to search for missing relatives; psychological state of mother; reaction to experience in holiday camp in Tatra Mountains.
REEL 5 Continues: first experience of school, 1945; move to Prague, 1946; mother's employment. Aspects of period as schoolchild in France and Switzerland, 1946-1953: travelling to France with orphaned Jewish children; mother's work in various childrens' homes; mother's remarriage; eighteen month stay in Switzerland; return to France; mother's attitude towards her; relations with stepfather; attitude towards new stepsister. Aspects of period as civilian in GB, 1953-1954: move to GB; marriage to older man; relations with mother, Lydia Apelzon.
REEL 6 Continues: attending London School of Printing and Graphic Art, 1954. Reflections on Holocaust experience: contrast between her and her husband's family; how experiences affected her art; attitude towards Holocaust; conversations with Germans about war; desire to return to Poland; contact with Child Holocaust Survivors Group; question of how hidden children are viewed in comparison to those who survived camps; desire to search for information on father in Israel.
