Description
Object description
Polish Jewish child in Aleksandrów Kujawski, Lubraniec and Kutno, Poland, 9/1939-5/1941; inmate in Łódź Ghetto, Poland, 5/1941-9/1943; inmate in Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Poland, 9/1943-11/1944; inmate in Pirschkow Labour Camp, Germany, 11/1944-1/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Aleksandrów Kujawski, Poland, 1927-1939: family circumstances; education in Roman Catholic school; lack of personal anti-Semitism experienced; character of extended family. Aspects of period as child in Aleksandrów Kujawski, Poland, 9/1939: father's Jacob Krakowski's arrest and release, 9/1939; German Air Force bombing of town, 1/9/1939. Recollections of period as child in Lubraniec and Kutno, Poland, 9/1939-5/1941: reasons for move to Lubraniec; imposition of restrictions against Jews; orders for refugee Jews to leave Lubraniec, 12/1939; move to Kutno; stay with Christian friends; effects of sexual attack by Germans in Kutno; arrest of family and imprisonment in disused tobacco factory; reaction to shooting of Jewish man; father's humiliation by Schutzstaffel (SS); removal to old sugar factory in Kutno; conditions in sugar factory; story of how uncle got family employment in Lubraniec; return to Lubraniec; German burning of Jewish prayer books during Yom Kippur; father's Jacob Krakowski's arrest, 3/1941. Recollections of period as inmate in Łódź Ghetto, Poland, 5/1941-9/1943: move with mother Sarah Krakowski to ghetto; effect of father Jacob Krakowski's disappearance on mother Sarah Krakowski; begging for work in children's hospital in Marysin area of ghetto.
REEL 2 Continues: conditions in ghetto; work in children's hospital; change in accommodation; changes in mother Sarah Krakowski's state of health and hiding her in hole in garden during selections; scarcity of food; gassing of children's hospital inmates by Germans; obtaining work knitting; strike of knitters which led to their imprisonment; reaction to having to leave mother Sarah Krakowski behind in ghetto, 9/1943; work in aircraft parts factory; deportation to Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, 9/1943. Aspects of reception at Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Poland, 9/1943: train journey from Łódź Ghetto to camp; initial impressions of camp; reception procedure and selections. Recollections of period as inmate in Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Poland, 9/1943-11/1944: accommodation; obtaining clothes from relative and escaping selections; singing for kapos.
REEL 3 Continues: Allied bombing of Auschwitz area; learning of nature of crematorium; meeting with Bella Kurant; selection by Dr Josef Mengele; issue of clothing. Recollections of period as inmate in Pirschkow Labour Camp, Germany, 11/1944-1/1945: accommodation; work digging anti-tank ditches; contact with male inmates from nearby camp; beating received. Recollections of march away from Pirschkow, Germany, 1/1945: carrying sick women in blankets; shooting of prisoners; collapse into ditch; story of escape from column and hiding in barn; arrest and various subsequent moves; obtaining work; arrival of Soviet Army. Aspects of return to Poland, 1945-1946: move to Legnica with Irma Weiss; return to Łódź and Aleksandrów Kujawski to search for family.
REEL 4 Continues: stay with Irma Weiss. Recollections of emigration to GB, 1946: contacting family members in Willesden; work in textile factory; meeting with husband who had hidden his Jewish identity. Reflections on Holocaust experiences: exploration of how she is still haunted by parent's deaths and continuing effects of experience; psychiatric help received; question of effects of Holocaust on son's life.
REEL 5 Continues: post-war visit to Poland; question of difficulty of understanding Holocaust experience without direct experience of it; lecturing to school children; religious faith and Jewish identity; long-term effects of Holocaust including memories of rape; fear experienced during wartime; post-war Polish contacts.
