Description
Object description
Polish Jewish inmate in Łódź Ghetto, Poland, 5/1940-8/1944; inmate in Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Poland, 8/1944; forced labourer in Hambuhen-Ovelgonne Subcamp, Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp near Hanover, Germany, 9/1944-1/1945; inmate in Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, Germany, 1/1945-4/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Łódź, Poland, 1928-1939: family; relations between Jews and non-Jews; education; attending summer camp on eve of Second World War, 8/1939; family's involvement in trade union movement; character of city and its cultural/political life; visit to grandfather's home; family holidays; anti-Semitism incidents.
REEL 2 Continues: awareness of anti-Semitism; attitude towards discrimination. Aspects of period as schoolchild in Łódź, Poland, 1939-1940: German Air Force bombing of city; reaction to allies declaring war; arrival of Germans in city; sight of Germans cutting beards of orthodox Jews; growing restrictions on Jewish populace; reaction to having to wear Star of David; lack of protection for Jewish civilians; how younger brother was forced to clean German apartment; fate of uncle; how ethnic German warned father to leave prior to setting up of ghetto. Recollections of period as inmate in Łódź Ghetto, Poland, 5/1940-8/1944: obtaining accommodation in ghetto, 5/1940; formation of ghetto, 5/1940; importance of continuing education; rations; start of industry in ghetto; description of ghetto; death of ghetto inmates; listening to illicit radios.
REEL 3 Continues: ghetto demonstrations; cultural life of ghetto; question of resistance; youth movement activities; deportations from ghetto, 1942; witnessing patients taken from ghetto hospital by Germans, 9/1942; witnessing speech from Chaim Rumkowski; escape of brother from Germans; hiding from Germans during deportations, 1942; how Jewish policeman ignored herself and brother during deportation; deportation of brother; hospitalisation for malnutrition. Aspects of period as inmate in Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp in Poland, 8/1944: preparations for deportation from Łódź Ghetto, 8/1944; conditions during train journey to camp.
REEL 4 Continues: initial impressions on arrival at camp; selection procedure and separation from mother; reaction to showering and shaving; clothes issue; move into accommodation block and speech by Kapo; soup issue; nature of time spent in camp. Recollections of period as inmate of Hambuhen-Ovelgonne Subcamp, Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp, Germany1944-1945: arrival in camp; speech by camp commandant; psychological state; nature of work in Hanover area; cruelty of female guard; kindness of male guards; maintaining moral standards; conversations with guards. Recollections of period as inmate in Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, Germany, 1/1945-4/1945: march to camp; conditions in camp; contracting typhus.
REEL 5 Continues: reaction to being placed in isolation block; how inability to eat saved her; liberation and survival; importance of talking about experiences; reaction to discovery of small child by Germans during raid on Łódź Ghetto.