Description
Object description
Polish Jewish inmate of Łódź Ghetto, Poland, 10/1939-8/1944; inmate in Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Poland, 8/1944-10/1944, Kurzbach I Subcamp, Gross-Rosen Concentration Camp, Germany, 10/1944-1/1945 and Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, Germany, 3/1945-4/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Łódź, Poland, 1923-1939: family; family's religious practice; education; question of anti-Semitism in Poland; degree of awareness of events in Nazi Germany. Aspects of period as civilian in Łódź, Poland, 9/1939-10/1939: German rounding up people for labour; how father was killed trying to escape from the Germans. Recollections of period as inmate in Łódź Ghetto, Poland, 10/1939-8/1944: preparations to enter ghetto; sealing of ghetto; living conditions; work making hats for German women; mother's work in charge of communal kitchen; work making leather equipment for German Army; problems faced during winter weather; reasons for not leaving ghetto.
REEL 2 Continues: contracting typhus; relations with mother; social life in ghetto; coping with menstruation; attitude towards Judenrat; opinion of Chaim Rumkowski; behaviour of Poles; deaths in ghetto; deportation of two younger brothers from ghetto; preparations for deportation from ghetto, 8/1944. Recollections of period as inmate in Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp in Poland, 8/1944-10/1944: train journey from Łódź to camp, 8/1944; initial impressions of camp; story of post-war visit to camp; accommodation in barracks; reception procedure on arrival; story of how mother hid lipstick during captivity.
REEL 3 Continues: attending roll call; memories of guard Irma Grese and Dr Josef Mengele; rubbing lipstick on cheeks to look healthy during selections; awareness of gas chambers in camp; Aspects of period as inmate in Kurzbach I Subcamp, Gross-Rosen Concentration Camp in Germany, 10/1944-1/1945: train journey in open rail wagons to camp; accommodation; use of blanket for extra clothing; work digging anti-tank ditches; story of mother's escape from camp to obtain food and punishment she received; food left for inmates by Allied prisoners of war. Aspects of march from Kurzbach I Subcamp, Gross-Rosen Concentration Camp to Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, Germany, 1/1945-3/1945: conditions during stopover in Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Austria; conditions in Gross-Rosen Concentration Camp, Germany; attitude towards survival and conditions on march.
REEL 4 Continues: Aspects of period as inmate in Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, Germany, 3/1945-4/1945: arrival in camp and initial impressions; accommodation; different nationalities in camp; contracting typhus and recovery; liberation of camp, 4/1945. Aspects of period as civilian in Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons Camp in Germany, 1945-1947: mother's illness and death, 5/1945; reaction to disposal of mother's body; reaction to mother's death; move to new clean barracks; rations; issue of clothing and cigarettes; keeping mother's lipstick; reaction to loss of immediate family in Holocaust; background to joining European Volunteer Work Scheme with the assistance of British soldier Norman Levi. Recollections of period as civilian in GB, 1947-1957: arrival in Kingston upon Hull, GB, 1947.
REEL 5 Continues: employment in Willis household in Birmingham; difficulty of adapting to household duties; finding new employment and reasons for leaving Willis household; attempt to find aunt in Paris, France; move to London, 1949; obtaining employment in London; story of meeting future husband through Polish Club; attitude towards marrying non-Jewish man. Reflections on Holocaust experience: long-term impact of experience on life and beliefs; reaction to seeing photograph of self in Łódź Ghetto in Imperial War Museum Holocaust Exhibition; opinion of Imperial War Museum Holocaust Exhibition. Aspects of period as civilian in United States of America, 1957-1959: background to emigration to United States of America, 1957.
REEL 6 Continues: difficulties of life in United States of America; decision to return to GB; establishing self on return to GB from United States of America, 1959. Reflections on Holocaust experience: compensation situation; attitude of other Jews towards her marriage to Catholic Pole.