Description
Object description
Polish Jewish inmate of Lubin Ghetto, Poland, 1939-1942; in hiding in Żabia Wola and Lubin, Poland, 1942; forced labourer in IG Farben factory in Bitterfeld, Germany, 1942-1943; arrest and imprisonment in Gestapo Headquarters, Bitterfeld and Dresden Prison, Germany, 3/1943-4/1943; inmate in Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Poland, 4/1943-11/1944 and Gross-Rosen Concentration Camp, Germany, 11/1944-2/1945; forced labourer in Philips Factory, Krefeld, Germany, 3/1945; inmate of Salzwedel Subcamp, Neuengamme Concentration Camp, Germany, 3/1945-4/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Aspects of period as schoolchild in Bielsko-Biała and Lubin, Poland, 1926-1939: family; education; first experience of anti-Semitism; degree of awareness of Jewishness; sporting activities; travel; family's decision to move to Lubin, 8/1939; arrival of German forces, 9/1939. Recollections of period as inmate in Lubin Ghetto, Poland, 1939-1942: restrictions on Jews and formation of ghetto; incident of friend being shot for not stepping off pavement; conditions in ghetto; arrival of foreign Jews into ghetto; how sewers were used to get out of ghetto to barter for food; mother Lola Felix's method of leaving ghetto; dangers of listening to radio; how she was betrayed to Germans by Poles after getting out of ghetto; father's belief that family needed to escape from ghetto; father's method of escaping roundups; living with fear.
REEL 2 Continues: escape from ghetto, 1942; work as dental assistant and how she had her teeth filled with diamonds, whilst in hiding in Żabia Wola, 1942; obtaining false papers from priest, Father Krasowski in Lubin. Recollections of period as inmate in Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp in Poland, 4/1943-11/1944: background to how she and her mother came to be imprisoned in camp; train journey to camp; degree of awareness of camps; arrival in camp, 4/1943; processing on arrival; question of survival in camp; importance of joining main camp working parties rather than those in subcamps; keys to survival; advantages of male inmates in comparison with female inmates; how female inmates survived; accommodation blocks; importance of understanding camp hierarchy; camp orchestra.
REEL 3 Continues: organisation of Kapos; camp hierarchy; reaction to presence of Schutzstaffel (SS) camp authorities in camp; punishment received for leaving block to collect firewood; working in hospital block; memories of Schutzstaffel (SS) Doctor Josef Mengele; support received from mother; lack of access to water and infestation of lice; how all items became commodities; coping with winter and summer weather conditions; how hospital block patients were sent to gas chambers; volunteering to work in 'Canada' compound, 5/1944; description of 'Canada' block; allocation to night shift; duties sorting clothing for valuables.
REEL 4 Continues: need to make sorting quota; initial impressions of 'Canada' compound and contrast with main camp; smuggling clothing back into camp; Schutzstaffel (SS) personnel attached to 'Canada' compound; influx of Hungarian Jews, 5/1944; witnessing gassing of Hungarian Jews, 1944; memories of SS Obersturmfuhrer Martin Gottfried Weiss 'The William Tell of Auschwitz'; attempts to blot out treatment of Hungarian Jews, summer 1944; reaction to evacuation from 'Canada'; isolation of Sonderkommando and 'Canada' inmates; role of messenger girls; story of female messenger girl who escaped with Polish boyfriend, was recaptured and thwarted hangman by cutting wrists; passing on valuables to inmate resistance; uprising by Sonderkommando crematoria workers, 6/10/1944.
REEL 5 Continues: transfer back to main camp; background to how mother Lola Felix obtained places on transport out of camp, 11/1944. Aspects of march away from Gross-Rosen Concentration Camp, Germany, 2/1945-3/1945: evacuation of camp; character of march; overnight accommodation; effects of beating by guard; need to steal food from German populace; question of escape from column. Aspects of period as forced labourer in forced labourer in Philips Factory, Krefeld, Germany, 3/1945: shift work in factory; loss of Auschwitz contingent after evacuation from camp. Aspects of period as inmate in Salzwedel Subcamp, Neuengamme Concentration Camp, Germany, 3/1945-4/1945: conditions on board train to camp; lack of food; liberation by American forces; raiding town of Salzwedel for food; story of refusing to kill German civilians in cellar; how her mother was interviewed about experience; acquiring shoes. Reflections on Holocaust experience: question of survival; importance of recording experiences; question of lessons not being learnt from past.