Holdings Information

Bibliographic Record Display

• Author/Creator:M., Helena, 1911-
  
• Title:Helena M. Holocaust testimony (HVT-3170) [videorecording] / interviewed by Barbara Engelking-Boni, July 13, 1994.
  
• Published/Created:Warsaw, Poland : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 1994.
  
• Physical Description:1 videorecording (2 hr., 16 min.) : col.
  

• Yale Holdings

  Holdings Record Display

  • Location:LSF-Physical copy for request by library staff only
    Staff Request for Use in Manuscripts and Archives
    
    
  • Call Number: MS 1322
    
  • Status:Not Checked Out
    
  •   Digital testimony (mssa.hvt.3170)
    For information on where you can view this digital testimony, click here.
    

   
• Notes:Associated material: Merenholc, Helena. Interview 17439. Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation. Access at https://vha.usc.edu.
  This testimony is in Polish.
  2 copies: Betacam SP master; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
  
• Summary:Videotape testimony of Helena M., who was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1911, the fifth of six children. Ms. M. recalls her large extended and assimilated family's affluence; her father and one brother dying; one sister's emigration to the United States; studying psychology; working in a children's clinic with Adolf Berman; German invasion; ghettoization; working for CENTOS, an agency for orphans, which received funding from the Joint; contacts with Adam Czerniaków; working with Janusz Korczak, Stefania Wilczyńska, and other staff at Korczak's orphanage; deportations beginning in June 1942; observing Korczak accompanying his orphans for deportation; forced labor in a brush factory; providing information to Emanuel Ringelblum for the ghetto archives; meeting Mordecai Anielewicz; escaping with her mother, sister, brother, and his family in March 1943; working for the underground; living under false papers; meetings with Adolf Berman and others in the underground; avoiding exposure with assistance from Joseph Ziemian; assisting other Jews in hiding; moving to Piastów; traveling to Grodzisko as a courier to Yitzhak Zuckerman and Marek Edelman; her mother's death during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising; traveling to Zalesie to join her sister; and providing assistance to hidden Jews in Piastów. Ms. M. provides many details of life in the ghetto and hiding. She discusses Korczak's work and charisma; the loss of most of her family; wanting to survive to "spit on a German," which she did not do when she could have; attributing her survival to luck and having blue eyes; creating an archive in Warsaw for Jewish survivors; and working in children's radio programming.
  
• Format:Archives or Manuscripts
• Cite as:Helena M. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3170). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
  
• Subjects:M., Helena, 1911-
  Anielewicz, Mordecai, 1919-1943.
  Berman, Adolf Abraham, 1906-
  Edelman, Marek, 1919-2009.
  Korczak, Janusz, 1878-1942.
  Ringelblum, Emanuel, 1900-1944.
  Wilczyńska, Stefania, 1886-1942.
  Czerniaków, Adam, 1880-1942.
  Ziemian, Joseph.
  Zuckerman, Yitzhak, 1915-1981.
  American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
  Holocaust survivors.
  Video tapes.
  Women.
  Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives.
  World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, Jewish.
  Forced labor.
  World War, 1939-1945--Underground movements--Poland.
  World War, 1939-1945--Jewish resistance.
  Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Psychological aspects.
  Jewish ghettos.
  Jews--Poland--Warsaw.
  Families.
  Orphanages--Poland.
  Escapes.
  Poland.
  Warsaw (Poland)
  Piastów (Pruszków, Województwo Mazowieckie, Poland)
  Grodzisko (Poland)
  Zalesie (Poland)
  Warsaw (Poland)--History--Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 1943.
  Warsaw (Poland)--History--Uprising, 1944.
  
• Subjects (Local Yale):Aid by non-Jews.
  Hiding.
  False papers.
  Mutual aid.
  Postwar experiences.
  Warsaw ghetto.
  CENTOS (Federation of Associations for the Care of Orphans in Poland).
  
• Genre/Form:Oral histories (document genres)
  
• Also listed under:Engelking, Barbara, 1962- interviewer.