Renée H. Edited Testimony (HVT-8150)

This edited testimony, produced for the 40th anniversary of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, is of Renée H., who was born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, in 1933. She recalls her childhood in German-occupied Bratislava, where, as the "ears" of her deaf parents and younger sister, she gathered information and alerted them to immediate dangers. She speaks of her and her sister's flight from Bratislava and hiding with a farm family; the ordeal of finding shelter after being evicted from the farm following their parents' deportation; and their voluntary surrender to the police in hopes of locating their parents. She relates her disappointment when she and her sister were sent from the transit camp in Sereď to Bergen-Belsen, instead of to Auschwitz, where she had hoped to be reunited with her parents. Mrs. H. describes her life in Bergen-Belsen, where she and her sister, whom she made every effort to protect, remained until their liberation a year later; her postwar recuperation in Bergen-Belsen and in Sweden; and her adjustment to her new life after emigrating to the United States.