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Guide to Mary Kress oral history interview
OHP.8571
OHP.8571
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Title: Mary Kress oral history interview
Identifier/Call Number: OHP.8571
Contributing Institution:
Tauber Holocaust Library
Language of Material:
English
Container: Tauber Holocaust Library Archives
Physical Description:
0.1 Linear feet
comprising one sound disc
Date: 1983 April 11
Abstract: This collection comprises one sound disc of an oral history interview with Mary Kress conducted by the Holocaust Media Project
at the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors on April 11, 1983.
Creator:
Kress, Mary
Creator:
Kenyon, Linda
This collection comprises one sound disc of an oral history interview with Mary Kress. The interview was conducted by Linda
Kenyon on behalf of the Holocaust Media Project at the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors on April 11, 1983.
Mary Kress is a Holocaust survivor.
The interview describes Ms. Kress's childhood in Częstochowa, Poland; living in the Częstochowa ghetto until 1942; and then
hiding in a Polish home in an underground compartment with her family for eighteen months. She describes being found, arrested
and imprisoned; transported to Auschwitz in late 1943; and suffering from typhus. Ms. Kress describes working with her aunt
and mother making string; being too ill to work; and receiving the assistance of another prisoner which enabled her to continue
to work. She describes the terrible treatment she received in Auschwitz; and the death march she endured in January 1945.
Ms. Kress describes being transported to unidentified locations with her mother and aunt; learning that the war was over;
hiding; working on an abandoned farm; and their liberation by Russian troops. She discusses returning to Poland where they
encountered anti-Semitism and traveling to Germany to live in a displaced persons camp until their emigration to the United
States in 1949.
Conditions Governing Access note
There are no restrictions to access for this collection.
There are no restrictions to use for this collection.
Existence and Location of Copies note
Master copies of the oral history interview are located at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C.
Mary Kress oral history interview - OHP.8571, Tauber Holocaust Library - JFCS Holocaust Center, San Francisco, California
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Auschwitz (Concentration camp).
Antisemitism -- Poland
Czestochowa (Poland) -- History -- 20th century.
Death march survivors
Holocaust survivors -- United States
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives
Jewish ghettos -- Poland
Jewish women in the Holocaust
Jews -- Persecutions -- Poland
Poland -- History -- Occupation, 1939-1945
Refugee camps -- Germany
United States -- Emigration and immigration
World War, 1939-1945 -- Jews -- Rescue -- Poland
World War, 1939-1945 -- Liberation -- Poland