Item 29: Holocaust survivors from Czechoslovokia ; Helen Shonberg interviewed by Gilda Manor, 1989

MLOH 500/84-85

item

12/03/1989

Nonmusical Sound Recordings, Oral Histories

997347

Sound Recording : CY MLOH 500/84-85

2 sound cassettes (2 hrs.)

Helen Shonberg, nee Hofmann, was born in Prague (Czechoslovakia) in 1929. In December 1941, she and her family followed her father and uncle into Theresienstadt. In 1943, Helen was transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1943 and after 8 months she and her mother were sent to Christianstadt labour camp (Germany) where there was a munitions factory hidden in the forest. In January 1945 the camp was evacuated and inmates marched for 12 days or more before being put on transports to Bergen Belsen.

In August Helen and her mother were liberated from Bergen Belsen by the British Army. Her mother was sick and sent to hospital while Helen worked in an orphanage as a translator. In August, Helen and her mother returned to Prague where only Helen's brother and great aunt survived. Helen resumed school and learnt millinery. After the Communist takeover in 1948 they left via Germany to U.S.A. and finally emigrated to Australia in 1951.

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Log of interview available in the Mitchell Library Reading Room -

Original Mitchell Library allocated tape number 38.