Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Lanka Ilkow - October 12, 1991

Contents

An interview with Lanka Ilkow, a Holocaust survivor, conducted by Dr. Sidney Bolkosky, Professor of History at the University of Michigan--Dearborn. Lanka Ilkow was born in Novoseliza, Czechoslovakia (Ukraine) in 1920. Following the Hungarian annexation of parts of Slovakia, she and her family lived under Hungarian rule. In 1944, the family was shipped to a ghetto in Ungvar. From there they were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau where her father was gassed upon arrival. While in Auschwitz, Lanka's mother was later "selected" for extermination and Lanka and her sister were sent to the forced labor camp Hundsfeld, near Breslau. From there they were shipped to Gross Rosen, Mauthausen and finally, Bergen-Belsen, where the British army liberated them.

  1. Introduction
  2. Introduction (continued)
  3. Introduction (continued)
  4. Introduction (continued)
  5. Pre-War Life
  6. Family
  7. Family (continued)
  8. First Husband
  9. Religious Life
  10. Education
  11. Relations with Non-Jews
  12. Relations with non-Jews (Continued)
  13. Religious Instruction
  14. Extended Family
  15. Extended Family (Continued)
  16. Hungarian Annexation
  17. Hungarian Rule
  18. Registered as Jews
  19. Grandfather
  20. Grandfather (continued)
  21. Father Taken Away
  22. Death of Brother
  23. Reactions to Brother's Death
  24. Ungvar
  25. Taken to Ghetto
  26. Conditions in Ghetto
  27. Knowledge of Hitler
  28. Polish Refugees
  29. Stories of Persecution
  30. Deportation to Auschwitz
  31. Conditions on Train
  32. Arrival at Auschwitz
  33. Selection
  34. Father Sent to Gas
  35. Finding Family After War
  36. Finding Family (continued)
  37. Psychological Effects of Holocaust
  38. Conditions in Auschwitz
  39. Talking about Food
  40. Religious Life During Holocaust
  41. Selections in Auschwitz
  42. Mother Taken
  43. Disinfection
  44. Sanitary Conditions in Auschwitz
  45. Sanitary Conditions (continued)
  46. Reactions to Disinfection
  47. Relation with Non-Jews (continued)
  48. Knowledge of Father
  49. Labor in Auschwitz
  50. Blockowa in Auschwitz
  51. Hungarians in Auschwitz
  52. SS Guards
  53. Transport to Hundsfeld
  54. Arrival at Hundsfeld
  55. Conditions in Hundsfeld
  56. Labor in Hundsfeld
  57. Working for Krupp
  58. March from Hundsfeld
  59. Conditions on March
  60. Resting in Barn
  61. SS Guard on March
  62. Gross Rosen
  63. Mauthausen
  64. March to Bergen-Belsen
  65. Bergen-Belsen
  66. Conditions in Bergen-Belsen
  67. Disinfection in Bergen-Belsen
  68. British Soldiers
  69. Sweden
  70. Recovery of Sister
  71. Getting Married
  72. Jewish Community in Sweden
  73. Sister
  74. Sister (continued)
  75. Relatives in America
  76. Speaking about Experiences
  77. Memories
  78. Mother Beaten
  79. Life in Sweden
  80. Immigration to America
  81. Telling Children
  82. Reminders of Holocaust
  83. Reminders (Continued)
  84. Reminders (Continued)
  85. Memories of Grandfather

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