Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Peri Berki - December 9, 1983

Contents

An interview with Peri Berki, a Holocaust survivor, conducted by an unidentified interviewer. Peri Berki was born in 1900 in Hungary. After her husband was deported to a labor camp and their farmland taken away, Peri and her son lived in a ghetto with her sister and at one point, with thirty-nine other people, in a one-bedroom apartment. With the help of her husband and a Gentile innkeeper, they obtained false papers, moved to the Hungarian countryside, and assumed Gentile identities. Throughout the war, they posed as Gentiles, avoiding detection and receiving help from several strangers. When the war ended, the family was reunited and they again obtained false papers to immigrate to the United States.

  1. Introduction
  2. Childhood
  3. Jewish Identification
  4. Home Life
  5. Marriage
  6. Living Amongst Gentiles
  7. Deportation of Husband
  8. Farmland Confiscated
  9. The Star of David
  10. Living in the Ghetto
  11. Obtaining False Papers
  12. Moving to the Countryside
  13. Living With Catholic Peasants
  14. Living as a Catholic
  15. Anti-Semitism
  16. Passing as a Catholic
  17. Moving Back to Budapest
  18. Cramped Quarters in the Ghetto
  19. Swiss Papers
  20. Near Deportation of Son
  21. Help from the Family Shoemaker
  22. Renting a Bed
  23. Knowledge of Concentration Camps
  24. Renting a Bed 2
  25. Communicating with German Soldiers
  26. Husband in Labor Force
  27. Sister and Jewish Stereotypes
  28. Living in a Bomb Shelter
  29. Money
  30. Liberation by Russian Army
  31. Fooling German Soldiers
  32. Son's Dream
  33. Son's Education
  34. Son's Desire to Go to Russia
  35. Communicating with Husband
  36. Husband Delivers Packages to Prisoners
  37. Negative Experience and Feelings
  38. Survival of Family
  39. Anger and Hate
  40. Survival of Family 2
  41. After the War
  42. Helping Mother-in-Law
  43. Helping Mother-in-Law 2
  44. Talking About Experiences
  45. Fooling the Gentiles
  46. Jewish Dress
  47. Looting of the City
  48. Looting of the City 2
  49. Money 2
  50. Reclaiming the Farmland
  51. Obtaining False Papers 2
  52. Immigration to Germany
  53. Israel or America
  54. Refugee Camp
  55. Immigration to New York
  56. Munich and Budapest
  57. Negative Experience and Feelings 2
  58. Husband and Anti-Semitism
  59. Visiting Israel
  60. Interviewer Observations

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