Oral History Interview with Alexandra Gorko
Alexandra Gorko (née Paley) born in Kiev, Russia (Ukraine) in 1916, describes her family returning to Łódź, Poland in 1922 to escape communism; getting married to a non-Jewish Polish Judge and reserve officer who was killed after the German invasion; her life after the German invasion and the establishment of the Łódź Ghetto; receiving help from non-Jewish neighbors; her work as the supervisor and nurse in one of the ghetto hospitals; the betrayal and deportation of 13 young men to Chelmno in January 1942 for building and using an illegal radio; being transported to Auschwitz in August 1944; the transport, selection, and “Appells” (roll calls); her refusal to follow Mengele’s orders to inject pregnant women with a gasoline-type solution and her subsequent beatings; being transported to Ravensbrück then Muhlhausen ammunition factory in the fall of 1944; being sent in February 1945 to Bergen-Belsen and conditions there; her work in an ammunition factory; being liberated in April 1945; the Swedish Red Cross moving Jews who were ill to Sweden; strategies for coping; and immigrating with her second husband to the United States in July 1948.
Date: | 08/19/1985 |
Interviewer: | Eileen Steinberg |
Interviewee: | Alexandra Gorko |
Language: | English |
Subject: | Forced labor. Holocaust survivors. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives. Human experimentation in medicine--Poland. Jewish ghettos--Poland--Łódź. Jewish women in the Holocaust. Jews, Ukrainian--Poland--Łódź. Jews--Ukraine--Kyïv. Nurses--Poland. Pregnant women. Prisoners--Abuse of--Poland. Women concentration camp inmates. World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Liberation. World War, 1939-1945--Conscript labor. World War, 1939-1945--Deportations from Poland. World War, 1939-1945--Hospitals--Poland--Łódź. Women--Personal narratives. Kyïv (Ukraine) Lower Saxony (Germany) Łódź (Poland) Poland--History--Occupation, 1939-1945. Sweden. United States--Emigration and immigration. World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--Poland. Gorko, Alexandra, 1916- Auschwitz (Concentration camp) Mühlhausen (Concentration camp) Ravensbrück (Concentration camp) Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp) |
Location: | Kyiv, Ukraine Lodz, Poland Lodz Ghetto Auschwitz concentration camp Ravensbrück concentration camp Mühlhausen concentration camp Bergen-Belsen concentration camp USA |
Permalink: | https://hoha.digitalcollections.gratzcollege.edu/item/oral-history-interview-with-alexandra-gorko/ |
Audio Transcript | Time |
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0:25:56 | |
0:30:36 |