Oral History Interview with Ida Rokita

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Title

Oral History Interview with Ida Rokita

Date

1978
1978

Contributor

Interviewee:
Ida Rokita
Interviewer:
Bernice Zoslaw

Summary

Ida Rokitawas born in 1930 in Maków Mazowiecki, Poland, 50 km from the German border. She recalls experiences of pre-war antisemitism. She describes the 1939 German invasion of her town when several hundred German soldiers entered on bicycles; there was no resistance. A German officer advised them to flee to Russia and in 1940 her family fled to Bialystok and later deeper into Russia, to Vitebsk. Her father was arrested and sent to Kamchatka prison near the Artic Circle, but was freed in 1941.

In 1941 the family went to Omsk and then to the city of Karshi, where they lived for six years. Ida describes the poverty, illness, food shortages and starvation living among the Russians, but states that there was no antisemitism there in that area of Bukhara, Uzbekistan. In 1946 the family returned to Poland, but did not remain because of antisemitism. They fled to Germany (via Austria and Czechoslovakia) and resided in a DP camp from 1946-48, where Ida married. On January 12, 1946 with the help of the Sochnut (Jewish Agency for Israel) the family went to Israel and lived there for 16 years. They left for the U.S. for health reasons in 1965.

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Publisher:
Gratz College
Number of Tapes:
2
Language:
English
Identifier:
HOHAGC00428
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Copyright date:
2016
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