Testimony of Chedva Aran, born in Uniejow, Poland, 1926, regarding her experiences in the Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Christianstadt and Rechnitz using a false Polish identity

Testimony of Chedva Aran, born in Uniejow, Poland, 1926, regarding her experiences in the Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Christianstadt and Rechnitz using a false Polish identity Life before the war in the Uniejow forest; life in Lodz including her mother's death; her father's remarriage. Air raids on Lodz by the German Army; unsuccessful attempt to escape during the air raids; German occupation; life using a false Polish identity; arrest as a Polish woman by the Gestapo; return to her family home during the sealing of the Lodz Ghetto; ghetto life including attendance at school; work in a factory that produces items made of straw; agricultural work and work in the cemetery; beaten by the head of the Judenrat; work in lavatories and in a sewing workshop; Zionist youth activities; dysentery and hiding in a cupboard; infection of her stepmother and her stepmother's death; contact with an orphanage; "Aktion" directed against children, the elderly and the sick; her sister's death, 1943; her father's death, 1944; rescue by orphans; deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau; life in Auschwitz; transfer to Christianstadt; camp life including labor quarrying sand; help from a German female guard; food from a German; unsuccessful attempt to escape; air raids on the camp; boiling water is poured on the witness by a German; rescue with help from the German's wife; transfer on foot; escape with female friends and help from villagers in the Sudetenland; life using the false identity of a Polish refugee; life in Rechnitz including work in the home of an elderly couple; liberation. Life in Kibbutz Bonei Hanegev; escape in the direction of Eretz Israel with help from the Jewish Brigade; aliya to Eretz Israel on the ship, "Eliyahu Golomb".