Testimony of Regina (Yakar) Cohen, born in Thessaloniki, Greece, 1923, regarding her experiences in the Thessaloniki Ghetto, Auschwitz-Birkenau, on a death march and in Bergen-Belsen

Testimony of Regina (Yakar) Cohen, born in Thessaloniki, Greece, 1923, regarding her experiences in the Thessaloniki Ghetto, Auschwitz-Birkenau, on a death march and in Bergen-Belsen Childhood in Thessaloniki. German occupation, April 1941; anti-Jewish legislation; dismissal of her father from work; hunger; yellow badge; Jewish police; displays of antisemitism on the part of the Greek population; concentration of the men in the Freedom Square, July 1942; beating the men and humiliating them; deportation to the ghetto in the Baron Hirsch neighborhood, February 1943; lightning [instantaneous] weddings; deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau a few days later; murder of her family; language problems; beatings; selections; non-productive labor digging for approximately one year; transfer to labor in the Shoe Kommando; the black market; abuse with the help of dogs; transfer to labor in the sewing workshop; evacuation of the camp, January 1945; death march; shooting of the weak; mutual help; arrival at Bergen-Belsen; hunger and thirst; high mortality; typhus; serious physical condition; liberation by the British Army. Return to Thessaloniki; marriage; aliya to Eretz Israel, 1946.