Interview with Jack Polak, Ina Polak,

Interview Summary

Jack and Ina Polak, after indicating that they wrote many letters during the war which were mostly destroyed, discuss their life before the Second World War, particularly Jack's family background, education, first marriage, and work as an accountant. They describe the intensifying persecution of Jews in Amsterdam after the German occupation of the Netherlands in 1940. They describe their deportation first to Westerbork transit camp, then to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. They recount how they survived in Bergen-Belsen and day-to-day life in the camp. As the war neared its end, they explain, they were taken away from the camp in trains which were eventually liberated, after which they returned to Amsterdam and were married.

Interview Keyword

Amsterdam (Netherlands) Auschwitz (Concentration camp) Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp) Holocaust survivors. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Letters Marriages Westerbork (Concentration camp) Work World War Two World War, 1939-1945--Jews.

Interview LC Subject

World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps

Interview Rights

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Interview Usage

Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.