| Places | |
|---|---|
| Accession Number | AWM2018.785.59 |
| Collection number | MSS1925 |
| Collection type | Digitised Collection |
| Record type | File |
| Item count | 1 |
| Object type | Manuscript |
| Physical description | 384 Image/s captured |
| Maker |
Borda, Chrisoula |
| Date made | unknown |
| Conflict |
Second World War, 1939-1945 |
| Copying Provisions | Digital format and content protected by copyright. |
| Source credit to | This item has been digitised with funding provided by Commonwealth Government. |
Manuscript of Chrisoula Borda, 1940-1945
Description
Manuscript relating to the Second World War internment of civilian Chrisoula Borda (nee Bochoyianaki).
In her memoir manuscript, Chrisoula Borda tells the story of her life experiences between October 1940 and July 1945. During this time, she and her sister Anna were political prisoners of the Germans, and were held captive in a long series of prisons and camps, including Auschwitz concentration camp. Chrisoula begins her story in her home town of Heraklion in Crete, Greece at the start of the Second World War, when she was in her early teens. She writes about making friends with Allied soldiers and learning English. After the German occupation, Chrisoula began bringing bundles of food and clothing to Allied prisoners of war in the nearby camp, and soon helped an English soldier named Freddy to escape. Chrisoula, her sister Anna, and her mother hid Freddy in their home and waited for an opportunity to send him to Egypt. However, less than a day before he was due to leave, the family were betrayed by a neighbour, and Chrisoula and Anna were arrested by the Germans. Chrisoula was sixteen years old. During her interrogation, Chrisoula was beaten almost to the point of death, but she did not give away any of her friends.
She then talks about being imprisoned with her sister in Agia jail near Canea, their trials, and eventual deportation. She talks about being held in jails in Athens, Larisa, Tirnavos, Yugoslavia, and finally in Auschwitz in Poland. There, Chrisoula and Anna had to forget their home and family in order to survive. However, the sisters were determined to stay alive and return to Greece. Chrisoula records her memories of the camp, and seeing large groups of weak and dying people, both Jews and political prisoners, being taken into gas chambers. She recalls the smoke stacks of the crematorium, inadequate food and ragged clothing, meeting women who were used in experiments, hard labour in the fields and fertilising the soil with human ashes. After twenty months in Auschwitz, Chrisoula and Anna were removed to Ravensbruck concentration camp in Germany, where the conditions were better and the inmates worked in a factory. Finally, in May 1945, they were freed, and Chrisoula concludes her memoir with her long journey and arrival home to Crete.