Cecille B. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Cecille B., who was born in Czernowitz, Austria in 1898. Mrs. B. describes her family; her brother, who left for the United States in 1907; moving to Mannheim, where her father worked for prominent relatives; meeting her husband, a Polish citizen; the birth of her son and daughter; citizenship problems due to the transfer of the city of Czernowitz from Austria to Romania; meeting Nahum Goldman in 1924, and asking his assistance in obtaining citizenship papers. She relates changes resulting from Hitler's rise to power; she and her husband losing their business in 1938; deportation of her husband in 1938 to Poland; sending her children to England in 1939; deportation to Gurs, a concentration camp in France, with her mother and sister; her mother's death in 1940; her attempts to obtain visas to the United States or elsewhere; and her escape to Switzerland. She recounts many incidents during her escape attempts and the many people who helped; her eventual emigration to the United States, where she was reunited with her children; and finding out that her husband had been killed in Warsaw.
Extent and Medium
2 videocassettes (3/4" u-matic)
Conditions Governing Access
This testimony is open with permission.
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Copyright has been transferred to the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. Use of this testimony requires permission of the Fortunoff Video Archive.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- B., Cecille, -- 1898-
Corporate Bodies
- Gurs (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Women.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Mother and child.
- Refugees, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Jews -- Migrations.
- Husband -- Death.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Jews -- Rescue.
- Aid by non-Jews.
Places
- Marseille (France)
- England.
- Switzerland.
- Mannheim (Germany)
- Basel (Switzerland)
- Champéry (Switzerland)
- Austria
- Czernowitz (Austria)
- Chernivt︠s︡i (Ukraine)
- Cernăuți (Romania)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- ftamc