Edith G. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Edith G., who was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1905 and adopted. She recalls living in Copenhagen; returning to Germany; her close family; marriage in 1928; and the births of her children. She describes her husband's arrest in 1935; his twenty-month incarceration; their move to Holland; German bombing of Rotterdam; moving to Zeist; not having to wear the yellow star, though her husband and children had to, because a Dutch policeman did not classify her as a Jew due to lack of information about her biological parents; arranging several hiding places for her children through the underground; her arrest, encounter with Ferdinand aus der Fu?nten, head of the Gestapo, and release; extreme hunger in 1944-1945; liberation; learning of her husband's death in Auschwitz; a short stay in Denmark; marriage to an older man and his death; emigration to the United States with her daughter; and her son's marriage in Holland. Mrs. G. discusses their close family relationship; her reluctance to discuss the Holocaust because no one can understand the experience and the inadequacy of words to describe it; her daughter's refusal to discuss the topic even with her own children; and her own fear that Jews are not safe anyplace.
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
- G., Edith, -- 1905-
- FuĚnten, Ferdinand aus der.
Subjects
- Mothers and sons.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Jews -- Rescue.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements.
- Adoptees.
- Women.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Mothers and daughters.
- Postwar effects.
- Resistance.
- Husband -- Death.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Hiding.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
Places
- Zeist (Netherlands)
- Denmark.
- Rotterdam (Netherlands)
- Copenhagen (Denmark)
- Amsterdam (Netherlands)
- Hamburg (Germany)
- Germany.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- ftamc