Elsa R. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Elsa R., who was born in Lu?beck, Germany, in 1908. Ms. R. tells of leaving her family in 1929 to work in Munich; antisemitism; disillusionment with her Christian fiance, who alone knew she was Jewish; and obtaining a post in Turin, Italy in 1935 with the help of an anti-Nazi company official. She relates visiting her sister in Rome; friendship with her firm's Turin representative; the 1938 laws expelling all foreign Jews; unsuccessful attempts to obtain an American visa; her friends' bribery of police, so her file might be "lost"; arrest; transport in 1940 to a women's camp for political internees and prostitutes at Casacalenda; camp conditions; receiving permission for an unsupervised visit to Turin; Italian capitulation; German occupation; and liberation by Canadian soldiers. She recounts briefly staying at an ex-POW camp in Bari; working for the Allied Military Government (AMG); transfer to another AMG detachment at Udine; departure on a liberty ship from Genoa; and arrival in Charleston, South Carolina. She reflects on how the war changed her life; pride in her achievements; and closeness with her sister.

2 videocassettes (3/4" u-matic)