Nelly M. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Nelly M., who was born deaf in Vienna, Austria in 1929. Mrs. F. describes her household comprised of her deaf uncle, mother, and younger sister, and her hearing grandmother; attending a school for the deaf at about age three; learning to read lips; and her mother's divorce (her father was deaf). She recalls the Nazi arrival in Vienna; being forced to leave school; teachers advising her mother to leave Austria; seeing signs in parks and movies reading "Jews forbidden"; an assault by a Nazi youth; witnessing the public humiliation of older Jewish men; learning to read English; emigration through Genoa, Italy to the United States; their joy at seeing the Statue of Liberty; a five month incarceration at Ellis Island because four of the family members were deaf; assistance received from the New York Society for the Deaf; attending the Lexington School for the Deaf and Hunter College; marriage; her two children; and her son's interest in her experience. She relates learning of her father's deportation to Minsk after the war (he never returned).
Extent and Medium
1 videocassette (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
- M., Nelly, -- 1929-
Subjects
- People with disabilities.
- Family.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Deaf.
- Women.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Video tapes.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Ellis Island Immigration Station (New York, N.Y.)
- Jews -- Migrations.
- Refugees, Jewish.
Places
- Austria -- History -- Anschluss, 1938.
- Vienna (Austria)
- Austria.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- ftamc