Ilse M. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Ilse M. who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1928. She recalls the Anschluss; expulsion from school; her father's incarceration in Dachau for a year starting in 1938; his departure for Italy immediately upon release; leaving a few weeks later on a 1939 children's transport to England; her unhappy life with a childless couple in Prescot; avoiding the husband's sexual advances; cessation of correspondence from her mother in 1941; several live-in jobs; and continuing school while working in Manchester, then London. She describes a visit from her mother's brother after the war; contact with her father; learning of her mother's and sister's deportation and deaths; emigration to Australia in 1951 to join her father; his death before she arrived; studying and working in Sydney and Melbourne; emigration to the United States; and marriage in 1974. Throughout this testimony Mrs. M. reflects on her overwhelming sense of isolation; the still present pain of remembering; recurring nightmares; and the importance of education to her. She expresses guilt at her lack of understanding the horror her parents must have experienced.

2 videocassettes (3/4" u-matic)