Karoline H. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Karoline H., who was born in Barmen, near Wuppertal, Germany in 1911. Mrs. H. recalls childhood in a comfortable, non-observant family; lack of early exposure to antisemitism; attending the University of Freiburg, where she was mistaken for an "Aryan" by Nazi students; working in her parents' store after being barred from law school; her older brother's marriage to a Catholic in 1934; increasing antisemitic restrictions; her parents' naivete? about Nazism; and marriage to a naturalized Dutch Jew in 1936. She describes deteriorating conditions in Danzig (where her husband had a business); her son's birth in 1937; moving to Amsterdam in mid-1938; after Kristallnacht, persuading her parents to join them; German occupation of Holland; and escape attempts (during one they were apprehended and released by a sympathetic German officer). She relates months of hiding; their escape in 1942 with false papers via Belgium, France and Spain to Paramaribo, Dutch Guyana; postwar reunion with her brother; and learning of the deportation and killing of her parents.
Extent and Medium
4 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
- H., Karoline, -- 1911-2003.
Subjects
- Brothers and sisters.
- Husband and wife.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Video tapes.
- Women.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Hiding.
- False papers.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Kristallnacht, 1938.
- Crystal Night, 1938.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Refugees, Jewish.
- Jews -- Migrations.
- Mothers and sons.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Refugees.
Places
- Paramaribo (Surinam)
- Barmen (Germany)
- Amsterdam (Netherlands)
- GdanĚsk (Poland)
- Germany.
- Danzig (Germany)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- ftamc