Claire H. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Claire H., who was born in Grossheubach, Germany in 1925. She recalls her mother's belief the Jews were safe in Germany which resulted in her refusal to emigrate; vandalizing of their home on Kristallnacht; brief imprisonment with her family in Miltenberg; her father's incarceration in Dachau; her mother's refusal to allow the children to emigrate; working in Frankfurt; forced labor with her sister at a munitions factory in Berlin beginning in 1941; their parents' deportation to Poland in 1942; receiving packages from their non-Jewish neighbors; sending a package to their father in Lublin (they never saw him again); deportation to Auschwitz with her sister in March 1943; forced labor in Birkenau; a public hanging; the death march to Malchow in January 1945; hiding during evacuation of the camp; liberation by Soviet troops in March; returning to Grossheubach via Celle, Bergen-Belsen, Aschaffenburg, and Kleinheubach in June 1945; reunion with her sister in July; and emigration to the United States in 1947. Mrs. H. discusses the importance of her sister to her survival; reluctance to share her experiences with her daughters; losing her belief in God; a survivors' reunion in Israel in 1981; and a trip to Germany in 1985.
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
- H., Claire, -- 1925-
Corporate Bodies
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- DP-Camp Bergen-Belsen.
- Malchow (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Child survivors.
- Death marches.
- Crystal Night, 1938.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Postwar experiences.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Mutual aid.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Sisters.
- Forced labor.
- Faith.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Refugee camps.
- Kristallnacht, 1938.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Women.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
Places
- Frankfurt am Main (Germany)
- Grossheubach (Germany)
- Kleinheubach (Germany)
- Germany.
- Berlin (Germany)
- Celle (Germany)
- Miltenberg (Germany)
- Aschaffenburg (Germany)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat