Ilse S. Holocaust testimony

Identifier
HVT 1380
Language of Description
English
Level of Description
Collection
Source
EHRI Partner

Abstract

Videotape testimony of Ilse S., who was born in Tempelhof, Germany in 1924. She recounts her assimilated family background; expulsion from public schools; joining the Hashomer Hatzair Zionist Youth Movement; anti-Jewish laws; seeing broken glass the morning after Kristallnacht; her father's decision to leave after a legal prohibition against Jews practicing medicine was passed; emigration with her family from Hamburg to Havana via Amsterdam in 1939; adjusting to life in Cuba; emigration to New York in 1940; joining Hashomer Hatzair; attending school; working at Hadassah; and her marriage to a Holocaust survivor. Mrs. S. discusses her husband's suicide; reluctance to share her experiences with her daughters, although her husband compelled them to study the Holocaust; and her trip to Berlin in 1988, which motivated her to start teaching and lecturing about the Holocaust. She shows photographs and documents.

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

  • S., Ilse, -- 1924-

Corporate Bodies

  • Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America.
  • World Hashomer Hatzair.

Subjects

  • World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
  • World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
  • Jews -- Migrations.
  • Refugees, Jewish.
  • Holocaust survivors.
  • Video tapes.
  • Women.
  • Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
  • Survivor-child relations.
  • Antisemitism -- Prewar.
  • Postwar experiences.
  • Postwar effects.
  • Kristallnacht, 1938.
  • Child survivors.
  • Zionist organizations.
  • Crystal Night, 1938.

Places

  • Havana (Cuba)
  • Tempelhof (Berlin, Germany)
  • Germany.

Genre

  • Oral histories. -- aat
This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.