Gys L. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Gys L., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1921. She recalls her childhood in a wealthy family; her father's decision to move the family to Paris in 1933; education in French schools and the Sorbonne; internment of male German Jews (including her father and brother) in late 1939; and meeting her future husband when he called with news of her brother. She recounts detention with her mother in Gurs; primitive camp conditions; release during the German invasion in 1940; her marriage in Marseille; and her in-laws' escape to the United States (her father-in-law was the anti-Nazi journalist Georg Bernhard). Mrs. L. describes hiding with the aid of a Resistance member; escaping with her husband and brother to Spain; capture and imprisonment at Miranda de Ebro and Madrid as undocumented aliens; her in-laws' role in their release and emigration to the United States; and the deaths of her father-in-law and infant daughter in 1944. She relates her father's deportation to Majdanek; her mother's survival in hiding; and sponsoring her mother's and brother's emigration.
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
- Bernhard, Georg, -- 1875-1944.
- L., Gys, -- 1921-
Corporate Bodies
- Miranda de Ebro (Concentration camp)
- Gurs (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Jews -- Rescue.
- Husband and wife.
- Jews -- Migrations.
- Refugees, Jewish.
- Mothers and daughters.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Hiding.
- Resistance.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Women.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Brothers and sisters.
- Children -- Death.
Places
- Germany.
- Berlin (Germany)
- Marseille (France)
- Paris (France)
- Madrid (Spain)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- ftamc