Gertrude S. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Gertrude S., who was born in Hausberge an der Porta, Germany in 1919, one of two sisters. She recounts her family's move to a small town in Hessen, then to Hannover; increasing antisemitism after 1933; apprenticing as a seamstress in Dortmund; anti-Jewish restrictions; Kristallnacht; living briefly in Munich; Allied bombings; her family's unsuccessful effort to obtain emigration papers in Stuttgart; their deportation to the Ri?ga ghetto; forced labor; frequent round-ups; her parents' deportation (she never saw them again); a friend preventing her from committing suicide; transfer with her sister to Hamburg; a death march to Kiel; her sister lancing her infected arm; a doctor providing treatment and food; transfer to Flensburg, then Denmark and Sweden; and emigration to the United States three years later. Ms. S. discusses psychological problems resulting from her experiences and a 1980 trip to Hausberge and Hannover sponsored by the city of Hannover. She shows documents, photographs, and objects made in Ri?ga.
Extent and Medium
2 videocassettes
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., Gertrude, -- 1919-
Subjects
- Postwar experiences.
- Postwar effects.
- Mutual aid.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Jews -- Latvia -- RiĚga.
- Sisters.
- Kristallnacht, 1938.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Crystal Night, 1938.
- Death marches.
- Forced labor.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Holocaust survivors.
Places
- Hausberge an der Porta (Germany)
- Hannover (Germany)
- Germany.
- Kiel (Germany : Concentration camp)
- Flensburg (Germany)
- Hamburg (Germany)
- Stuttgart (Germany)
- Dortmund (Germany)
- Hamburg (Germany : Concentration camp)
- RiĚga ghetto.
- Sweden.
- Denmark.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat