Henny S. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Henny S., who was born in Hannover, Germany in 1925. Mrs. S. relates warm childhood memories; her father's profession as a master painter; building interiors which he designed; expulsion from school in 1935; attendance at a Jewish school; athletic competitions; Kristallnacht; a year's attendance at school in Hamburg; her father's emigration to Shanghai, where she and her mother were to have joined him upon receiving their documents; and their 1941 deportation to the Ri?ga ghetto. She recalls forced labor; the record cold winter of 1941-1942; her mother's illness; a selection for work which was really a mass murder; an encounter with the German commander of the ghetto; continuous aktions; disbanding of the Ri?ga ghetto; transport to Strazdenhof; her mother's transfer to Kaiserwald (she never saw her again); boat transport to Stutthof; transfer to Thorn, then Koronowo; and liberation by Soviet troops in January 1945. She describes traveling to Warsaw, then ?o?dz?; working for two survivors, one of whom was her future husband; returning to Hannover to seek surviving relatives, particularly news of her father; marriage and her son's birth; emigration to the United States; reunion with her father; and their subsequent life on a farm.
Extent and Medium
3 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., Henny, -- 1925-
Corporate Bodies
- Stutthof (Concentration camp)
- Kaiserwald (Concentration camp)
- Koronowo (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Latvia -- Rīga.
- Citizenship -- Germany.
- Jews -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- Germany.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Kristallnacht, 1938.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Nuremberg laws.
- Crystal Night, 1938.
- Mass killings.
- Mutual aid.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
Places
- Rīga ghetto.
- Hamburg (Germany)
- Toruń (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Strazdenhof (Latvia : Concentration camp)
- Hannover (Germany)
- Germany.
- Rīga (Latvia)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- ftamc