Selma N. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Selma N., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1926, an only child. She recalls her family's emphasis on education and music; anti-Jewish restrictions after the Anschluss; her father's belief he would be safe due to his service in the First World War; having to attend a Jewish school; being warned of Kristallnacht by their non-Jewish building superintendent; her parent's decision to send her on a kindertransport; leaving for Sweden assuming she would see her parents soon; living with a family in Linko?ping, then in an orphanage in Go?teborg; warm relations with the other children; receiving mail from her parents from Theresienstadt; attending nursing school; meeting concentration camp survivors when they arrived in Sweden; learning her parents and most other relatives did not survive; emigrating to the United States to marry an American soldier; and the births of two daughters. Mrs. N. discusses a postwar trip to Vienna (she had not wanted to go) and her resolve not to return; not wanting to burden her daughters with her experiences; recently sharing her story with them and their anger that she had not done so earlier; continuing contacts with a few women from the orphanage; and regrets over not maintaining contact with others.
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
- N., Selma, -- 1926-
Subjects
- Survivor-child relations.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Postwar experiences.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Crystal Night, 1938.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Kindertransports (Rescue operations)
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Jews -- Rescue.
- Child survivors.
- Orphanages -- Sweden.
- Kristallnacht, 1938.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children
- Refugees, Jewish.
- Jews -- Migration.
Places
- Austria.
- LinkoĚping (Sweden)
- GoĚteborg (Sweden)
- Austria -- History -- Anschluss, 1938.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat