Marie L. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Maria L., who was born in Thessalonike?, Greece in 1931. She recounts her family's move to Brussels in 1932; their assimilated lifestyle; not realizing she was Jewish; German invasion; a futile attempt to escape to France; not registering as Jews; living with her parents in the home of her father's boss; continuing to attend school; their arrest in July 1944; insisting they were Greek, not Jewish; her father being beaten; deportation to Malines, then to Birkenau eight days later; prisoners instructing her to say she was older; separation from the men (she never saw her father again); her mother's hysteria; prisoners calming her; learning of the gassings and crematoria; suffering from hunger, but even more from thirst; assistance from a French political prisoner; her mother's visits when she was hospitalized; leaving the hospital when warned of a selection; Italian prisoners singing opera; transfer to another camp, then Turkheim; a public hanging; outside slave labor; her mother obtaining an indoor job for her; transfer to Kaufering, then back to Turkheim; working in the kitchen; obtaining extra food; a death march; escaping with her mother and a friend; seeking shelter in a monastery; liberation by United States troops; assistance from the Red Cross; repatriation; assistance from the local Jewish committee; and returning to school. Ms. L. discusses relations between nationalities and her state of mind in the camps; slowly losing hope after the war that her father had survived; her husband's assistance with her ever-present trauma; and the burden of her mother's emotional problems resulting from their experiences.

4 videocassettes