Sonia R. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Sonia R., who was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1929 of a Jewish mother and a non-Jewish father. She describes her father's anti-Nazi activities; Gestapo harassment; emigration to Italy, then France, in January 1933 because of her father's politics; her mother's art work; expulsion from France nine months later; her father's return to Germany and her mother's refusal, leading to their divorce; moving with her mother to San Remo; her third sibling's birth; receiving government orders in October 1939 to leave because they were foreigners; a German consular official helping her mother avoid deportation to Germany; internment in Grottaminarda, then Mirabella Eclano; pervasive hunger; moving to Mercogliano; receiving a small stipend from an American relative; interrogation by an SS soldier after German occupation; hiding in a forest; liberation by Allied troops; their emigration to the United States in August 1944; internment in Fort Ontario; and release in 1946. Mrs. R. discusses not being allowed to discuss their experiences within her family; her siblings' continuing refusal to discuss that time; and her mother's strength and determination which resulted in their survival. Mrs. R. shows photographs, her mother's artwork, and documents.

2 videocassettes