Hermine M. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Hermine M., who was born in a small town in Czechoslovakia, one of eight children. She recalls attending Czech school; visiting relatives in Antwerp; Germany's occupation of the Sudetenland; her parents' decision that she remain in Belgium; German invasion; fleeing to Brussels; separation from her relatives because of her Czech citizenship; a Czech family befriending her and bringing her with them to a French town near the Spanish border; being placed in a convent by the Czech underground; arrest and incarceration in Aix-en-Provence; hospitalization for appendicitis; escape with help from the Czech underground; returning to the convent; obtaining false papers; moving to a convent in Marseille; attending ORT school; friendship with a girl with whose family she celebrated Jewish holidays; liberation in August 1944; traveling to Paris in search of immediate family; locating one sister; hearing rumors of one brother in Australia, but not finding him; working for OZE in several places, including Lyon and Maisons-Laffitte; emigration to join an aunt in the United States in 1948; marriage and the births of two sons. Mrs. M. discusses the importance of luck to her survival as well as the many people who helped her, and her gratitude to them.

2 videocassettes