Lily B. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Lily B., who was born in Trautenau, Czechoslovakia (presently Trutnov) in 1923. She recalls her family's affluence; cordial relations with non-Jews; German annexation of Sudentenland; fleeing to Hradec Kra?love? in September 1938; moving to Prague; German occupation in March 1939; anti-Jewish restrictions; her brother's emigration to Palestine; not believing rumors of atrocities in Poland; deportation with her parents and grandmother to Theresienstadt in August 1942; her grandmother's death shortly thereafter; constant lines for food, washrooms, and toilets; overcrowding and no privacy; the Germans having her father establish a toy factory; working there; twice weekly transports to Auschwitz/Birkenau; not knowing the implications of them; temporary improvements during a Red Cross visit; baking matzo in spring 1945; working in the bakery, thus obtaining additional food; receiving food packages from an uncle in London; arrival of debilitated prisoners in horrendous condition from other camps; liberation by Soviet troops; returning to Prague, then Trautenau; feeling unwelcome as Jews; difficulty recovering their house from a collaborator who was later hanged; her brother's 1947 visit; communist takeover; moving to Vienna; visiting relatives in London; marriage and emigration to England in 1949; and her father's successful business in Vienna. Ms. B. questions the existence of a God who could let the Holocaust happen.

2 videocassettes