Anne-Lise S. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Anne-Lise S., who was born in Mannheim, Germany in approximately 1922. She recalls incarceration in Drancy; forming friendships; train transport to Auschwitz/Birkenau; selection for a quarantine barrack; thinking she was in a camp for insane people; one friend dying because she refused to eat, despite urging from others; an Italian Communist explaining the camp to them; slave labor building roads, then a privileged position as a translator due to her friend's influence; being protected from selections by friends who worked in the main office; working near the Canada Kommando; procuring shoes from there for a guard; recognizing her friend's husband; assistance from him; being chosen as a typist, another privileged position, because she was blond; receiving extra food and better clothing; observing the arrival of trains, including the Hungarians; singing with her friends on Sundays; transfer to the weaving factory; extended appels after a crematorium was blown up by prisoners; transfer to Bergen-Belsen, then Raguhn; slave labor in an airplane factory and digging ditches; a severe beating; transfer to Theresienstadt; assistance from prisoners there; liberation by Soviet troops; repatriation to Paris via Lyon; and reunion with her parents. Ms. S. discusses relations between prisoner groups in the camps; becoming emotionally numb; the importance of friendships to her survival; and difficulty sharing her experiences with those who were not in camps, particularly her parents.

3 videocassettes