Ilse W. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Ilse W., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1915. She recounts her father's service in World War I; her parents' prosperous businesses; celebrating Jewish holidays with her large and close extended family; destruction of their synagogue on Kristallnacht; arrest and immediate release; her brother's emigration to Palestine and her sister's to England in 1939; obtaining visas for Shanghai; traveling to Genoa to board a ship; being prevented from leaving by the outbreak of war; marriage; internment with her mother in San Fele and Potenza (men were interned elsewhere); her son's birth; her husband's death from appendicitis; hiding from the Germans in Bella, with assistance from the local Italians; liberation by the Jewish brigade of the British army; leaving for the United States from Aversa with her son and parents in 1944 under a special war refugee act; being escorted by Ruth Gruber (she wrote a book about the experience); living in Fort Ontario refugee camp; Eleanor Roosevelt's visit; a concert by Isaac Stern; release in January 1946; and two subsequent marriages. Mrs. W. discusses the friendliness and generosity of Italians toward them. She shows photographs and documents.

2 videocassettes