Grete M. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Grete M., who was born in Aurich, Germany in 1922. She recalls her orthodox, close-knit family; cordial relations with non-Jews; changes in 1938; attending nursing school at the Jewish hospital in Berlin; two siblings emigrating to England; her parents' deportation (they perished); hiding with a German family in 1942, then with their relatives in Upper Silesia; fearing exposure, returning to Berlin via Gross Strehlitz (Strzelec) to Beuthen (Bytom); arrest; transfer to Auschwitz; useless forced labor; assistance from a guard because she spoke German; seeing a cousin (she perished); losing belief in God after learning of the gas chambers; transfer to Gross-Rosen, then Graeben because she was a nurse; receiving packages from a neighbor in Aurich through a German worker; the death march to Bergen-Belsen; worsening conditions; liberation by British troops; working for the British; hearing from her siblings; working as an UNRRA nurse in Feldafing displaced persons camp; moving to Bremen; visiting Aurich; neighbors returning family assets; and emigrating to the United States. Mrs. M. discusses sleep disorders and passivity resulting from her experiences; reluctance to share her experiences with her children; and continuing friendships with friends from concentration camps and Germans who helped her.

2 videocassettes