Lily C. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Lily C., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1925. She recalls her affluent and secular home; the Anschluss; her father's refusal to emigrate; his arrest on Kristallnacht and release due to his Czech citizenship; obtaining Hungarian citizenship; their move to Budapest in May 1940; becoming a milliner's apprentice; strained finances; German occupation; a forced move into designated Jewish housing; her father's arrest (she never saw him again); her own arrest; internment in a brick factory; starvation and exposure during a forced march; escape with two friends; hiding with a Bulgarian gardener; denunciation; transfer to the Gyo?r ghetto; their escape with help from a Hungarian woman; traveling to Budapest; staying with family friends; obtaining false papers; living in the streets; hiding with a soldier's family; disguising herself as a Christian; liberation by Soviet troops; reunion with her mother; working for the Joint; marriage; living in Ottawa (her husband was a Polish diplomat); her son's birth in 1948; her husband's death; living in the United States; and remarriage to a non-Jew. Mrs. C. discusses her son's reluctance to hear about her experiences and her sense of being European, very different from American Jews.
Extent and Medium
2 videocassettes
Conditions Governing Access
This testimony is open with permission.
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Copyright has been transferred to the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. Use of this testimony requires permission of the Fortunoff Video Archive.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- C., Lily, -- 1925-
Corporate Bodies
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Child survivors.
- Kristallnacht, 1938.
- Jews -- Hungary -- GyoĚr.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Interfaith marriage.
- Escapes.
- Crystal Night, 1938.
- False papers.
- Hiding.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Postwar experiences.
Places
- Vienna (Austria)
- Austria.
- Budapest (Hungary)
- Ottawa (Ont.)
- Austria -- History -- Anschluss, 1938.
- GyoĚr ghetto.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat