Hildegard S. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Hildegard S., who was born in Gelsenkirchen, Germany in 1924. She recalls pervasive antisemitism; a Kindertransport to the Netherlands in 1933; homesickness; returning home in 1936; destruction of their home and business on Kristallnacht; her father's and brother's arrest; their release; her mother smuggling her and her sister to the Netherlands; living in orphanages, ending in Driebergen; German invasion; evacuation to Amsterdam; living with a Dutch family; her foster parents arranging for a time to remove her name from deportation lists; deportation to Barneveld, then Westerbork; working as a nurse; fear of frequent deportations; deportation to Theresienstadt in 1944; learning she was scheduled for deportation to Auschwitz; during an inspection, asking Heinrich Himmler to let her stay in Theresienstadt; removal from the transport; arrivals of transports from other camps; the new arrivals' debilitated conditions; hearing of cannibalism among them; learning her father and brother had been in Buchenwald some time ago; liberation by the Red Cross; returning to the Netherlands; reunion with her sister (she had been hidden), father, and brother; and their emigration to the United States. Ms. S. shows memorabilia.

1 videocassette