Susan Q. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Susan Q., who was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands to a prominent Sephardic, rabbinic family with a long Dutch history. She recalls a large extended family; German invasion; learning dressmaking, then nursing; working with her sisters at a Jewish mental hospital; her parents' deportation to Westerbork in 1942; their release when a friend provided false papers for them; hiding during round-ups; her older sister's deportation to Auschwitz (she did not return); being forced to assist at the castrations of Jewish men married to non-Jews; receiving notice for deportation; her parents arranging for her and her sister to be hidden separately; learning her parents were deported after she left (they did not return); hiding in Bussum; receiving false papers; working for a baroness in Baarn; being treated as a family member; liberation by Canadian troops; returning to Amsterdam; reunion with her sister; nursing training in Leiden and Oxford; working in London; marriage; visiting her sister in Israel; divorce; meeting her second husband in Canada; emigration to Canada; and her charitable and organizational activities. She discusses a belated reaction to many wartime losses when her second husband died. Ms. Q. shows photographs and documents.
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
- Q., Susan, -- 1923-
Subjects
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- False papers.
- Mutual aid.
- Postwar experiences.
- Hiding.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Postwar effects.
- Women.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Aid by non-Jews.
Places
- London (England)
- Leiden (Netherlands)
- Oxford (England)
- Bussum (Netherlands)
- Baarn (Netherlands)
- Amsterdam (Netherlands)
- Netherlands.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat