Lilly S. Holocaust testimony

Identifier
HVT 3122
Language of Description
English
Level of Description
Collection
Source
EHRI Partner

Abstract

Videotape testimony of Lilly S., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1927. She recounts her family's assimilated life; arrest of her grandmother and parents after the Anschluss; their release weeks later; traveling to Aachen, then Brussels; living in a basement due to lack of resources; assistance from the Jewish community; her father's escape to England; German invasion; fleeing to Lille, then Dunkerque, futilely hoping to escape; return to Brussels; receiving a deportation notice; informing her mother they would hide; difficulty placing her four-year-old sister; she and her sister living with several families; hospitalization; a woman in the hospital supplying her with false papers; being caught in a round-up with her sister; their escape from a train; a farmer helping her place her sister in a convent; working in Rocherath; intense visits with her sister; friendship with Resistants; pleading with a German officer not to destroy a village; liberation by United States troops; learning her father had remarried, thinking them dead; illegal emigration to Palestine; marriage; and emigration to Germany. Mrs. S. discusses converting to Catholicism in Brussels and emotional support from attending mass; not sharing her story prior to attending a meeting of hidden children in New York; and establishing a local self-help group for hidden children.

Extent and Medium

1 videocassette

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. This testimony or excerpts from it cannot be used in Europe. The donor's name can never be used in any publication.

Rules and Conventions

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Process Info

  • compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies

People

Subjects

Places

Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.