Gitta W. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Gitta W., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1934. She notes vague memories of being loved and hearing marching in the Berlin streets; traveling to Belgium; living in a house with her parents and relatives; German invasion; fleeing to Paris, then Nice; her malaise at seeing her parents very upset; difficulties in school; her father and uncle escaping when the families were arrested; release with her cousin; hiding with her father, uncle, and cousin; escaping after detection by the Gestapo; hiding with other Jews in a small village and Marseille; placement in a convent in Monaco after their rescuers were betrayed as resistants; the Mother Superior refusing to baptize them, reaffirming their Jewish identity; transfer to a family; liberation by United States troops; reunion with her father in Nice; and learning her uncle had been deported (her cousin remained with them). Mrs. W. discusses finding comfort in Catholicism when she was in hiding; her father searching for relatives; guilt that she left her mother; profound sorrow that her mother did not return and that she does not know her fate; feeling she did not help her father enough after the war; psychological problems due to her war experiences; difficulties trying to reestablish themselves in Berlin; and bitterness toward those who profited from the war and denied responsibility for the Holocaust. She shows photographs.

3 videocassettes