Annette E. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Annette E., a non-Jew, who was born in Belgium in 1921, the second of six children. She recalls living in Rixensart, Schearbeek, and Brussels; her parents' communist beliefs; housing German and Spanish refugees, including Jews; participating in a socialist group; German invasion; clandestine socialist meetings evolving into a Resistance group; hiding Jews; arrest in June 1942 with her father and one brother; incarceration in St. Gilles, Aix-la-Chapelle, Essen, and Düsseldorf; deportation to Ravensbrück in December; remaining with two Belgian women and their enduring friendship; a family friend obtaining a privileged position for her sorting clothing; sharing what she found with others; transfer to an outside farm for five months in 1943; better rations and access to other food that they clandestinely took; class and ethnic divisions among prisoners; return to the hospital in Ravensbrück when she was ill; remaining there to work; observing forced sterilizations and unnecessary surgeries for the doctors to "practice"; frequent childbirths (the babies soon died); singing Christmas songs with her friends, despite her lack of belief; her mother's arrival in September 1944; working with her in the infirmary; becoming numb to corpses all over and carrying dead babies; liberation by the Red Cross in April 1945; transfer to Denmark and Sweden to recover; returning to Belgium; learning her father and one brother had been killed; working with Jewish orphans; and becoming a teacher. Ms. E. discusses not sharing her experiences for twenty years because she believes no one can understand who had not "been there"; eventually sharing her experiences with others, including with her children and grandchildren; continuing contacts with friends from camp; and belonging to a survivor organization.

6 videocassettes