Kurt G. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Kurt G., who was born in Krefeld, Germany in 1927. He relates his family's German identity and having lived there since the Middle Ages; few memories of his father who died; attending a Jewish school; moving to Mülheim in 1934; his next older brother being sent to Scotland; antisemitic harassment in school; his oldest brother evading arrest on Kristallnacht; expulsion from school; shopping since he looked Aryan; placement on a Kindertransport in spring 1939; painful departure from his mother and brother; traveling to London; joining his brother in a Jewish orphanage in Scotland; difficult relations with his brother; hearing from his mother through the Red Cross until 1940; placement with a Christian family in Annan after the war began; a loving relationship with his foster family, with whom he is still in touch; placement in a Jewish home in Glasgow in July 1940; working in war industries as soon as he was old enough; joining FDJ (German anti-fascist youth group); enlisting in the British military in 1944; serving in Trieste; transfer to Germany in fall 1945; translating at POW camps; returning to Mülheim in 1947; learning his brother had volunteered to go with his mother when she was deported; antisemitism from Germans; finding a few relatives of his large family; joining German leftist groups; and settling in Germany.
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. This testimony or excerpts from it may not be used in an antisemitic or racist context nor may the donor's life and motives be misrepresented.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- G., Kurt, -- 1927-
Corporate Bodies
- Freie Deutsche Jugend in Grossbritannien.
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Foster parents.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Jews -- Rescue.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, British.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Jewish.
- Child survivors.
- Postwar experiences.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Crystal Night, 1938.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Brothers.
- Kindertransports (Rescue operations)
- Orphanages -- Scotland.
- Kristallnacht, 1938.
- Refugees, Jewish.
- Jews -- Migration.
Places
- Krefeld (Germany)
- Mülheim an der Ruhr (Germany)
- Germany.
- Glasgow (Scotland)
- London (England)
- Annan (Scotland)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat