Marlis M. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Marlis M., who was born in Hannover in 1932 to a Jewish father and German mother. She recounts her younger brother's birth in 1936; arrest in 1938 (her oldest brother was not with them); their release; her father leaving for Antwerp; viewing damage done during Kristallnacht; joining her father in summer 1939; returning shortly thereafter (her father remained); harassment in school because her father was Jewish; her younger brother's death from illness; learning her father was doing forced labor in the Harz Mountains; moving to a nearby village in winter 1943/44; a village woman taking them in despite being an avowed Nazi; visiting her father in Wendefurth; her older brother's conscription for forced labor by Organisation Todt; her father's deportation in February 1945; liberation by United States troops; her brother's return, then her father's; continuing to hide her Jewishness; joining the FDJ (anti-fascist youth movement); training as a kindergarten teacher in Blankenburg; marriage, and moving to Berlin. Ms. M. notes her continuing shame at being Jewish until later in life; her husband knowing, but not telling his family; having her children baptized to "protect" them; and not discussing the past with her parents or brother. She shows photographs.
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
- M., Marlis, -- 1932-
Corporate Bodies
- Freie Deutsche Jugend.
Subjects
- Fathers and daughters.
- Brothers and sisters.
- Mothers and daughters.
- Children of interfaith marriage.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Crystal Night, 1938.
- Child survivors.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Postwar experiences.
- Postwar effects.
- Antisemitism -- Postwar.
- Kristallnacht, 1938.
- Identification (Religion)
Places
- Harz Mountains (Germany)
- Wendefurth (Germany)
- Hannover (Germany)
- Antwerp (Belgium)
- Germany.
- Berlin (Germany)
- Bad Blankenburg (Germany)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat