Helga G. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Helga G., a Lutheran, who was born deaf in Hamburg, Germany in 1923, the oldest of five children. She recalls attending a school for the deaf; Hitler's assumption of power; her parents' and other relatives' anti-Nazi beliefs; being forced by a teacher to join a Nazi group (N.S.D.A.P.); observing Jews wearing the yellow star; the disappearance of Jews; a deaf teacher informing the class he was to be involuntarily sterilized; his suicide when his arrest was imminent as an anti-Nazi; her involuntary sterilization; meeting her future husband in Leipzig (he was deaf and also had been sterilized); apprenticeship as a weaver; destruction of their home in Allied bombings; her parents' move to Bavaria; joining them; visiting an aunt in Munich; hearing rumors about atrocities; arrival of United States troops; marriage; living in East Germany; escaping to West Germany two years later; living with her parents in Hamburg; emigration to the United States, despite restrictions on deaf immigration, with assistance from an American friend; her husband's death; and her remarriage. Ms. G. discusses sadness that she could not have 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.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- G., Helga, -- 1923-
Corporate Bodies
- Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei. -- Hauptarchiv.
Subjects
- People with disabilities.
- Refugees -- Germany (West)
- Bystanders.
- Postwar experiences.
- Postwar effects.
- Video tapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, German.
- Women.
- Deaf.
- Involuntary sterilization -- Germany.
Places
- Germany.
- Germany (East)
- Hamburg (Germany)
- Bavaria (Germany)
- Leipzig (Germany)
- Munich (Germany)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat