Gilberte W. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Gilberte W., who was born in Paris, France in 1913. She recounts that her mother was a French Catholic and her father a German Jew; visiting her paternal grandparents in Germany when World War I started; her father's draft into the German military; living in several places including Rastatt, Mannheim, then Magdeburg; attending a convent school; living with her paternal grandfather after her grandmother died; attending Friday night services with him and church on Sunday with her mother; moving to Leipzig, then Vienna; marriage to a Jew in 1935; the Anschluss; obtaining documents to emigrate to the United States (her husband could not go); returning to her parents in Leipzig; hiding her husband during Kristallnacht; her father's arrest and incarceration in Buchenwald; his release; obtaining travel documents in Berlin; sailing to the United States from France in 1939; learning her husband was hiding in France and had a girlfriend; divorcing him in 1941; remarriage to his best friend; her mother hiding her father in France during the war; and arranging their emigration to the United States as soon as the war was over. Ms. W. discusses raising her daughter as a Jew and believing in God, but not organized religion. She shows photographs and documents.
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
- W., Gilberte, -- 1913-
Subjects
- Crystal Night, 1938.
- Kristallnacht, 1938.
- Children of interfaith marriage.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Identification (Religion)
- Holocaust survivors.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Video tapes.
- Women.
Places
- Austria -- History -- Anschluss, 1938.
- Vienna (Austria)
- Berlin (Germany)
- Mannheim (Germany)
- Rastatt (Germany)
- Leipzig (Germany)
- Magdeburg (Germany)
- Paris (France)
- France.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat