"The Crossing"
Extent and Medium
folder
1
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
Mr. Arturo Vivante, with the assistance of Brewster Chamberlain and Benton Arnovitz, donated this memoir to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on Dec. 28, 2006 . Mrs. Kinzer granted the rights of the memoir to Mr. Vivante to find a publisher or a home for the work. Mrs. Kinzer passed away on May 7, 2006.
Scope and Content
Consists of one memoir, 19 pages, entitled "The Crossing," by Ilona Ricardo Kinzer, originally of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. When the Germans invaded the Netherlands on May 10, 1940, Ilona was staying with relatives in the coastal town of Ymuiden. After the Dutch surrender, Ilona helped her uncle and the other employees of the Blast Furnace plant blow up the complex rather than let it fall into Nazi control. She describes her spontaneous decision to escape to England with a one-legged Englishman, Mr. Judd, across the English channel in a rowboat with only a small motor, and her memories of that trip.
Genre
- Document
- Personal Narratives.