Selma H. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Selma H., who was born in Czerniejewo, Germany (presently Poland) in approximately 1896. She recalls her family's restaurant; cordial relations with non-Jews; moving to Frankfurt; returning home in 1914 when war began; moving to Bielefeld in 1919; her father's death in 1922; marriage; the birth of her son in 1926 and daughter in 1927; anti-Jewish restrictions; her children's expulsion from a school in 1938; their attending a Jewish school; assistance from a non-Jewish teacher; her sisters' emigration to England in 1939; confiscation of their home and business; deportation to the Ri?ga ghetto in 1941; forced factory labor; her husband's death in 1943; transfer to Kaiserwald; boat transfer to Stutthof in 1944; separation from her son, whom she never saw again; transfer to Sophienwalde; slave labor building roads; transfer elsewhere; a death march; assistance from her daughter; liberation by Soviet troops in Le?bork; hospitalization; their return to Bielefeld; re-hospitalization; traveling to Frankfurt; and their emigration to the United States. Ms. H. discusses regret that she did not leave Germany before the war; sharing her experiences with her grandchildren; and she and her daughter not discussing their war experiences.
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
- H., Selma, -- 1896?-
Corporate Bodies
- Kaiserwald (Concentration camp)
- Stutthof (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Jews -- Latvia -- Rīga.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Mothers and sons.
- Death marches.
- Children -- Death.
- Mothers and daughters.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Forced labor.
- Postwar effects.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Husband -- Death.
- Mutual aid.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Postwar experiences.
- Survivor-child relations.
Places
- Germany.
- Bielefeld (Germany)
- Lębork (Poland)
- Czerniejewo (Poland)
- Frankfurt am Main (Germany)
- Lauenburg in Pommern (Germany)
- Rīga ghetto.
- Sophienwalde (Poland: Concentration camp)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat