Gertrud K. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Gertrud K., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1923. Mrs. K. recalls a comfortable life; strong Jewish identity; watching mass demonstrations when the Germans marched in; the plundering of her father's business two days later; ransacking of their home; and public humiliation of her father. She remembers Kristallnacht; her father and one brother's arrest; her other brother hiding; several weeks later her father's letter from Dachau; receiving permission to leave on a Kindertransport to Scotland; reluctance to leave with her father in prison; and begging a Gestapo officer for his release. Mrs. K. describes her father's release; an aunt in Scotland who persuaded the Church to act as guarantors for her parents; leaving for Scotland with her younger brother; her older brother's emigration to England; the family's reunion in Edinburgh; unsuccessful efforts to get her grandparents out (they perished in Terezi?n); kindness of the Scots; emigration to the United States in October 1940 in a ship pursued by a U-boat; she and her brother working to support the family and attending night school; and their subsequent careers. Mrs. K. discusses her father's adjustment difficulties; her own sense of uprootedness; and difficulties reviewing her past with her son.

1 videocassette (3/4" u-matic)