Ilse L. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Ilse L., who was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, in 1922. Mrs. L. recalls her family's move to Berlin when she was five; losing her Christian governess because of the Nuremberg laws; withdrawing from gymnasium in 1937 when Der Sturmer was placed on her desk; and enrolling in a Jewish school where she excelled in foreign languages. She tells of her parents' friendship with her future in-laws; her future father-in-law's professional relationship with Hjalmar Schacht; her sister's departure for the United States in 1938; her father's deportation to Dachau after Kristallnacht; and her mother's attempts to free her father and emigrate. She describes government confiscation of family assets; her father's release and recuperation; the family's departure for England in early 1939; her education in a French convent in London; and their arrival in America in December 1939. She recounts her courtship and marriage (her husband's family had also emigrated); her husband's army service as an interpreter in a POW camp in the Midwest (U.S.); their careers since the war; being invited in 1985 to visit Berlin; and the lasting psychological effects of her Holocaust experiences.

3 videocassettes (3/4" u-matic)