Margarete L. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Margarete L., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1924. She recalls her father's trip to the Soviet Union from which he never returned; expulsion from school at age thirteen; forced labor; a non-Jewish co-worker who provided them with extra food; destruction of her mother's business during Kristallnacht; receiving protection for herself, sister and mother from the Swedish embassy since they were Soviet citizens; arrest and torture by the Gestapo for refusing to name Jews in hiding; and transfer to Bergen-Belsen. She describes the pervasive fear; transfer of Soviet citizens to Vittel; improved conditions; liberation by United States troops; recovering in a displaced persons camp; legal emigration to Palestine with her mother and sister; marriage to a cousin; recurring nightmares; her son's birth; and emigration to the United States in 1961. She shows photographs and a watch she kept throughout the war and she discusses her visit to Berlin.

2 videocassettes (3/4" u-matic)