Edith L. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Edith L., who was born in U?sti? nad Labem (Aussig), Czechoslovakia in 1920. She recalls cordial relations with non-Jews; disbelief that conditions in Germany would impact them; studying in Prague; her sister's emigration to the United States in 1938; German invasion; anti-Jewish restrictions; her father's death; deportation with her husband to Terezi?n in 1941; the fraudulent staging of "good conditions" for a Red Cross delegation; deportation to Birkenau in May 1944; her husband's transfer to a work camp (she never saw him again); transfer to Christianstadt six months later; hiding the pregnancy of a prisoner; the trauma of the baby's murder; subsequent emotional numbness; a death march to Czechoslovakia; an SS guard's offer of assistance; arrival at Bergen-Belsen; witnessing cannibalism; and liberation by British troops. Mrs. L. recalls her long recovery; help from former neighbors when she returned to her hometown; and emigration to Ecuador, then the United States. She reflects upon the randomness of survival and her unwillingness to revisit the camps - "to put her foot down on Jewish blood."

2 videocassettes