Ruth G. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Ruth G., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1922. She recalls a happy childhood in an assimilated family; increasing antisemitism after 1933; expulsion from public school; a prohibition against her father treating non-Jews (he was a physician); little impact from Kristallnacht (they did not live in a Jewish area); impoverishment; having to move; assistance from her father's former patients; studying nursing; forced labor in a munitions factory beginning in October 1941; her brother's forced labor for Siemens; going into hiding in January 1943; moving several times; assistance from non-Jews, including a Spanish diplomat and a Wehrmacht officer; posing as a non-Jew; working as a nanny and a domestic; her brother and future husband being hidden by non-Jews in a factory; joining them in December 1944 with her mother and friend; Allied bombings; liberation by Soviet troops on April 26, 1945; reunion with her father (he hid elsewhere); marriage in October; and emigration to the United States from Bremerhaven in May 1946. She discusses her father's false sense of security as a veteran; recognition of their rescuers by Yad Vashem; sharing her experiences with her children; and visiting Germany with them. She shows photographs.
Extent and Medium
3 videocassettes
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
- G., Ruth, -- 1922-
Subjects
- Hiding.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Postwar experiences.
- Child survivors.
- Husband and wife.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Crystal Night, 1938.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Kristallnacht, 1938.
- Forced labor.
- Mothers and daughters.
- Brothers and sisters.
- Women.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
Places
- Germany.
- Bremerhaven (Germany)
- Berlin (Germany)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat