Ilse A. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Ilse A., who was born in Gelsenkirchen, Germany circa 1922. She recalls a happy childhood; Hitler's ascent to power in 1933; one brother's emigration to Australia; anti-Jewish laws resulting in expulsion from school; her family's move to Amsterdam; discrimination because she was German; a dressmaker's apprenticeship; German invasion; anti-Jewish measures despite sympathy from the Dutch; her grandmother's deportation; her father learning they were to be deported; contacting the underground; receiving false papers; being transported to Apeldoorn with her parents (her brother and sister were hidden elsewhere); moving away from her parents when their hiding place was compromised; remaining indoors for years, sewing and teaching herself English; British paratroopers landing in Arnhem in 1944, resulting in its evacuation to their town; posing as an evacuee; visiting her parents; liberation by Canadian troops in April 1945; reunion with her parents and siblings; returning to Amsterdam; her father's death in 1945; emigration to Australia in 1946; marriage in 1947; and the birth of two children. Mrs. A. discusses traveling to Israel in 1979 for the ceremony honoring her family's rescuers at Yad Vashem.

1 videocassette