Lea W. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Lea W., who was born in Mannheim, Germany in 1932. She recalls her warm and observant family; arrest of her father and grandfather on Kristallnacht; their release from Dachau a few months later; her grandfather's emigration to the United States; attending Jewish school in Heidelberg; hiding with her sister in a Catholic kindergarten in Ladenburg; deportation with her family to Gurs in 1940; being removed with her sister from the camp (they never saw their parents again); living in an OSE orphanage; learning her parents had been deported; placement with her sister with a French family, posing as non-Jews; changing their names; attending church; their transfer to another place in 1944; her illness; liberation by United States troops; their emigration to the United States in September 1946 to join their grandfather; his death; other family members refusing to care for them; and placement in an orphanage. Mrs. W. discusses her mother's courage in giving them away to save them; her sense of responsibility as the older sister; the importance of frequent trips to Germany in her reconciliation with the past; and continuing contacts with her French rescuers. She shows documents and photographs.

2 videocassettes