Helga B. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Helga B., who was born in Berlin, Germany in approximately 1928. She recalls her chronic childhood illness; her family's strong German Jewish identity; the impact of the Nuremberg laws on her life, including having to attend a Jewish school; the glass-littered Kurfu?rstendamm following Kristallnacht; her father fleeing to Holland (she never saw him again); and being smuggled into Belgium with her mother in the summer of 1939. Mrs. B. recounts living in Brussels; attending a Catholic school; German occupation; deteriorating conditions; receiving assistance from the Joint; the trauma of her mother's death in May 1942; working in Jewish children's homes in Brussels and Wezembeek; evacuating the children when the underground warned of an impending raid; and liberation by Allied troops. She describes working in Belgium; emigration to join relatives in the United States in 1950; the psychological impact of her experience including her continuing sense of the loss of her parents; and speaking to groups and classes about the Holocaust. She reads her poetry and shows cards her father sent from Theresienstadt.
Extent and Medium
3 videocassettes (3/4" u-matic)
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
- B., Helga, -- 1928?-
Corporate Bodies
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
Subjects
- Orphanages.
- Jews -- Migrations.
- Refugees, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Belgium.
- Citizenship -- Germany.
- Jews -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- Germany.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Poetry.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Psychological aspects.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Women.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Mothers and daughters.
- Hiding.
- Mutual aid.
- Crystal Night, 1938.
- Postwar experiences.
- Postwar effects.
- Child survivors.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Kristallnacht, 1938.
Places
- Wezembeek-Oppem (Belgium)
- Brussels (Belgium)
- Berlin (Germany)
- Germany.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat