Liselotte C. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Liselotte C., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1928 to a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother. She recalls her parents' secularism; attending a German school for one year; transfer to a Jewish school due to the Nuremberg laws; her father's decision not to emigrate, even after Kristallnacht, and loss of his job as a journalist; her school closing in 1942; she and her father deciding not to wear the star, fearing violent harassment more than discovery; working as a gardener in the Jewish cemetery; assisting in hiding Torah scrolls; friendship with a fellow-worker (her future husband); her father's arrest; joining demonstrations with her mother at Rosenstrasse; his release; being assigned to clear bombing rubble; exemption from work in February 1945 after contracting rheumatism; liberation by Soviet troops; their janitor vouching her father was Jewish to avoid being shot by Soviets; her parents' divorce; an antisemitic incident; emigrating to Israel with her mother and future husband; marriage; living on a kibbutz and in several cities; divorce and remarriage; her mother's death in 1959; returning alone to Berlin in 1973; and marriage to a non-Jew. Ms. C. discusses her mother's refusal to divorce her father during the Nazi period despite pressure to do so; her sense of inferiority resulting from her experiences; and feeling at home in Germany, not in Israel. 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
- C., Liselotte, -- 1928-
Subjects
- Postwar experiences.
- Crystal Night, 1938.
- Postwar effects.
- Antisemitism -- Postwar.
- Child survivors.
- Interfaith marriage.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Nuremberg laws.
- Kristallnacht, 1938.
- Children of interfaith marriage.
- Identification (Religion)
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- Citizenship -- Germany.
- Jews -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- Germany.
- Video tapes.
- Women.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust survivors.
Places
- Israel.
- Rosenstrasse (Berlin, Germany)
- Germany.
- Berlin (Germany)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat