Mathilde I. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Mathlde I., who was born in Rhodes in 1920. She recounts speaking Ladino at home and Italian in school; three of her brothers emigrating to Africa; refusing her aunt's offer to emigrate to the United States in 1939 in order to stay with her parents and grandmother; her mother's death in 1942; German occupation; deportation with her father by boat to Haidari, then by train to Auschwitz in August 1944; separation from her father upon arrival (she never saw him again); throwing bread over the fence to men they knew; prisoner officials beating others to death; observing women praying; praying to herself; difficulties communicating not knowing Yiddish; transfer to Flossenbürg in October, then to Wilischthal; improved food and living conditions; slave labor in a munitions factory with French, Soviet, and Italian prisoners of war; an opera singer composing a song about deportation and being beaten for singing it; brief evacuation to Zschopau, then return to Wilischthal; transfer to Theresienstadt; receiving Red Cross packages; liberation by Soviet troops; her brothers sending her funds; traveling to Milan, then Marseille; joining her brothers in Brazzaville; sharing her experiences with her family; marriage; and emigration to Belgium in 1960. Ms. I. discusses nightmares resulting from her experiences; continuing faith in God and praying twice daily; sharing her experiences with her children; and wondering how she survived.

3 videocassettes