Overview
- Interview Summary
- Inger Josephson, born in 1928 in Stockholm, Sweden, describes her parents, Gunnar Josephson and Maud Ellen Gabrielle Boheman; being the youngest of four siblings (she had three brothers, Åke, Carl, and Erland); her maternal grandmother who was Jewish; her father, who was the CEO of Sandberg's Bookstore in Stockholm; her father's role from 1937 to 1962 as the chairman and leader of the Mosaic Assembly (which is what the Jewish Assembly in Stockholm was called); her father's involvement in the community's relief work for Europe's Jews during the period 1933-1945; her father's brother, Ragnar, who was a professor of art history, a member of the Swedish Academy, and at one time director of the Dramatic Theater; her family belonging to Stockholm's Jewish bourgeoisie as well as the Swedish cultural elite; not attending the synagogue as a family and not celebrating Jewish holidays; having a Christmas tree; not experiencing antisemitism; hosting a German Jewish girl during the war, which Inger did not appreciate as a teenager; feeling guilty later about how she treated this woman when they were young; her memories of Kristallnacht; how the stress of the war has stayed with her; going to Paris, France in 1949 and working as a social worker for a year; meeting many Holocaust survivors; and living with 30 other students from around the world as they helped with the refugee relief efforts in Paris.
- Interviewee
- Inger Josephson
- Interviewer
- Carolyn Östberg
- Date
-
interview:
2017 April 19
- Geography
-
creation:
Stockholm (Sweden)
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection
Physical Details
- Language
- Swedish
- Extent
-
1 digital file : MP4.
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Sweden. Jewish refugees--Europe. Jewish teenagers--Sweden. Jews--Identity. Jews--Social life and customs. Jews--Societies, etc. Jews--Sweden--Stockholm. Social workers--France. Students--France--Paris. World War, 1939-1945--Jews--Rescue--Sweden. World War, 1939-1945--Jews--Sweden--Stockholm. World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, Swedish. Women--Personal narratives.
- Geographic Name
- Paris (France) Stockholm (Sweden) Versailles (France)
- Personal Name
- Josephson, Inger, 1928-
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- This is a witness interview of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Perpetrators, Collaborators, and Witnesses: The Jeff and Toby Herr Testimony Initiative, a multi-year project to record the testimonies of non-Jewish witnesses to the Holocaust.
- Funding Note
- The production of this interview was made possible by Jeff and Toby Herr.
The cataloging of this oral history interview has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. - Special Collection
-
The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2023-11-16 09:41:29
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn594411
Additional Resources
Summaries (2)
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- See Rights and Restrictions
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