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Birgit N. Holocaust testimony (HVT-980) interviewed by Peggy Morton and Kathy Strochlic,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-980

Videotape testimony of Birgit N., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1923. She recalls her assimilated family; being allowed to attend public school as a Jew only because of her father's service in World War I; his emigration to Holland in 1935; her present guilt at not intervening when a Jewish student was harassed; emigration with her mother to Holland in 1938; attending a Quaker school; their departure by ship to Chile; the sinking of the ship by a German mine and their rescue (many passengers perished); remaining in England as disaster refugees; going to Shanghai via Canada in 1940, then to Cuba in six months, then to the United States. Mrs. N. discusses stories of several family members; her nightmares after the ship's sinking; her close relationship with her father; visits to places she had lived; writing her memoirs for her children; her lack of national identity; and guilt at having an "easy life" while members of her family suffered. She shows pictures of the ship and its survivors.

Author/Creator
N., Birgit, 1923-
Published
New York, N.Y. : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 1988
Interview Date
May 9, 1988.
Locale
Canada
Germany
Berlin (Germany)
Netherlands
England
Shanghai (China)
Cuba
Language
English
Copies
3 copies: 3/4 in. master; 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Birgit N. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-980). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
 
View in Yale University Library Catalog: http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/1058029
Record last modified: 2018-06-04 13:24:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/hvt1058029