- Summary
- A follow-up, directed videotape testimony of Dori K., whose first testimony was recorded in 1979. Ms. K. notes that she does not remember what she said in her testimony, but it was the first time she had spoken at length of her experiences and it was very painful. She recounts that the 1979 testimony freed her to explore her past by visiting the home where she was hidden and an archive in Brussels which contained records of her, her father, and family photographs. She also discusses clarifying some of her own memories; encountering a neighbor who said everyone knew she was Jewish and kept quiet; learning she had been in an institution of which she has no memories; amazement that so many people and institutions helped save her life; reconciling herself to the realization that she would never know some things; feeling that she could "let go" due to her trip, although her memories are constant and continue to frighten her; hoping she is not exploiting her experience when she reads her poetry publicly; ambivalence about sharing her experience with her students in a modern European literature course; remembering only the traumatic and none of the good times during the war; and difficulties communicating with her mother about that time.
- Author/Creator
- K., Dori, 1939-
- Published
- New Haven, Conn. : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 1988
- Interview Date
- January 13, 1988.
- Locale
- Belgium
Brussels (Belgium)
Antwerp (Belgium)
- Cite As
- Dori K. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-969). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Langer, Lawrence L., interviewer.
Rosenstock, Sandra, interviewer.
- Notes
-
Due to the fact that this testimony contains significant dialogue between the witness and the interviewers, two versions were produced at the time of the taping. One version has the camera focused solely on the witness; the second has two cameras alternating between the witness and the interviewers. The interviewers' questions are based on their study of the original testimony as well as a discussion of the witness's memories of the first testimony, its impact on her life, and general issues concerning memory and language.
Associated material: Dori K. Holocaust testimony (HVT-59), Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
Related publication: Looking for strangers : the true story of my hidden wartime childhood / Dori Katz. -- Chicago ; London : University of Chicago Press, c 2013.
