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Sonja M. Holocaust testimony (HVT-1173) interviewed by M. Meyer, S. Lipstadt and Gerda Haas,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-1173

Videotape testimony of Sonja M., who was born in Berlin in 1925. She recalls antisemitic harassment in school; expulsion; attending a Jewish school; refusing a place on a kindertransport to remain with her parents; forced factory labor; her parents' deportation; hiding with her future husband (his job for the Jewish Kultusgemeinde provided protection and influence); deportation to Theresienstadt in June 1943 due to his influence; marriage by a rabbi; a Red Cross visit; deportation to Birkenau in October 1944; transfer ten days later to Freiberg; slave labor in an airplane factory; civilians throwing them food during transfer to Mauthausen; liberation by United States troops; recovering from a high fever; being smuggled to Linz by a friend; traveling to Frankfurt, and Bielefeld; reunion with her husband; living in Munich; one child's birth; and emigration to the United States in order not to raise their children in Germany. Mrs. M. discusses emotional numbness in the camps and at liberation; difficulty believing people were gassed and burned, even when she was in Auschwitz; continuing nightmares; and seldom discussing her experiences with her husband or children.

Author/Creator
M., Sonja, 1925-
Published
Auburn, Me. : Holocaust Human Rights Center of Maine, 1987
Interview Date
November 18, 1987.
Locale
Germany
Berlin (Germany)
Linz (Austria)
Frankfurt am Main (Germany)
Bielefeld (Germany)
Munich (Germany)
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Sonja M. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1173). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
 
View in Yale University Library Catalog: http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/4283506
Record last modified: 2018-06-04 13:28:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/hvt4283506