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Elfi E. Holocaust testimony (HVT-1986) interviewed by Lilian Sicular,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-1986

Videotape testimony of Elfi E., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1927. She remembers living with her grandparents (her parents were divorced); a close relationship with her twin brother; being attacked by Hitler youth; Kristallnacht; her mother's decision to send her and her brother to Belgium to join their father; the paid smuggler abandoning them in Aachen; their father finding them; placement with foster families; missing her brother; briefly seeing her mother who was emigrating to London; placement in an orphanage in Middelkerke; evacuation to an orphanage in Brussels during German invasion in May 1940 (her brother was evacuated to France); anti-Jewish laws including expulsion from school and wearing the yellow star; being protected and hidden by the orphanage; liberation by the British troops in September 1944; joining her mother in London; and emigrating to the United States by herself. Mrs. E. discusses becoming assimilated; sharing her experience with her children; and continuing close relations with her brother and friends from the orphanage (she saw one at the Hidden Child Conference). She shows photographs.

Author/Creator
E., Elfi, 1927-
Published
New York, N.Y. : A Living Memorial to the Holocaust-Museum of Jewish Heritage, 1991
Interview Date
November 12, 1991.
Locale
Belgium
Germany
Berlin (Germany)
Aachen (Germany)
Middelkerke (Belgium)
Brussels (Belgium)
London (England)
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Elfi E. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1986). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
 
View in Yale University Library Catalog: http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/4285864
Record last modified: 2018-05-30 11:33:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/hvt4285864