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Edith L. Holocaust testimony (HVT-2868) interviewed by Lawrence L. Langer,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-2868

Videotape testimony of Edith L., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1926. She recalls the Anschluss; Kristallnacht; her father's deportation in 1939 (she never saw him again); her mother's arrest, then hers in 1941; their release; deportation with her mother, aunt, and grandmother to Theresienstadt in October 1942; seeking "normalcy" in cultural and social activities, despite starvation, disease, and deportations; strained relations between national groups; meeting her future husband; deportation with her mother to Auschwitz/Birkenau in May 1944; living in the family camp, then a woman's lager; transfer to Stutthof in July; forced labor on a German farm; improved food; contacts with British and Soviet POWs; returning to Stuthoff; the death march; deciding with her mother not to continue; being found; incarceration in Kokoszki; liberation by Soviet troops; traveling from Gdansk to Bratislava, Prague, Theresienstadt, and Vienna seeking relatives and her boyfriend; learning her grandmother had died in Theresienstadt after liberation; reunion with her boyfriend; traveling to Deggendorf displaced persons with him and others; marriage in December; her mother's emigration to the United States; following two weeks later; and her mother's death two years later. Ms. L. discusses separation anxiety and nightmares resulting from her experiences and the importance to her survival of being with her mother. She shows photographs.

Author/Creator
L., Edith, 1926-
Published
Brookline, Mass. : Brookline Holocaust Memorial Committee, 1994
Interview Date
June 8, 1994.
Locale
Germany
Austria
Vienna (Austria)
Gdańsk (Poland)
Bratislava (Slovakia)
Prague (Czech Republic)
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Edith L. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2868). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.