- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Gitta W., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1934. She notes vague memories of being loved and hearing marching in the Berlin streets; traveling to Belgium; living in a house with her parents and relatives; German invasion; fleeing to Paris, then Nice; her malaise at seeing her parents very upset; difficulties in school; her father and uncle escaping when the families were arrested; release with her cousin; hiding with her father, uncle, and cousin; escaping after detection by the Gestapo; hiding with other Jews in a small village and Marseille; placement in a convent in Monaco after their rescuers were betrayed as resistants; the Mother Superior refusing to baptize them, reaffirming their Jewish identity; transfer to a family; liberation by United States troops; reunion with her father in Nice; and learning her uncle had been deported (her cousin remained with them). Mrs. W. discusses finding comfort in Catholicism when she was in hiding; her father searching for relatives; guilt that she left her mother; profound sorrow that her mother did not return and that she does not know her fate; feeling she did not help her father enough after the war; psychological problems due to her war experiences; difficulties trying to reestablish themselves in Berlin; and bitterness toward those who profited from the war and denied responsibility for the Holocaust. She shows photographs.
- Author/Creator
- W., Gitta, 1934-
- Published
- Potsdam, Germany : Moses Mendelssohn Zentrum für europäisch-jüdische Studien, Universität Potsdam, 1995
- Interview Date
- May 11, 1995.
- Locale
- Germany
Berlin (Germany)
Marseille (France)
Belgium
Paris (France)
Nice (France)
Monaco
- Cite As
- Gitta W. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3123). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Gelbin, Cathy S., interviewer.
Laub, Dori, interviewer.
Lezzi, Eva, interviewer.
- Notes
-
This testimony is in German.
