- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Hans L., who was born in Stralsund, Germany in 1926 to a Christian mother and Jewish father. He recounts his father's service in World War I; his family's assimilation (they celebrated Easter and Christmas); moving to Potsdam in 1936 due to antisemitism, hoping to be anonymous there; relatives who were Nazis, including his maternal aunt; expulsion from school in 1937; attending a Jewish school; observing the destruction in Berlin after Kristallnacht; his mother's refusal to divorce his father despite official pressure; being assigned to work in a Borsig munitions factory in 1941; imprisonment with his father at Rosenstrasse in February 1943; release after a demonstration by non-Jewish spouses and relatives, including his mother and aunt; occasionally removing their stars to attend cultural events; his parents' involvement in a resistance group; threatened exposure in 1944; hiding in his aunt's home; leaving in spring 1945 when soldiers were billeted there; incarceration with his father in a camp for "Geltungsjuden"; returning to their home in Potsdam after the war; his aunt's arrest by Soviets; her release when they verified her support of them despite her Nazi party membership; his father's arrest in 1947; their emigration to Israel in 1949; military service; problems because his mother was not Jewish; and their return to Berlin in 1966. He shows photographs.
- Author/Creator
- L., Hans, 1926-
- Published
- Potsdam, Germany : Moses Mendelssohn Zentrum für europäisch-jüdische Studien, Universität Potsdam, 1996
- Interview Date
- March 23, 1996.
- Locale
- Germany
Berlin
Stralsund (Germany)
Berlin (Germany)
Potsdam (Germany)
Rosenstrasse (Berlin, Germany)
Israel
- Cite As
- Hans L. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3424). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Heger, Dieter, interviewer.
Diekmann, Irene, interviewer.
- Notes
-
This testimony is in German.
