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Gabrielle S. Holocaust testimony (HVT-594) interviewed by Sarah Moskovitz,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-594

Videotape testimony of Gabrielle S., who was born in Berlin, Germany in 1933. She recounts her father's family pharmacy; emigration to Amsterdam in 1938, intending to flee to Argentina; German invasion; expulsion from school; attending a Jewish school; anti-Jewish restrictions, including wearing the yellow star; disappearances of teachers and students after round-ups; learning two of her grandparents in Germany committed suicide rather than being deported; notice for deportation to Westerbork; giving her teddy bear to a non-Jewish friend (she returned it after the war); vermin, poor sanitary conditions, fear of weekly deportations, and quarreling; her maternal grandmother's suicide when her name was listed for deportation; her father working as a street cleaner and her mother as a housekeeper; frequent illnesses; deportation to Theresienstadt; slave labor transporting boxes of cremated ashes; frequent discussions of death; liberation by Soviet troops on May 8; returning to Amsterdam via Plzeň and Eindhoven; and emigration to the United States in 1950. Ms. S. discusses her and her mother's illnesses resulting from the camps; never talking about unpleasant memories with her parents; receiving compensation for their store from Germany in 1980 (after her father had died); and continuing fear of sirens.

Author/Creator
S., Gabrielle, 1933-
Published
Northridge, Calif. : Child Survivor Archive at California State University, Northridge, 1985
Interview Date
June 4, 1985.
Locale
Germany
Berlin (Germany)
Amsterdam (Netherlands)
Plzeň (Czech Republic)
Eindhoven (Netherlands)
Language
English
Copies
3 copies: 1/2 in. VHS master; Betacam SP dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Gabrielle S. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-594). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.