- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Kurt G., who was born in Krefeld, Germany in 1927. He relates his family's German identity and having lived there since the Middle Ages; few memories of his father who died; attending a Jewish school; moving to Mülheim in 1934; his next older brother being sent to Scotland; antisemitic harassment in school; his oldest brother evading arrest on Kristallnacht; expulsion from school; shopping since he looked Aryan; placement on a Kindertransport in spring 1939; painful departure from his mother and brother; traveling to London; joining his brother in a Jewish orphanage in Scotland; difficult relations with his brother; hearing from his mother through the Red Cross until 1940; placement with a Christian family in Annan after the war began; a loving relationship with his foster family, with whom he is still in touch; placement in a Jewish home in Glasgow in July 1940; working in war industries as soon as he was old enough; joining FDJ (German anti-fascist youth group); enlisting in the British military in 1944; serving in Trieste; transfer to Germany in fall 1945; translating at POW camps; returning to Mülheim in 1947; learning his brother had volunteered to go with his mother when she was deported; antisemitism from Germans; finding a few relatives of his large family; joining German leftist groups; and settling in Germany.
Mr. G. discusses pride in his oldest brother for accompanying his mother at the cost of his own life; difficult relations with his other brother who did not try to get his mother and oldest brother to Scotland; attending a reunion of his military unit in 1995 with his grandchildren; and refusing reparation payments because of the German designation "to make good again," which he believes is impossible.
- Author/Creator
- G., Kurt, 1927-
- Published
- Potsdam, Germany : Moses Mendelssohn Zentrum für europäisch-jüdische Studien, Universität Potsdam, 1996
- Interview Date
- September 10, 1996.
- Locale
- Scotland
Germany
Krefeld (Germany)
Mülheim an der Ruhr (Germany)
London (England)
Annan (Scotland)
Glasgow (Scotland)
- Cite As
- Kurt G. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3730). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Gelbin, Cathy S., interviewer.
Lezzi, Eva, interviewer.
- Notes
-
This testimony is in German.
