- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Geiselle M., who was born in Žilina, Czechoslovakia in 1912. She describes her affluent family; Jewish life; her education; her mother's death in 1938; marriage in 1939; moving to Trenčín; and the German takeover. She details her husband's importance to the Germans since he was a plumber; her pregnancy; arrangements through a priest, with whom her husband had attended school, to have the child registered Catholic at birth; aid received from friends and employees; entrusting her son to a former employee; deportation to Auschwitz, via Sered,̕ with her father, stepmother and brother; the horrendous conditions of the transport; arrival and separation from her family; learning of her sister's death in Auschwitz; transfer to Bad Kudowa Zdój with her friends from Žilina; forced labor in a factory; liberation in May 1945; returning home; and reunion with her son and husband. She discusses the pain of seeing her son call another woman "mother"; the miracle of their family survival; her dreams and religious beliefs after the war; her son's reluctance to discuss the topic; his closeness to Mrs. M. and her husband; and her pleasure in her grandchildren.
- Author/Creator
- M., Geiselle, 1912-
- Published
- New York, N.Y. : Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale, 1985
- Interview Date
- April 29, 1985.
- Locale
- Czechoslovakia
Žilina (Slovakia)
Trenčín (Slovakia)
Sered̕ (Slovakia)
Brno (Czech Republic)
- Cite As
- Geiselle M. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-572). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Bayme, Edith, interviewer.
Mallon, Livia, interviewer.
- Notes
-
Associated material: Fred M. Holocaust testimony [husband] (HVT-573), Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
