- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Kathe K., who was born in Breslau, Germany in 1915. She describes her father's death when she was two-and-a-half; realizing she was different, having been diagnosed with cerebral palsy; and her sheltered childhood. Mrs. K. recalls sudden change in 1933 when she was denied entrance to college because she was a Jew; learning to type with one hand; and going to Prague to study English. She related hiding with Christian friends on Crystal Night; her brother's departure for England on a children's transport; her family's attempt to emigrate to Shanghai, resulting in her journey alone to Shanghai via Italy. Mrs. K. details oppressive conditions in Shanghai; the formation of a ghetto in Hongkew; her eventual employment by and marriage to the publisher of the Jewish newspaper; and liberation by American soldiers in 1945. She recalls their emigration to the United States; reunion with her family in New York; legal difficulties with her marriage, resulting in her remarriage to her husband; her desire to remain independent despite her handicap; medical difficulties; and her career. Mrs. K. notes that as a child, due to her handicap, she always wanted adventure and the irony that due to the war her life was an adventure, but perhaps not the kind she had envisioned.
- Author/Creator
- K., Kathe, 1915-
- Published
- New York, N.Y. : Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale, 1984
- Interview Date
- June 25, 1984.
- Locale
- China
Shanghai
Germany
Wrocław (Poland)
Genoa (Italy)
Shanghai (China)
Hongkou Qu (Shanghai, China)
- Cite As
- Kathe K. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-292). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Bayne, Edith, interviewer.
Howard, Emily, interviewer.
