- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Ruth J., who was born in Frankenberg, Germany, in 1932. Ms. J. recalls a family move to Düsseldorf; Kristallnacht; her parents' decision to flee to Holland; living on the estate of an anti-Nazi baron in Utrecht; being joined by her grandmother; German invasion; imposition of anti-Semitic measures; the disappearances of school classmates; deportation of her grandmother to Terezín; and in 1942 being hidden by a non-Jewish friend who told others the family had committed suicide. She describes being helped by the Dutch resistance; separation from her parents; placement with several families (sometimes in the guise of a "long lost cousin"); her "child-like" awareness of the reasons for hiding; reunion with her parents in hiding; Allied liberation in 1944; postwar confusion about her religious identity; her mother's emotional breakdown and suicide; her father's remarriage and suicide; emigration to America in 1953; and becoming the first woman in the film projectionists' union. Ms. J. illustrates her account with collages she created from family photographs and documents.
- Author/Creator
- J., Ruth, 1932-
- Published
- New Haven, Conn. : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 1991
- Interview Date
- February 20, 1991.
- Locale
- Netherlands
Germany
Düsseldorf (Germany)
Frankenberg (Hesse, Germany)
Utrecht (Netherlands)
- Cite As
- Ruth J. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1104). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Rudof, Joanne Weiner, interviewer.
Katz, Helen, interviewer.
- Notes
-
Related publication: Rescued Images : Memories of a Childhood in Hiding / Ruth Jacobsen. -- New York : Mikaya Press, c2001.
