Jacqueline R. Holocaust testimony (HVT-1537) interviewed by Dana L. Kline and Lucille B. Ritvo

Videotape testimony of Jacqueline R., who was born in Paris, France in 1938. Ms. R, recalls being placed by her parents with Christians in Normandy after German occupation; her parents' visits; traveling with her mother, with help from the underground, to her father in Free France; happy times living in Grenoble; escaping to Switzerland after the German takeover; life in refugee camps; and being placed with foster parents. She describes fond relations with her foster family; her parents' visits; attending Catholic school; affinity for the Church; her parents' return to Paris at war's end; sending for her in 1947; being mixed with a group of orphans on the train; spending several months in an orphanage while her parents searched for her; reunion with them in 1948; wanting to attend the Catholic church and become a nun; childhood shame at being Jewish; wonderful experiences as a member of a Bund youth group; emigration to the United States in 1951; and no family discussion of war experiences and losses (her mother was the sole European survivor of her family). Ms. R. remembers her father's death in 1982 triggering her coming to terms with her past; attending survivor gatherings; forming a child survivors' group; and the importance of the recent Hidden Child Conference.