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Oral history interview with Vera Otelsberg

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1997.A.0441.66 | RG Number: RG-50.462.0066

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    Oral history interview with Vera Otelsberg

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Vera Otelsberg (née Neuman), born in 1924 in Bielitz (Bielsko-Biala), Poland, describes her wealthy family; her father, who was an industrialist and owned several factories and a mill; her mother, who died when Vera was a young child; being brought up by a nanny; how her family was not religious and only attending synagogue on High Holidays; how shortly before the outbreak of World War II, she escaped to Warsaw with her older sister’s family; her sister’s family leaving for South America in 1940 while Vera stayed in the Warsaw Ghetto; getting some money through a relative on the Aryan side of Warsaw; working at the Toebbens Factory; escaping from the ghetto and living on the outside on false papers; working as a maid in a German household; listening to the radio illegally and translating the reports into Polish for an underground paper; life in Sochaczew, Poland before and during the retreat of the Germans and the killing of German soldiers by the advancing Russians; returning home when Bielitz was liberated with help from Russian Jewish officers; her father’s death in Lemberg and her nanny’s death in a camp; getting married and having a daughter; moving in 1957 to Montevideo, Uruguay; and the several instances of help she received from Poles and Germans.
    Interviewee
    Vera Otelsberg
    Date
    interview:  1989 November 06
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Gratz College Holocaust Oral History Archive

    Physical Details

    Language
    German
    Extent
    5 sound cassettes (60 min.).

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
    Conditions on Use
    No restrictions on use

    Keywords & Subjects

    Personal Name
    Otelsberg, Vera, 1924-

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    The Gratz College Holocaust Oral History Archive conducted the interview with Vera Otelsberg in Philadelphia, PA on November 6, 1989. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum received the tapes of the interview from Gratz College on September 30, 1999.
    Record last modified:
    2023-11-16 08:36:18
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn508690

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