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Oral history interview with Hedy Epstein

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1995.A.1285.59 | RG Number: RG-50.149.0059

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    Oral history interview with Hedy Epstein

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Hedy Epstein, born August 15, 1924, describes her life in Kippenheim, Germany during the 1920s and 1930s; her family and Jewish identity; being aware of the rise of Hitler and the Nazis; the boycott of Jewish businesses; the impact of Nazi rule on education; Kristallnacht and the destruction of Jewish property and the synagogue; the persecution of Jewish children at school; her father’s arrest and his imprisonment at Dachau; anti-Jewish legislation; her father’s return; leaving Germany on a Kindertransport in May 1939; her attitude towards leaving Germany and family; arriving in England; meeting Mrs. Meyer; living with the Rose family; living with the Simmons family; the beginning of the war in September 1939; communication with her parents; selling her stamp collection and sending the money to her parents; the fate of her parents; having to leave school to get job in 1940; her various jobs; working in a war factory in 1943; losing part of a finger in defective machine; working in an ammunition factory in 1944; losing her job due to her enemy alien status; working on lathe in a factory; attending night classes at Morely College; joining the Free German Youth; her first boyfriend; working with the censorship division of US War Department in Germany in July 1945; receiving training for two weeks in France; her attitude towards German people; her work duties; working at subsequent proceedings of the Nuremberg Trials; being assigned to department dealing with medical experiments carried out on camp inmates; searching through documents for evidence; the suspensions that a US colonel in charge of the documents department held sympathy for Nazis; witnessing the trial of Goering; returning to England in March 1948; immigrating to the United States; her life in the US; working for the New York Association for New Americans with Jewish displaced persons from 1948 to 1950; working for a Jewish agency in Minnesota; visiting her grandfather's grave in Gurs, France; her attitude towards German people; returning to Kippenheim and family home in 1990; participating in anti Gulf war demonstrations in Bonn, Germany in 1991; her fears for the future; living in New York, NY when she first moved to the US; her work for the United Restitution Organization filing claims for property lost under the Nazis; attending a university in the 1950s; speaking at her son's school about her Holocaust experience; speaking at schools and universities in the US and Europe; her research regarding role of women in the Holocaust; her refusal to speak to children under 12 about the Holocaust; her involvement with the Kindertransport Association; discovering photographs of Grandmother in concentration camp at Washington Holocaust Museum; and planning to attend the Nuremberg Trials reunion in 1996.
    Interviewee
    Hedy Epstein
    Date
    interview:  1991 December 12

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Extent
    4 sound cassettes (90 min.).

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
    Conditions on Use
    Restrictions on use. Permission to copy and/or use recordings in any production must be granted by the Imperial War Museums.

    Keywords & Subjects

    Administrative Notes

    Holder of Originals
    Imperial War Museum
    Provenance
    The interview was conducted by the Imperial War Museum as part of their retrospective oral history interview program. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum acquired a copy of the interview with Hedy Epstein from the Imperial War Museum in February 1995.
    Record last modified:
    2023-11-16 08:17:34
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn510861

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