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Oral history interview with Margaret Bendahan

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1999.A.0122.753 | RG Number: RG-50.477.0753

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    Oral history interview with Margaret Bendahan

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Margaret Bendahan, born in 1908 in Saxony, Germany, discusses her Jewish mother and Christian father; her childhood in Germany; the persecution she and her family endured under Nazi rule; her father losing his business; traveling east in an attempt to go to the United States; traveling by train through Nazi-occupied Poland and Russia; arriving in Okinawa, Japan and trying to get on a boat that would eventually take her to Panama and being denied admittance on to the boat; her attempts to leave Japan; finding a job as a French tutor for a family in Japan; her friends in Yokohama; her interactions with Willy Rudolf Foerster; being detained by Japanese police because they believed she was a spy; being imprisoned in the central prison and beaten daily; refusing to sign an official document stating that she was a spy and until she eventually signed it; being sent to a bigger prison with slightly improved living conditions; attributing her survival to her daily prayers; being released after liberation; having a difficult time securing medical attention; receiving help from a Catholic organization; working for the American Red Cross; immigrating to the United States in late 1945; renting a living space from her first cousin in Mill Valley, CA; working as a maid; getting married; working at a department store for a few years; her son; her husband’s death 11 years after their marriage; her mother and sister joining her in the US; the difficulty of sharing her war-time experiences; reporting the atrocities committed against her to the War Crimes Board and receiving a small pension as a reparation; and how the trauma of her experiences still affects her.
    Interviewee
    Margaret Bendahan
    Interviewer
    Alexandra M. Isles
    Date
    interview:  1991 August 27
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Jewish Family and Children's Services of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Extent
    2 videocassettes (SVHS) : sound, color ; 1/2 in..

    Rights & Restrictions

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

    Keywords & Subjects

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    The Bay Area Holocaust Oral History Project conducted the interview with Margaret Bendahan on August 27, 1991. The interview was received by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives Branch in June 2004.
    Funding Note
    The cataloging of this oral history interview has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
    Record last modified:
    2023-11-16 08:46:41
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn515674

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