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Oral history interview with Otto Hertz

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1999.A.0122.919 | RG Number: RG-50.477.0919

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    Oral history interview with Otto Hertz

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Otto Hertz discusses his childhood in Goch, Germany; his bar-mitzvah in 1916; the assimilation of Jews into German society; the general acceptance he and his family felt in their community; his work in the family department store; his memories of inflation in the 1920s; hearing about Nazis in 1925; the changes in attitude toward his family after Hitler's rise to power in 1933; his father's death in May 1938; witnessing the destruction during Kristallnacht in November 1938; his arrest along with other Jewish men; being transported to Dachau concentration camp, where he was incarcerated; the terrible conditions during his imprisonment; his release in December 1938 after his brother was able to obtain papers for him to leave Germany for Cuba; his marriage in 1939; being forced to report to the Gestapo; leaving Germany for Holland, where he spent four weeks before leaving for Cuba, where he received his visa to the United States; his move to the United States in October 1939; adjusting to his new life in Chicago; the difficulties he encountered in getting a visa for his wife; being reunited with her in April 1940; his attempts to bring his mother to the United States; learning later of his mother's death in Theresienstadt; moving to San Francisco to join his brother; and his marriage, family, and work life.
    Interviewee
    Otto Hertz
    Interviewer
    Peggy Coster
    Daniel Harris
    Date
    interview:  1991 March 21
    interview:  1991 May 14
    interview:  1991 August 22
    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
    3 videocassettes (SVHS) : sound, color ; 1/2 in..

    Rights & Restrictions

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

    Keywords & Subjects

    Personal Name
    Hertz, Otto.

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    The Bay Area Holocaust Oral History Project conducted the interview with Otto Hertz on March 21, 1991, May 14, 1991, and August 22, 1991. The interview was received by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives Branch in February 2005.
    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 08:47:29
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn516936

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