Overview
- Interview Summary
- Dr. Nandita Sen, born in March 1929, discusses growing up in Calcutta (Kolkata), India; living together with her paternal grandparents, an uncle, and cousins; the Bengal famine of 1943; her father’s and paternal grandfather’s journalism careers; her grandfather’s anti-British political views and writing; the different branches of Hinduism; the caste system; her three sisters; her family’s belief in the importance of education; her family’s friendship with Rabindranath Tagore, the 1913 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature; her mother’s musical talents; the Calcutta School of Music, which she, her sisters, her mother, and her aunts attended; being educated in both the Indian and Western traditions; Calcutta’s large Jewish community; her maternal grandfather’s interactions with many different Calcutta communities, in particular the Jewish community, through his work as a doctor; her and her sisters’ interactions with people of various backgrounds at the Calcutta School of Music; her private tutor Mrs. Levy, a Jewish woman who had converted to Catholicism; her Jewish neighbors and friend; the integrated neighborhoods in Calcutta; not being aware of any antisemitism before the war; having knowledge of what was happening in Europe; the huge influx of British and American pilots to Calcutta during the war; meeting American pilots who volunteered for the Royal Air Force in 1940, before America entered the war; a branch of the America Office of War Information stationed in the apartment above her family’s; the South-East Asian Theatre of the Pacific War and its effects on India; the lasting friendships she and her family developed with British and American soldiers, in particular with American Jewish soldier Harold Leventhal; meeting Harold through a cousin; Harold’s time in Calcutta from 1941 to 1945 and the very positive, wide reputation he earned; Harold’s music career in the US; meeting Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe as they passed through Calcutta; refugee camps established for refugees outside of cities such as Asansol and Darjeeling; her and her family’s interactions with refugees who were doctors, such as a Dr. Handel, a Dr. Goldmann, and a Dr. Feldman; musicians who came to Calcutta before and during the war; political events in Europe during the 1930s, such as the Spanish Civil War; Calcutta’s absence of Burmese refugees fleeing the Japanese advance; meeting her husband after the war; the Partition of India in 1947, which resulted in the creation of India and Pakistan; Direct Action Day (also called the Great Calcutta Killings) on August 16, 1946 and its impact on various parts of Calcutta; Mahatma Gandhi; the Muslim communities in India; Great Britain’s historic colonization; India’s independence in 1947; getting married; living in England; the mental impact of the war; traveling the world; working for volunteer agencies for decades; her two sons; her love of New York; the book about her grandfather’s journalism career; communal unrest in the 1970s; her lasting fondness of Calcutta; and the different ethnic groups in India today.
- Interviewee
- Nandita Sen
- Interviewer
- Olivia Rosen
- Date
-
interview:
2017 April 06
- Geography
-
creation:
Hyderabad (India)
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, courtesy of the Jeff and Toby Herr Foundation
Physical Details
- Language
- English
- Extent
-
1 digital file : WAV.
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945). Air pilots, Military--Great Britain. Air pilots, Military--India. Air pilots, Military--United States. Antisemitism--India. Caste--India. Famines--India--Bengal. Hinduism. Jewish refugees--Europe, Eastern. Jewish refugees--India--Kolkata. Jewish soldiers--United States. Jews--India--Kolkata. Journalists--India. Massacres--India--Kolkata. Music--Instruction and study. Muslims--India. Refugee camps--India--Asansol. Refugee camps--India--Darjeeling. World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--South Pacific Ocean. World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--Southeast Asia. World War, 1939-1945--India. World War, 1939-1945--Journalists--India. World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, East Indian. World War, 1939-1945--Psychological aspects. World War, 1939-1945--Women--India. Women--Personal narratives.
- Geographic Name
- Asansol (India) Darjeeling (India) England. India--History--British occupation, 1765-1947. India--History--Partition, 1947. Kolkata (India) New York (N.Y.) Spain--History--Civil War, 1936-1939.
- Personal Name
- Sen, Nandita, 1929- Gandhi, Mahatma, 1869-1948. Leventhal, Harold. Tagore, Rabindranath, 1861-1941.
- Corporate Name
- United States. Office of War Information
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- This is a witness interview of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Perpetrators, Collaborators, and Witnesses: The Jeff and Toby Herr Testimony Initiative, a multi-year project to record the testimonies of non-Jewish witnesses to the Holocaust. The interview was recorded in Hyderabad, India.
- Funding Note
- The cataloging of this oral history interview has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
- Special Collection
-
The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2023-11-16 09:41:05
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn560382
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- This record is digitized but cannot be downloaded online.
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