Bertha B. Holocaust testimony (HVT-2242) [videorecording] / interviewed by Naomi Rappaport, December 28, 1992.

New York, N.Y. : A Living Memorial to the Holocaust-Museum of Jewish Heritage, 1992.

1 videorecording (1 hr., 33 min.) : col.

English

Associated material: Bochner, Bertha. Interview 13669. Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation. Access at https://vha.usc.edu.

Videotape testimony of Bertha B., who was born in Berchem, Belgium in 1931, the youngest of six children. She recalls orthodox holiday observances; a large, close extended family; German invasion in 1940; fleeing to De Panne; returning to Antwerp; anti-Jewish restrictions; her father's brief imprisonment; deportation of her father, three brothers, and a sister (they did not survive); an aunt contacting the underground to hide them; help from a physician and priest; hiding in Dave with other Jewish families; fleeing to the forest after a German search; staying with the doctor who placed her mother in a hospital job and her and her sister in an orphanage; posing as non-Jews; her sister's secret emphasis on their Jewish identity; transfer to an orphanage in Sorinne-la-Longue; liberation by United States troops in 1944; reunion with their mother; fleeing to Charleroi to avoid battles; moving to Namur, then Antwerp; difficulties reclaiming family property; visiting the United States in 1957; and marrying a survivor there. Mrs. B. discusses her mother's wartime courage and her postwar depression; not talking about this time with her mother and sister; sharing her experiences with her children; and finding a community in the Hidden Child Foundation. She shows photographs.

June 01, 2002

Bertha B. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2242). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Bertha B. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2242). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)