Kathe K. Holocaust testimony (HVT-292) [videorecording] / interviewed by Edith Bayne and Emily Howard, June 25, 1984.

New York, N.Y. : Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale, 1984.

1 videorecording (1 hr., 27 min.) : col.

English

Videotape testimony of Kathe K., who was born in Breslau, Germany in 1915. She describes her father's death when she was two-and-a-half; realizing she was different, having been diagnosed with cerebral palsy; and her sheltered childhood. Mrs. K. recalls sudden change in 1933 when she was denied entrance to college because she was a Jew; learning to type with one hand; and going to Prague to study English. She related hiding with Christian friends on Crystal Night; her brother's departure for England on a children's transport; her family's attempt to emigrate to Shanghai, resulting in her journey alone to Shanghai via Italy. Mrs. K. details oppressive conditions in Shanghai; the formation of a ghetto in Hongkew; her eventual employment by and marriage to the publisher of the Jewish newspaper; and liberation by American soldiers in 1945. She recalls their emigration to the United States; reunion with her family in New York; legal difficulties with her marriage, resulting in her remarriage to her husband; her desire to remain independent despite her handicap; medical difficulties; and her career. Mrs. K. notes that as a child, due to her handicap, she always wanted adventure and the irony that due to the war her life was an adventure, but perhaps not the kind she had envisioned.

June 01, 2002

Kathe K. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-292). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Kathe K. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-292). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)