Ilse K. Holocaust testimony (HVT-2258) [videorecording] / interviewed by Joanne Weiner Rudof and Sara Moss Herz, December 21, 1993.

New Haven, Conn. : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 1993.

1 videorecording (1 hr., 46 min.) : col.

English

Videotape testimony of Ilse K., who was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany in 1925. She tells of her parents' divorce; living in a foster home, then with her mother from age five to ten, followed by a Jewish children's home in Munich; her mother's emigration to the United States in 1939; working in Jewish children's homes in Frankfurt; a non-Jewish friend offering to hide her; refusing since it would place him in danger; and deportation to Estonia in September 1942. Mrs. K. recounts meeting a cousin; living in Tallinn prison where her cousin protected her; transfer to Kiviõli; working for Organisation Todt; her friendship with four women who remained together throughout the war; evacuation to Stutthof, Ochsenzoll, Neuengamme, and Bergen-Belsen, where she witnessed cannibalism; liberation in April 1945; and the arrest of Josef Kramer, camp commander. She describes living in Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp; joining her mother in Delaware in February 1946; difficulties living together; moving to New York; marriage; her husband's death at age thirty-seven; her son's suicide at age seventeen; and her daughter's sense that Mrs. K.'s experiences impacted their childhood despite her silence. Mrs. K. discusses her continuing relationship with her four concentration camp friends and shows her first letter to her mother after liberation.

June 01, 2002

Ilse K. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2258). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Ilse K. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2258). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)