Holocaust survivor testimonies

Holocaust Survivor Testimonies Edith Colivar & Joseph Morten Edith Colivar was born July 26, 1922, in Karlsruhe, Baden. Her family was German Jewish and had lived in Germany for more generations than anyone could remember. As a child she took summer vacations in Holland and winter vacations in Switzerland, as her father was a banker. She did not witness the horrors of the Holocaust first hand because her family moved to New York in June of 1938. The majority of her involvement was acting as an interpreter for Nazi trials in the United States. However, she did have immediate family (two aunts and an uncle) and at least one childhood friend who died in concentration camps. She qualified for the job because she held a degree from Berkley and also had a few months experience with the state senator. There was one defendant in particular that stuck out in her mind, Lord Lawrence. He was rude towards everyone, but she asked him to autograph a picture for her. He was later hanged. The majority of her memories revolve around the different defendants and how the vast majority of them denied their charges. During the interview, she seemed to have a mild case of survivor’s guilt because she kept saying how embarrassed she was about various things that were outside her control. She was eventually married and had children. About the denial at the trials, she said: “I trusted people more who said ‘I was powerless.’ Because what Hitler did, from the very beginning, is to cut off the opposition.” She didn’t believe or trust the people who claimed ignorance, but she did believe the ones who admitted they simply could not stand up to Hitler. About Nazi control she simply said: “When you have the power to move things, you have the power to move them to the better or to the worse.” Joseph Morten was born July 11, 1924 in Lodz, Poland. His experience was more direct than Edith’s because his family spent most of the 20’s and 30’s in ghettos and work camps. When they started rounding up Jews in his town, his youngest brother Jacob (4) was in the local hospital with an unusually high fever. His father and he went to rescue him and they managed to sneak out without being noticed. Their family hid with friends and other Jewish families for several months. They were eventually captured and loaded onto a cattle train for transport. There was no food or water for the several days the trip took, except for a small piece of bread that someone had hidden in their pocket. After arriving, they did manual labor in horrible conditions and were barely fed enough to stay alive. Joseph, his brother and his father were separated from his mother when they transferred to another camp, and they never saw her again. The last camp they were moved to was the Auswich work camp, and the conditions there were even worse than elsewhere. Joseph spent most of his days carrying bags of cement to a construction area and praying for clean water. His brother became sick and was was kept aside with the other sick workers. When Joseph became ill as well, he searched for his brother but discovered he had died. The camp was liberated while Joseph was still ill and could hardly move due to malnutrition. In 1948, Joseph moved to Canada and eventually married and had children. He said his experience made him appreciate how precious life was, but he doesn’t think it affected the way he raised his children. He never spoke about the incidents unless asked. He applied for restitution and received monthly payments. When the interviewer asked if Joseph was aware of anyone ever escaping he said: “there was no escape.” “I would have to crawl on my feet and my hands to the dripping, running water,” he said about the only source of water for bathing and drinking for the entire camp.