Oral History Interview with Betti Frank
Betti Frank, born February 20, 1924 into a merchant family in Zutphen, Holland, describes her life before the German invasion of Holland and the invasion itself on May 10, 1940; the Dutch expelling the German-Jewish refugees before the Nazis occupied the town; the Nazis rounding up Jewish men and sending them to Mauthausen; Dutch collaborators informing on her father, who was arrested by Dutch police; her father’s death in Mauthausen; being arrested with her mother and her brother by Dutch police; her brother being sent to Westerbork then to Auschwitz, where he was killed; being taken with her mother to a building owned by the Jewish community (Kehillah), which had been converted into a hospital for older Jews; how all the Jews who did not live in Amsterdam were shipped to Vught concentration camp; turning down a chance to escape with false papers to stay with her mother; the terror tactics used to subdue them and the conditions in Vught; the separate children’s camp and having contact with non-Jewish prisoners; joining a group of Chalutzim; her mother working as a nurse; the Philips company starting a Kommando, manufacturing radio lamps; the SS sending all the workers to Westerbork or Auschwitz; being sent back to Vught by the Wehrmacht because their work was important to the war effort; being transported in June 1944 to Auschwitz at night so that Philips couldn’t stop the deportation; arriving at Auschwitz June 6, 1944 and the processing and conditions; being treated with horrendous cruelty by the Kapos; the Philips workers being taken to a labor camp at Reichenbach (Langenbielau); being taken with 150 survivors to Lanowice concentration camp to work for Philips; the workers being taken on a death march to Trautenau, Sudetenland (Trutnov, Czech Republic) in February 1945; being sent to Porta, Westphalia to work for Philips under brutal conditions along with non-Jewish women; being taken to work in a saltmine near Magdeburg, Germany then to a small camp near Hamburg, Germany to dig trenches near the front; suffering under horrible conditions; an exchange arranged by the Red Cross and Count Folke Bernadotte, which resulted in the group being taken to Malmo, Sweden and to a camp in Goteborg, Sweden; recuperating and returning to Holland briefly; and going to Israel.
Date: | 03/03/1991 |
Interviewer: | Sylvia Brockmon |
Interviewee: | Betti Frank |
Language: | English |
Subject: | Concentration camp inmates--Medical care. Forced labor. Halutzim. Holocaust survivors. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Netherlands--Personal narratives. Jewish refugees--Germany. Jewish refugees--Netherlands. Jews--Netherlands--Zutphen. Jews--Persecutions--Netherlands. Kapos. Refugee camps--Sweden--Malmö. Salt mines and mining. World War, 1939-1945--Conscript labor. World War, 1939-1945--Deportations from Netherlands. Women--Personal narratives. Geographic Name Bielawa (Walbrzych, Poland) Göteborg (Sweden) Hamburg (Germany) Israel--Emigration and immigration. Magdeburg (Germany) Malmö (Sweden) Netherlands--History--German occupation, 1940-1945. Porta Westfalica (Germany) Trutnov (Czech Republic) Zutphen (Netherlands) |
Location: | Zutphen, Netherlands Zutphen Ghetto Herzogenbusch concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp Reichenbach concentration camp Sweden Israel |
Permalink: | https://hoha.digitalcollections.gratz.edu/item/oral-history-interview-with-betti-frank/ |
Audio Transcript | Time |
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01:07:27 | |
00:38:09 |