The British Library The British Library Birkin, Edith, 1927- (2 of 17) C0410X0030XX-02 C0410/030 Interviewee's note: Describes early life; born in Prague. Family background, grandparents, family name was Hoffmann. Earliest memories, Jewish school, teaching methods. Arrival of Germans in Czechoslovakia; effect on schooling; father lost his job. Train to Lodz Ghetto. Life in the ghetto. Death of parents and the effect on her; she worked in a tailoring factory; memory of hearing gunfire of approaching Russians. Summer 1944, evacuation from the ghetto; taken by cattle truck to Auschwitz. Description of conditions and routines there. January 1945, the Germans moved prisoners out, beginning of the death march. Description of death march; birth of a baby, joy of hearing bombing outside Dresden. Arrival in Flossenburg camp in March 1945, 10 days there, then by coal truck to Belsen. Details of arrival in Belsen and conditions there; food, gypsies, typhus. Arrival and reactions of the British Army. The Germans forced to clear away the dead. The camp was burned, prisoners re-housed and cleaned. She was filmed for newsreel a few days after liberation. Edith had contracted typhus and was sent to the hospital. Entertainment in the hospital (Scottish dancing and a visit by Yehudi Menuhin). Journey back to Prague; Russian soldiers in Prague. Loneliness; loss of her family and belongings. Decided to go to UK in 1946; impressions. Went to Belfast by boat to visit her sister; attended high school in Londonderry. There was a Jewish community there. She did a teachers' training course in London. After that she worked in Hendon and Edgware. She married in 1962 to a non-Jewish man; they were unable to have children so they adopted two boys, and a girl. She dedicated herself to her family thereafter. She started painting based on the concentration camp experiences; it had a therapeutic effect on her. She exhibited and sold her work. Talks about her paintings, and about being lucky to have survived the holocaust. sound Part 2: Moving flats in Prague - social life and food rationing. Leaving Prague for Lodz Ghetto - train journey. Arrival in Lodz October 1941. First impressions. Arrival in school hall - sleeping arrangements. 1st day and beginning of the life in the Ghetto: food, washing, cart with dead people. Painting - contact with Germans - deportations. Routine living in the Ghetto - herself, her father and mother. Contacts with outside world. Birkin, Edith, 1927- (speaker, female) Thompson, Katherine (speaker, female) Thompson, Katherine 1989-02-18 and 1989-07-01 Interviewee's home The Living Memory of the Jewish Community none © The British Library Board C0410X0030XX-02 Birkin, Edith 1927- IVE Thompson, Katherine IVR Thompson, Katherine RCE CKEY5259015 Birkin, Edith, 1927- 2 of 17 Birkin, Edith, 1927- (2 of 17) Birkin, Edith, 1927- The Living Memory of the Jewish Community 1989 © The British Library 00:47:24 96000 24 2 273104896 00:47:17 96000 24 2 272392192 00:47:17 44100 128 kbps 2 00:47:11 44100 128 kbps 2 tape, compact cassette