Item 02: Holocaust survivors from Germany ; Charlotte Friederike Dessen interviewed by Gilda Manor, 1989

MLOH 500/109-110

item

02/02/1989

Nonmusical Sound Recordings, Oral Histories

997026

Sound Recording : CY MLOH 500/109-110

2 sound cassettes (2 hrs.)

Charlotte Friederike Dessen, nee Behrens, was born in Gardelegen, Germany, in 1925. Between 1939 and 1941 she attended the Jewish horticultural school at Ahlem, near Hanover (Germany). At the end of 1941 she was sent to a small labour camp at Kersdorf near Briesen (Germany). In 1943 Charlotte was taken to a collection centre in Berlin and transported to Auschwitz. There she worked in the ammunitions factory, managing to survive the camp conditions until January 1945 when, in anticipation of the arrival of the Russians, the camp inmates were forced on a death march to Ravensbruck concentration camp, arriving in April 1945. Charlotte's feet became frost bitten as a result of the freezing conditions prevailing during the march and consequently her toes had to be amputated. When the Germans fled Ravensbruck as the Russians approached, she was left behind in the camp because she was unable to walk and was liberated by the Russians on their arrival. Charlotte returned to her home town, the only Jewish girl to do so. Two years later she emigrated, via Paris, to Rhodesia where she married and lived until leaving for Australia in 1966.

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Log of interview available in the Mitchell Library Reading Room -

Original Mitchell Library allocated tape number 49.