Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

• Contents
• Map

Vera Gissing - April 22, 2006

An interview with Vera Gissing, a Holocaust survivor, conducted by Dr. Sidney Bolkosky, Professor of History at the University of Michigan--Dearborn. Vera Gissing was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1928. She lived in Celakovice, outside of Prague, with her mother, father, and sister, Eva. After the Germans invaded their town, Vera's mother contacted Nicholas Winton about having the girls sent to England. Vera and her sister left Czechoslovakia in July 1939 and were put into foster care with two separate families. Vera stayed with the Rainfords, a poor Christian family, before enrolling in a Czech refugee school in England where she spent the duration of the war. After the war, Vera went back to Prague to study and became a literary translator but eventually moved back to England. While being interviewed by the Welsh BBC, Vera revealed her diaries that she kept of her experience during the war and decided to translate and publish the entries in the book Pearls of Childhood.

1. Introduction
2. Family Life
3. Religious Life
4. Extended Family
5. Doesn't Consider Herself a Holocaust Survivor
6. Experience with German Culture
7. Anti-Semitism
8. Life Before the War
9. Life Before the War II
10. Experience at Summer Camp
11. Germans Invade Czechoslovakia
12. Life Under German Occupation
13. Life Under German Occupation II
14. Politics
15. News of Kindertransport
16. News of Kindertransport II
17. Permission to Leave on Kindertransport
18. Receiving a Diary
19. Receiving a Diary II
20. Problems in Communist Czechoslovakia
21. Meeting Foster Mother
22. Foster Family
23. Traveling to Liverpool
24. Czech Government-in-exile
25. Start of War
26. Meeting Czech President Benes
27. Attending a Czech Refugee School
28. News of Mother
29. Fate of Parents
30. Russian Takeover of Prague
31. Sharing Story
32. Sharing Story II
33. Publishing Book
34. Film Proposal of Experience
35. Reaction to Being Sent Away
36. Saying Goodbye to Family
37. Memories
38. Feelings Toward Being Sent Away
39. Visiting Prague Jewish Museum
40. Conclusion