Vera Gissing - April 22, 2006
Introduction
The following is an interview with Vera Gissing, held in Washington D.C. on April 22, 2006. The interviewer is Sidney Bolkosky.
Uh, can you tell me your name please, and where you were born.
My name is Vera Anna Gissing, used to be Vera Diamantova. I was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia.
In the city of Prague?
Um, well, in a hospital in Prague, because we actually lived on the fringes of the city in a little town called Celakovice. But um, my mother had me in a proper hospital in Prague.
And what do you remember about life before the war?
I remember an awful lot, because um, I had a very happy childhood. Um, we had a very close family. My father and my oldest sister--who was four and a half years my senior--her name was uh, Eva. And they were very close. My sister was very serious and studious and I was a ragamuffin who always got into scrapes. And--but um, I was very close to mother and um, we were an incredibly happy family.
How large...
There wasn't a cloud on my horizon in my childhood as far as I can...
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