Edith Coliver Testimony 1

Holocaust Testimony

Edith Coliver

                Edith Coliver at the time of the interview was a 77 year old, Jewish, and German native. The interview was conducted in her home in San Francisco, California. Her European experiences during the 1930s and 1940s were actually a lot easier than they could have been. Both of her parents were several generation Germans and good, strong Jewish followers. Her father was a banker and had enough to live a good life. She lived in a kosher house in Karshuhe, Germany. They even had a cook that had served them for three generations. Edith partook in sports such as track and field. She was a part of a club called The League of German Jews. While at a track meet she once apologized to the Jewish men with beard for not being properly dressed. She says one of the men replied "it’s aright as long as you have good legs." As comical as that might sound it reminds me just how silly the anti-Semitism was at this time. The Jewish people were treated as though they were different when really they were just like you and I and even gave silly responses such as that one. She was about eighth or ninth grade when the anti-Semitism really set in. In school she had a Racial Science class where they learned about the idea of a perfect Arian. She said there was also a terrible joke going around her part. After a man would be taken away by the SS an officer would show up a few days later and call out to the wife and say "widow so-and-so!..." implying that her husband was now dead. Her accounts of this doesn't go much farther as she switches gears to her family moving to America and eventually ending up in San Francisco where she had family. Upon arrival at port 35 the immigration agent saw her with her accordion and prompted her to play it. "So I play God Bless America and the customs agent cried and all the people down the pier, our relatives, cried" she says. This story again reminds me how as people we aren't so different. Even this German girl just arriving in the country can share a moment with the Americans that have never been to Germany or even Europe. Here in America she attends Berkeley and stays in an international house. She loves it there but it is taken away during her tenure there. She the moves east and tries to find work in Washington DC. There she works for a senator. Eventually she finds herself in Europe at the trials. This is where the allies convicted the axis forces of war crimes. There were also war crimes that were also convicted by the allies. Apparently the axis could not be prosecuted for crimes that the allies committed too. Edith Coliver died on December 27, 2002 of pancreatic cancer. She was 79. That is just two years after this interview took place.

"it’s aright as long as you have good legs." Example of how light hearted and normal things were before the Holocaust.

"So I play God Bless America and the customs agent cried and all the people down the pier, our relatives, cried"