Gertrud Mainzer oral history transcript

Consists of one oral history transcript, 217 pages, of an interview with Gertrud (Traute) Sinzheimer Mainzer, born in 1914 in Frankfurt, Germany. In the interview, which was conducted in pieces between 1984 and 1988, Gertrud describes her father, Hugo Sinzheimer, a famous lawyer, the family's emigration to the Netherlands in 1938, her memories of Anne and Margot Frank (both in the Netherlands and reuniting in Bergen-Belsen), the birth of her children, and separating from her children so they could all go into hiding in July 1942. In late 1943, after discovering her children had been betrayed, Gertrud left hiding to join them in Westerbork. In April 1944, the family was sent to Bergen-Belsen, as Gertrud had obtained false Cuban and Paraguayan immigration papers. In March 1945, Gertrud and her children were sent to a Red Cross camp in Bieberach, Germany, as part of a prisoner exchange. After the war, the family moved to Cuba and then to the United States, where Gertrud became a librarian and a lawyer, eventually arguing in front of the Supreme Court and becoming involved in adoption and family law.