Holocaust Survivor Testimony-Emily Eyberg

Emily Eyberg
Mr.Neuberg
ENG Comp 102-104
12 October 2011
Response to Testimony
Edith Coliver
Edith is asked to spell her name by the interviewer, first thing she says is “V as in Victory”, this may simply be the best letter to get across that there was a ‘v’ in her name, however, I like to think it is because she truly believes there has been a victory. Edith was born in Karlsrophe, Germany in July 26, 1926, the eldest of three children, with two brothers. Her family was a middle class German- Jew family, she fondly remembers her grandmother who wore a wig, and was “wonderfully nurturing”. She recollects hearing Germans, around the same age, saying ‘oh, I was young’, her response was “I knew when I was eleven years old; don’t tell me that, you must have known what you were doing.” Edith speaks with such composure and dignity. Reflecting on how she watched those who had been ‘saved’ when the concentration camps were opened, the number of deaths then was almost more than during the camps themselves. During her time, Edith worked trials of war crimes, and crimes against humanity. After attending Berkley and studying political science, she was savvy in the ways of a court system, and how those would try to work the system. When returning to Germany, “I went to Germany not with a sense of revenge but curiosity, what makes people do these awful things.” Edith was able to see that the Nazis were killing on an automatic switch, it had been programmed into their very core, and however this still does not excuse their actions. Edith pondered these things throughout her entire life, but still her heart never filled with revenge; heartache and longing for peace for people, but never revenge.