Document Type

Oral History

Publication Date

6-14-2011

Creation Date

2011-06-14

Publisher Information

Florida Holocaust Museum in conjunction with University of South Florida Tampa Library and Holocaust & Genocide Studies Center

Keywords

Austria, Crimes against humanity, Dixon, Elisabeth N., Florida, Genocide, Great Britain, Holocaust survivors, 1939-1945, Jewish children in the Holocaust, Jewish refugees, Kindertransports (Rescue operations), Knight, Hans, Religious life, Monastery, English Channel

Abstract

Oral history interview with Holocaust survivor Elisabeth N. Dixon. Dixon was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1928, and grew up in a Vienna suburb called Mödling with her brother, Hans Knight. Her parents were divorced when she was very young, so she alternated between households until her mother arranged for her to board at a convent. After the Anschluss in 1938, her father grew concerned for his children's safety and arranged for them to leave Austria on a Kindertransport. Dixon and her brother were taken to Halifax, England, where they lived with a local family for eight years. Their father was killed in the Holocaust; their mother, who was not Jewish, was not close to the children and remained in Germany after the war. Dixon immigrated to the United States when she was twenty-one, married a friend of her brother's, and had four children. In this interview, she recounts her childhood experiences, describing how her difficult family situation has affected her life.

Physical Information

1 sound file (220 min.) : digital, MP3 file + 1 transcript (54 p.)