Memoirs in Miniature: CM/1 Forms and Fragmentary Understandings of the Holocaust

Abstract

This article examines the Care and Maintenance (CM/1) form of Paula Bettauer for what it reveals about her memories of surviving the Holocaust and her husband’s murder in Auschwitz. The record includes a personal narrative, chronologies of her employment status and vital documents, as well as other details, all of which offer a view of navigating Vienna following the Nazi annexation and later deportation of the vast majority of the city’s Jewish population. This article reports on these crucial pieces of information and analyzes various blank spaces in comprehending the Holocaust through an individual’s postwar memories.

Keywords

• Nazi Vienna
• antisemitism
• Holocaust
• <i>U Boot</i>
• survivor memoirs
• Care and Maintenance (CM/1) forms