Bernard and Henry S. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Bernard and Henry S., twins who were born in Lie?ge, Belgium in 1935. They detail their close, extended family; the German invasion; their escape; and settling in Saint-Etienne, France with the families of two uncles. They describe changes in 1942; being placed with a non-Jewish family; their father's and uncle's arrest and mother's evasion of a German round-up; their cousin's release from Drancy with fifty other children through intervention of the Cardinal of Lyon; living in an orphanage in Saint-Etienne, on a farm where they were mistreated, and an orphanage in Grenoble (all through the aid of OSE); their mother's experiences going from convent to convent; and her eventual meeting with a woman from Saint-Etienne, who hid the twin's sister and cousin, and arranged to place the two boys with her own mother in Saint Pals-de-Mons, where they remained for the duration of the war. They recall their postwar reunion with their mother and sister; the difficult realization of their father's death in Auschwitz; emigration to the United States in 1946; and the hardships their mother faced in raising four children alone (their cousin accompanied them). They relate their sister's efforts to honor their rescuers with a medal from Yad Vashem; their lack of fear during the war because they were together and their rescuers were such fine people; and the importance of their own children's religious education.
Extent and Medium
2 videocassettes (3/4" u-matic)
Conditions Governing Access
This testimony is open with permission.
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Copyright has been transferred to the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. Use of this testimony requires permission of the Fortunoff Video Archive.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- S., Bernard, -- 1935-
- S., Henry, -- 1935-
Corporate Bodies
- World Union OSE.
Subjects
- Family.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Mothers and sons.
- Fathers and sons.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Foster parents.
- Twins.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Jews -- Rescue.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Men.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Hiding.
- Brothers.
- Child survivors.
Places
- Saint Pals-de-Mons (France)
- Saint-Etienne (Loire, France)
- LieĚge (Belgium)
- Belgium.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- ftamc