Michel T. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Michel T., who was born in ?o?dz?, Poland, an only child. He recounts moving to his aunt's home in Breslau, Germany (presently Wroc?aw, Poland) when he was seven; his bar mitzvah; attending high school; being accused of sabotage after Hitler's ascent to power in 1933; fleeing to Bordeaux; visiting his family in Poland in 1937; moving to Vienna; Austrians warmly welcoming the Germans during the Anschluss; anti-Jewish violence; fleeing with his fiance?e in late October 1938; interrogation by the Gestapo in Saarbru?cken; release by the Gestapo and their assistance crossing the French border; traveling to Paris, then Nice; incarceration as an enemy alien in Le Vernet and Les Milles; German invasion; escaping; assistance from a Quaker; active participation in the French Resistance; arrest at the Union ge?ne?rale des israe?lites de France office in Lyon; release after showing Klaus Barbie his false papers; continuing Resistance activities; arrest in Grenoble in 1943; torture by the French police; release; continuing Resistance activities; liberation by United States troops; assignment as a French liaison to United States forces in 1944; liberating Dachau; observing piles of corpses; securing incriminating German documents; interrogating war criminals; visiting the Ebensee displaced persons camp; attempts to find his family; learning they had been killed; emigration to join relatives in the United States; testifying at Barbie's trial; and sharing his experiences with his children.
Extent and Medium
4 videocassettes
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
- T., Michel.
- Barbie, Klaus, -- 1913-1991.
Corporate Bodies
- United States. -- Army.
- Dachau (Concentration camp)
- Union générale des israélites de France.
- Le Vernet (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- False papers.
- Resistance.
- Liberator.
- Postwar experiences.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Refugee camps.
- War crime trials.
- Escapes.
- Noncitizens -- Evacuation and relocation.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Hiding.
- Anschluss.
- Jews -- Migrations.
- Bar mitzvah.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, American.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- France.
- Jewish refugees.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Holocaust survivors.
Places
- Lyon (France)
- Grenoble (France)
- Breslau (Germany)
- United States -- Armed Forces -- Europe.
- Ebensee (Austria : Refugee camp)
- Les Milles (France : Concentration camp)
- Łódź (Poland)
- Wrocław (Poland)
- Bordeaux (Aquitaine, France)
- Vienna (Austria)
- Austria -- History -- Anschluss, 1938.
- Saarbrücken (Germany)
- Paris (France)
- Nice (France)
- Poland.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat