Rachel E. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Rachel E., who was born in 1932, and raised in Compie?gne, France. She recounts antisemitic harassment; German invasion; bombing of their house; moving to Paris; her father's military enlistment; his return; returning to Compie?gne; anti-Jewish measures; her parents' arrest in July 1942 (she never saw them again); their Catholic neighbors volunteering to care for her and her younger brother; being treated better than their own children; wishing she was not Jewish; attending school; teachers and students colluding to hide their identity; their foster parents fleeing with them to escape a round-up in which her four year-old cousin was caught; liberation by United States troops; she and her brother refusing to leave their foster parents to live with an aunt and uncle; a court decision compelling them to join their relatives; the painful separation from her brother when she emigrated to the United States to live with her mother's sister; her brother's return to their foster family; marriage; and reuniting with her brother in France thirteen years later. She discusses continuing affectionate relations with her foster parents, and initiating their recognition by Yad Vashem. She shows photographs.
Extent and Medium
1 videocassette
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
- E., Rachel, -- 1932-
Subjects
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Hiding.
- Child survivors.
- Foster parents.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Postwar experiences.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Brothers and sisters.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Women.
- Video tapes.
Places
- Paris (France)
- CompieĚgne (France)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat