Monique W. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Monique W., who was born in Paris, France in 1934, one of four children. She recounts living in Villiers-sur-Marne; German invasion; her parents' arrest by the French police (they perished in Auschwitz); living with her grandmother in Paris; being shunned by children in school when wearing the yellow star; she and her siblings being placed in an OSE children's home; her youngest brother's transfer; hiding during round-ups; transfer to a non-Jewish foster family in Saint-Christophe-du-Bois; her siblings living with different families there; baptism as a Catholic; her foster mother informing an investigator seeking Jewish children that the town was too Catholic for that; liberation by United States troops; placement with all three siblings in a Jewish orphanage run by Eclaireurs israe?lites in Jouy-en-Josas; attending high school in Versailles; the home's transfer to a Rothschild chateau; visits with her grandparents; clandestine visits to church; the home organizers gradually returning them to Judaism; and emigration to the United States in 1964. Ms. W. discusses the good care in her foster home and in the children's home after the war; sharing her story with her children; and finally comprehending her parents' fate only when her own children were born. She shows photographs.
Extent and Medium
2 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
- W., Monique, -- 1934-
Corporate Bodies
- Eclaireurs israeĚlites de France.
- World Union OSE.
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Foster parents.
- Identification (Religion)
- Grandparent and child.
- Christian converts from Judaism.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Women.
- Postwar experiences.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Hiding.
- Child survivors.
- Brothers and sisters.
- Orphanages -- France.
Places
- France.
- Saint-Christophe-du-Bois (France)
- Villiers-sur-Marne (France)
- Versailles (France)
- Paris (France)
- Jouy-en-Josas (France)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat