Philippe P. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Philippe P., who was born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1937. He recalls his upper middle-class upbringing; fleeing to France after the German invasion; his father's brief service in the Polish Army; moving to Marseille; living in one room with his parents, aunt, and uncle; his mother working as a dressmaker to support them; moving to Lyon; never being told he was Jewish for safety reasons; food shortages; air bombardments; his mother recovering their false papers from the police; staying briefly with an aunt in the country; living with a Catholic family in a village near Lyon; friendship with the family's son; attending church; the father's participation in the Maquis; hiding an Allied soldier in the house; visiting his parents in Lyon; moving with his parents to Enghien; watching the victory parade in Paris; his family's emigration to the United States; and learning he was Jewish. Mr. P. discusses his nightmares and his fear of being alone after the war, and the importance of luck and his mother's bravery to his family's survival. He reads from his father's wartime and postwar letters to an uncle in the United States and shows photographs.

2 videocassettes