Andre? B. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Andre B., who was born in Cze?stochowa, Poland in 1925. He recounts his family's move to Antwerp in 1929; joining a Jewish socialist youth group; attending public school; fleeing with his family toward France during the German invasion; encountering German forces; returning home; Resistance activities; his father's orders to report for forced labor (he never saw him again); deportation with his mother and sister to Malines; three days later their deportation by passenger train; orders to leave the train at Cosel (he never saw his mother or sister again); transfer to Klein Mangersdorf, Babitz, then Trzebinia; slave labor on railroads from which scars remain; relocation to the Chrzano?w ghetto for one day for camp disinfection; assistance from the ghetto residents; severe depression; transfer to Annaberg, then Blechammer; public executions; two German guards allowing them to rest; receiving socks from British POWs which saved his life; a death march to Gross-Rosen in January 1945; train transport to Buchenwald; assistance from a French prisoner; liberation by United States troops; placement in Weimar by the Red Cross; repatriation to Brussels in May; reunion with a cousin; marriage; living in Poland for five years; and emigration to Paris in 1958. Mr. B. discusses relations between prisoner groups in the camps; the importance of being with friends to his survival; his lost childhood; and sharing his experiences with those who ask, including his children.
Extent and Medium
3 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. This testimony cannot be used for commercial purposes.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- B., André, -- 1925-
Corporate Bodies
- Blechhammer E/3 (Concentration camp)
- Gross-Rosen (Concentration camp)
- Trzebinia (Concentration camp)
- Annaberg (Concentration camp)
- Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
- Malines (Concentration camp)
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
- Babitz (Concentration camp)
- Klein Mangersdorf (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Belgium.
- Mothers and sons.
- Brothers and sisters.
- Forced labor.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Poland -- Chrzanów.
- Prisoners of war -- Poland.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Death marches.
- Postwar effects.
- Resistance.
- Child survivors.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Mutual aid.
Places
- Cosel (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Chrzanów ghetto.
- Częstochowa (Poland)
- Poland.
- Weimar (Thuringia, Germany)
- Brussels (Belgium)
- Antwerp (Belgium)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat