Charles B. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Charles B., a Roman Catholic, who was born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1925. He recalls German invasion; joining the Resistance with his brother in November 1942; their denouncement and arrest in June 1943; his brother's release; imprisonment in St. Gilles and Essen; transfer to Esterwegen, then to Gross-Strehlitz, in January 1944; sabotaging production in a munitions factory; receiving Red Cross packages; recovering from a serious injury with assistance from a prisoner doctor; a trial at Opeln; transfer to Laband; celebrating Christmas; an unsuccessful attempt to escape from a death march; train transport to Buchenwald; observing the horrendous condition of Jewish prisoners from Auschwitz; clearing rubble in Weimar after Allied bombings; twenty-eight days on a train with no food; witnessing cannibalism; arrival at Theresienstadt; liberation; traveling to Prague, then Plzen?; repatriation in June 1945; a lengthy recovery in a sanatorium; and reunion with his parents. Mr. B. details camp life; the importance of other prisoners to his survival; intergroup relations, his state of mind, and singing to raise morale in the camps; serving as president of a survivor organization; sharing his experiences with his children; and the impossibility of conveying the reality of these events.
Extent and Medium
8 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
- B., Charles, -- 1925-
Corporate Bodies
- Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
- Theresienstadt (Concentration camp)
- Esterwegen (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Sabotage.
- Death marches.
- Concentration camp inmates.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Religious life.
- Concentration camps -- Songs and music.
- Faith.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, German.
- Forced labor.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Belgium.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, Belgian.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Belgian.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Video tapes.
- Mutual aid.
- Resistance.
- Postwar experiences.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Child survivors.
- Cannibalism.
Places
- Opeln (Germany)
- Opole (Poland)
- Laband (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Antwerp (Belgium)
- Belgium.
- PlzenĚ (Czech Republic)
- Prague (Czech Republic)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat