Myriam S. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Myriam S., who was born in Paris, France in 1934, the youngest of five children of Polish émigrés. She recounts her parents' orthodoxy; her mother's illness; anti-Jewish laws precluding her treatment; her father's deportation to Drancy in 1941; her two older brothers arranging for a Jewish doctor to do surgery on their mother in their home; her brothers' departure when Paris became too dangerous; round-up with her mother, sister, and younger brother on July 16, 1942 to the Vélodrome d'hiver; transfer to Pithiviers; deportation of her sister and mother; her brother's transfer to the infirmary; her transfer to Drancy; an older woman befriending and caring for her; the woman giving her her own release papers, noting she was old and Myriam S. should live; returning home; reunion with her older brothers who obtained medical treatment for her through the underground; one brother's arrest; her other brother obtaining false papers for her and hiding her in several places; her brother joining the underground in 1945; her father's return after the war; learning he had been in five camps, including Auschwitz, where he once saw her older brother (he did not survive); learning her other brother had been killed in the resistance; the Joint sending her and her father to recuperate in Normandy; returning to Paris; attending school; marriage in 1954; the birth of a son in 1955; emigration to the United States with assistance from HIAS; and the birth of another son. She shows photographs, documents, and the Serge Klarsfeld book listing her mother, sister, and brother.
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
- S., Myriam, -- 1934-
Corporate Bodies
- HIAS (Agency)
- Drancy (Concentration camp)
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
- Vélodrome d'hiver (Paris, France)
- Pithiviers (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Women.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- France.
- Mothers and daughters.
- Brothers and sisters.
- Sisters.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Postwar experiences.
- Hiding.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Mutual aid.
- False papers.
- Friendship.
- Child survivors.
Places
- France.
- Paris (France)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat