Simone C. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Simone C., who was born in Magdeburg, Germany in 1922. She recalls fleeing to Paris in 1933 when the Gestapo came to arrest her father and brother; participating in Hashomer Hatzair; her older brother's emigration to Palestine in 1934; German invasion; her father volunteering for the French military; fleeing with her mother and younger brother to Toulouse; their return to Paris; her internment in the Ve?lodrome d'Hiver, then Gurs; her mother and brother moving to be near her; a guard allowing her to visit them; not returning; living in Pe?rigueux with her family (her father returned); obtaining false papers from a Jewish friend; hiding with her brother in Moissac, then Auvillar; separation from him when she was placed in a convent; moving to a castle; working for the Resistance; arrest in October 1943; beatings during interrogations; transfer to Toulouse, then Drancy; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau in January 1944; slave labor in the Union Kommando; a doctor in the hospital assisting her; public executions of an escapee and women who assisted in the October uprising; a death march to a train to the Ravensbru?ck tent camp in January 1945; volunteering for transfer due to a dream about her mother; transfer to Malchow, then Taucha; a death march; liberation by Soviet troops; hospitalization; and reunion with her family in Paris (they all survived). Ms. C. discusses her state of mind and inter-group relations in the camps; the importance of friends to her survival (she names several); continuing nightmares; recently visiting Auschwitz with her son; and hoping to visit with her other son.

2 videocassettes