André C. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of André C., a non-Jew, who was born in Liège, Belgium in 1921. He recalls his parents were both teachers; his academic success; housing German refugees, from whom he learned the personal results of antisemitic policies; entering medical school in 1938; conscription with all other medical students; retreating with the Belgian military to Le Mans, Nantes, and Les Sables-d'Olonne; capture by the Germans; release; returning to Liège; resuming medical school in September 1940; joining the Resistance; his engagement; arrest in August 1942; violent interrogations leading to blindness in one eye; a three-year sentence; transfer to several prisons en-route to Wolfenbüttel; slave labor in a factory; transfer to the hospital when the administration learned he was a physician; solidarity among prisoners across national and ethnic groups; liberation by United States troops in April 1945; remaining for a month to care for the sick; returning to Liège; marriage to his fiancée; and practicing pediatrics. Dr. C. discusses the dilemma of his privileged camp position, not wanting to be perceived as collaborating; painful decisions about allocation of scarce medicine and treatment; nightmares resulting from his experiences; and not sharing his story until ten years ago, when he began speaking in schools.
Extent and Medium
6 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. Any citation from this testimony must be in the original French and cannot be paraphrased.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- C., André, -- 1921-
Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Belgian.
- Concentration camp inmates.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Prisoners of war -- Germany.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Belgium.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Belgian.
- Prisoners of war -- Belgium.
- Postwar effects.
- Postwar experiences.
- Hospitals in concentration camps.
- Mutual aid.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Resistance.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- Nightmares.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, German.
- Forced labor.
Places
- Wolfenbüttel (Prison)
- Brussels (Belgium)
- Le Mans (France)
- Les Sables-d'Olonne (France)
- Liège (Belgium)
- Nantes (France)
- Belgium.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat