Paul K. Holocaust testimony

Identifier
HVT 3461
Language of Description
English
Level of Description
Collection
Source
EHRI Partner

Abstract

Videotape testimony of Paul K., a non-Jew, who was born in Ans, Belgium in 1921. He recalls a happy childhood; moving to Liège with his family in 1938; working for an insurance firm; German invasion; distributing Resistance leaflets in 1942; forming a group aiming to escape to England; traveling from Arlon to Chalon-sur-Saône; imprisonment in Dijon; a two-month sentence; transfer to another prison; refusing to "volunteer" for work in Germany; transfer to St. Gilles, then Forest; deportation to Dachau in February 1943; forming friendships; hospitalization for typhus; a prisoner physician treating him for tuberculosis; slave labor repairing trench periscopes; sabotage; bartering with prisoners and guards; receiving Red Cross and family packages, which he shared; group solidarity based on ethnicity and language; clandestine communications with his parents; liberation by United States troops; repatriation to Brussels; reunion with his family; and recuperating in Leysin. Mr. K. discusses the prisoner hierarchy; the importance to his survival of his will to live; participating in a Dachau survivor group; annual visits there; dreams, not nightmares, about his experiences; and his daughter's reluctance to hear about his experiences.

Extent and Medium

5 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

Corporate Bodies

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Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.