Jean-François N. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Jean-François N., a Roman-Catholic, born in 1919 in Hasselt, Belgium. He recalls his family's upper-class background; their monarchist and Catholic focus; his own Rexist sympathies; turning away when the Rexist pro-German stance became known to him; military service from 1937 to 1938; recall in 1939 when war started; capture during German invasion; incarceration in a POW camp in Germany; solidarity with Belgians; volunteering to work; good treatment from local Catholics; regular correspondence with his family; escape and recapture; escape again; observing Jews with a yellow star in Kassel, a transformative experience; smuggling himself back to Belgium; moving to Brussels; joining an underground unit in Paris moving Allied pilots to Spain; denunciation and arrest of everyone in the unit but him; restarting with others; trips to Madrid and Gibraltar; arrest in January 1944 en route from Brussels to Paris; imprisonment in Brussels and St. Gilles; transfer to several German prisons; saying mass every morning with fellow prisoners; liberation by United States troops; return to Brussels; reunion with his family; and sixteen months recuperating in Switzerland. Mr. N. discusses the growth of his faith due to his war experiences; becoming a monk, then a priest; and wartime colleagues and incidents.
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
- N., Jean-François, -- 1919-2008.
Corporate Bodies
- Rex (Political party : Belgium)
Subjects
- Prisoners -- Religious life.
- Faith.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, Belgian.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, German.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Belgium.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- France.
- Prisoners of war -- Germany.
- Escapes -- Germany.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Belgium.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Postwar experiences.
- Catholics.
Places
- Gibraltar.
- Madrid (Spain)
- Paris (France)
- Brussels (Belgium)
- Kassel (Germany)
- Hasselt (Belgium)
- Belgium.
- Switzerland.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat