Xavier D. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Xavier D., a Catholic, who was born in Bertrix, Belgium in 1925. He recalls attending boarding school; his father's death in 1937; leaving for France with his family in 1940; remaining in Libourne for two months; returning home; billeting of German soldiers in their house; joining the Resistance with his brother; obtaining false papers as a student to avoid forced labor in Germany; hiding; being arrested with his brother for underground activities; imprisonment in Charleville and Amou; their deportation to Buchenwald in June 1944; receiving extra food from Scandinavian prisoners; a collaborator in their group being killed by prisoners; useless slave labor; transfer to Dora three weeks later, then to Harzungen; harassment by locals when they walked to work; hospitalization for most of the winter; transfer to Dora; receiving tobacco in a package from his mother; bribing a nurse with the tobacco to keep himself in the infirmary; transfer to Nordhausen; liberation by United States troops; and repatriation. Mr. D. discusses relations among prisoner groups; the importance to his survival of being with his brother and his Catholic faith; and learning his brother died two hours before he was to be repatriated.

3 videocassettes