Raymond W. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Raymond W., a non-Jew, who was born in Brussels, Belgium in 1923. He recounts participating in a Communist youth group; his family housing refugees from Germany; disrupting Rexist meetings; German invasion; being wounded in an air raid in Boulogne en route to enlist; hanging anti-German posters in the streets; returning to Brussels; joining the resistance; helping to sabotage production and organize strikes; hiding belongings of Jewish deportees to prevent appropriation by Germans; warning Jews to go into hiding; his mother compelling him to volunteer to work in Germany in 1941 to help obtain food for the family; one sister going as well; her accidental death; assignment to a Todt factory in Berlin; sabotaging production; returning to Brussels six months later; his mother and relatives participating in the underground; arrest in April 1943; incarceration in St. Gilles; transfer to Natzweiler-Struthof in September; slave labor in a privileged commando due to the influence of Communists; transfer to Frommern; prisoners from Luxembourg receiving packages and sharing them with others; assistance from German civilian workers; a death march in May 1945 to Mittewald; abandonment by the guards; liberation by United States troops; returning home via Lille and Tournai; hospitalization; and continuing his communist activities. Mr. W. discusses testifying at a war crimes trial, and the importance of prisoner solidarity to his survival. He shows his uniform.
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
- W., Raymond, -- 1923-
Corporate Bodies
- Organisation Todt (Germany)
- Struthof (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Belgian.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Forced labor.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Belgium.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
- Postwar experiences.
- Mutual aid.
- Death marches.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- War crime trials.
Places
- Berlin (Germany)
- Mittewald (Austria)
- Brussels (Belgium)
- Boulogne-sur-Mer (France)
- Frommern (Germany : Concentration camp)
- Lille (France)
- Tournai (Belgium)
- Belgium.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat