Nelly L. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Nelly L., a non-Jew, who was born in Herstal, Belgium in 1921, one of two sisters. She recounts a happy childhood in Beringen; attending a French school; moving to Westende in 1940; German invasion; fleeing to the south of France; returning several months later; her father offering to hide a Jewish employee, who refused and was caught; contact with the underground through her father; escorting escaped Soviets and Belgian resistants to the Ardennes; transporting explosives; her father's arrest in 1944 and hers shortly thereafter; a severe beating; transfer to Hasselt; interrogations and torture; transfer to Saint Gilles with her father; learning she was designated "Nacht und Nebel"; transfer a week later to Gross Strehlitz; separation from her father; receiving a note from him that he was being transferred (she never saw him again); slave labor cutting wood; transfer to RavensbruĚck; being housed with other "Nacht und Nebel" prisoners; helping a dying friend; transfer to Mauthausen; a prisoner doctor saving her from deadly slave labor; working in the hospital; observing the arrival of Jewish women; a liberation transport to Saint Gall; transfer to Annecy; repatriation to Brussels with assistance from the Red Cross; and reunion with her mother and sister. Ms. L. discusses the importance of her father's advice and inspiration, and assistance from others to her survival; not sharing her experiences with her mother or sister; nightmares; joining a survivor group; and visiting Mauthausen.
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
- L., Nelly, -- 1921-
Corporate Bodies
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
- RavensbruĚck (Concentration camp)
- Mauthausen (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Forced labor.
- Nightmares.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- Mutual aid.
- Resistance.
- Postwar experiences.
- Hospitals in concentration camps.
- Postwar effects.
- Video tapes.
- Women.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Belgian.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Belgium.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons.
- Fathers and daughters.
- Concentration camp inmates.
Places
- Annecy (France)
- Brussels (Belgium)
- Herstal (Belgium)
- Belgium.
- Westende (Belgium)
- Beringen (Belgium)
- Saint Gall (Switzerland)
- Ardennes.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat