Pol R. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Pol R., a Catholic, who was born in Saint-Georges-sur-Meuse, Belgium in 1922, the oldest of three children. He recounts growing up in Amay; German invasion in May 1940; immediate military draft; transfer to Cazères in July; returning to Amay in March 1941; distributing underground newspapers, burning mills, and damaging trains; avoiding forced labor in Germany by obtaining a factory job; sabotaging production; hiding after he was denounced; learning his father and brother were held hostage; surrendering to free them; imprisonment in Huy in November 1943; transfer to St. Leonard four days later; receiving Red Cross packages; transfer to Vught in July 1944; slave labor building railroads; transfer to Gilze Rijen, then back to Vught; improved conditions when assigned to a Philips factory; receiving packages from home; transfer to Sachsenhausen in September 1944, then Neuengamme and Hamburg-Altona; daily slave labor in a small village; pervasive deaths; a Belgian sharing food with him; hospitalization in Neuengamme; assistance from a kapo; transfer to Lübeck; boarding the ship Cap Arcona; transfer to the Athen; British bombings of prisoners ships but not his; debarkation in Neustadt; liberation by British troops; repatriation with assistance from the Red Cross; reunion with his parents and fiancée; treatment for tuberculosis in a Swiss sanatorium for five years; marriage in 1946; his daughter's birth; visiting Vught and Neustadt; and speaking in schools about his experiences. Mr. R. discusses the importance of praying daily and prisoners helping each other to his survival; the camp hierarchy and intergroup relations; and testifying against collaborators.

10 videocassettes