Marcel B. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Marcel B., a Catholic, who was born in Thy-le-Chat̂eau, Belgium in 1926, the third of five children. He recounts attending Catholic school; German invasion; fleeing to Avesnes, France; living several months in Ardèche; returning home; working in a monastery; his arrest with thirteen other suspected Resistance members at the monastery; incarceration in Charleroi prison; deportation to a camp; transfer to Blumenthal; separation of Jewish prisoners; forced labor in a submarine factory; brutal beatings and humiliations by kapos; public hanging of two Polish saboteurs; praying frequently; writing to his brother; a death march to Neuengamme; train transfer to Lübeck; transport on prison ships to Neustadt; Allied bombings; liberation; prisoners taking revenge on a kapo; assistance from the Red Cross; hospitalization; returning home; reunion with his family; marriage in 1951; and his daughter's birth. Mr. B. notes maintaining his faith while in the camps; the difficulty of sharing his experiences with his family; nightmares; and visiting Neuengamme with other survivors in 1985.
Extent and Medium
4 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
- B., Marcel, -- 1926-
Corporate Bodies
- Neuengamme (Concentration camp)
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
Subjects
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- Faith.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, Belgium.
- Forced labor.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Belgian.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Postwar experiences.
- Mutual aid.
- Postwar effects.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Revenge.
- Death marches.
- Child survivors.
- Nightmares.
Places
- Lübeck (Germany)
- Ardèche (France)
- Blumenthal (Germany : Concentration camp)
- Neustadt in Holstein (Germany)
- Belgium.
- Avesnes (France)
- Thy-le-Chat̂eau (Belgium)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat