- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Philip C., a non-Jew, who was born in Malines, Belgium in 1923. He recalls joining the Resistance in school at age eighteen; receiving weapons instruction; arrest in June 1942; imprisonment in Antwerp, Saint-Gilles, and Essen as a "Nacht und Nebel" political prisoner; transfer to Bochum; forced labor; transfer to Esterwegen a year later; help from Belgian physicians in the infirmary; a brief transfer to Sachsenhausen; a public hanging; choosing not to escape in Berlin, during transfer to Natzweiler-Struthof in 1944, because he had no documents; assistance from friends when he was too weak to work; evacuation to Dachau in June 1944; hospitalization; a Paris physician protecting him; the stress of assignments handling corpses; liberation by United States troops; Allied soldiers and prisoners shooting Germans for revenge; returning to Belgium; reunion with his family; and marriage to a Belgian camp survivor. Mr. C. discusses the importance of luck to his survival; forgiving the man who betrayed him under torture; solidarity among Belgian political prisoners; claustrophobia and nightmares resulting from his experiences; and years of attempting to suppress wartime memories. He shows photographs and documents.
- Author/Creator
- C., Philip, 1923-
- Published
- Brussels, Belgium : Fondation Auschwitz, 1992
- Interview Date
- July 1, 1992.
- Locale
- Belgium
Germany
Mechelen (Belgium)
Antwerp (Belgium)
- Cite As
- Philip C. Holocaust testimony (HVT-1979). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Paulus, Claire, interviewer.
Margos, Rina, interviewer.
- Notes
-
This testimony is in French.
