Overview
- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Fernand E., a non-Jew, who was born in Malines (Mechelen), Belgium in 1923. He describes fleeing to France at the German invasion; returning home three weeks later; involvement with the underground press; arrest; imprisonment in Antwerp, St. Gilles, and Bochum; forced labor in a munitions factory; sabotaging the work; a trial in Essen; being sentenced to forced labor; transfer to Esterwegen in May 1943; hospitalization; a doctor who saved his life; forced labor in Hamburg and Darmstadt; transfer to Natzweiler-Struthof; concealing the fact that several prisoners were Jews; transfer to Sachsenhausen, Allach, Asslar, and Schömberg; escaping with friends; receiving assistance from a German farmer; joining French troops for two months; and repatriation. Mr E. discusses ethnic and national group relations in the camps; details of camp life, including removing gold dental work from corpses; frequent prisoner conversations about food resulting from their starvation; testifying in a trial of Natzweiler administrators; participating in a Natzweiler survivor group; and the importance of maintaining democracy and the ideals of the homeland.
- Published
- Brussels, Belgium : Fondation Auschwitz, 1992
- Interview Date
- October 28, 1992.
- Locale
- Belgium
Germany
Mechelen (Belgium)
France
Essen (Germany)
Darmstadt (Germany)
Hamburg (Germany) - Cite As
- Fernand E. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2988). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Notes
-
This testimony is in French.
Physical Details
- Language
- French
- Copies
- 2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
- Physical Description
- 1 videorecording (2 hr., 30 min.) : col
Keywords & Subjects
- Subjects (Local Yale)
- Hospitals in concentration camps.
Resistance.
Postwar experiences.
Mutual aid. - Subjects
- Video tapes. Men. Concentration camps--Sociological aspects. World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, Belgian. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives. World War, 1939-1945--Underground movements--Belgium. World War, 1939-1945--Participation, French. World War, 1939-1945--Prisoners and prisons, German. World War, 1939-1945--Participation, Belgian. World War, 1939-1945--Prisoners and prisons,Belgian. Forced labor. Escapes. Oral histories (document genres) War crime trials--Germany. Trials (Germany) Belgium. Mechelen (Belgium) France. Essen (Germany) Darmstadt (Germany) Hamburg (Germany) Sabotage. E., Fernand,--1923- Struthof (Concentration camp) Schömberg (Concentration camp : Germany) Esterwegen (Concentration camp) Sachsenhausen (Concentration camp)
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
- Special Collection
-
Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
- Link to Yale University Library Catalog:
- http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/4289944
- Record last modified:
- 2018-05-30 11:44:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/hvt4289944
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