- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Oscar A., who was born in Bulgaria in 1911. He recalls his family's French identity; attending school in Sofia; studying in Paris; marriage to a Jewish convert in 1938; mobilization in 1939; his parents' and sister's emigration to Paris; capture in a battle in 1940; escaping to Paris with help from a German rail official; moving to Nice; his daughter's birth; arrest with five family members in 1943; his wife's release as a non-Jew (their daughter was not arrested); deportation to Auschwitz via Drancy; selection for forced labor in Buna/Monowitz (I.G. Farben) with his brother and nephew (he never saw his father and sister again); cold and starvation; helping his brother; his nephew's death; working for non-Jewish prisoners for food; receiving food from an English POW; the January 1945 death march with his brother to Gleiwitz and Dora; transfer to Osterode and Guenzerode; hiding during evacuation; discovery by an officer; being returned to Dora; liberation by United States troops; their repatriation to Paris; and reunion with his wife, daughter, and mother. Mr. A. discusses the distinctions that the post-war French government made between Jewish and Resistance deportees; cessation of nightmares after writing his memoirs (which his children read) and through psychoanalysis; his loss of faith; and the importance of not judging others.
- Author/Creator
- A., Oscar, 1911-
- Published
- Paris, France : Témoignages pour mémoire, 1995
- Interview Date
- March 30, 1995.
- Locale
- France
Poland
Bulgaria
Sofia (Bulgaria)
Nice (France)
Paris (France)
- Cite As
- Oscar A. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3205). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Ganem, Michèle, interviewer.
Borlant, Henri, interviewer.
- Notes
-
This testimony is in French.
Related publication: Vouloir vivre : deux frères à Auschwitz / Léon Arditti ; [ouvrage réalisé en collaboration avec Michel Levine]. -- Paris : L'Harmattan, c1995.
