- Summary
- Videotape testimony of David B., who was born in Mielec, Poland in 1921 and raised in Jarosław. He recalls antisemitic harassment in public school; emigration to Brussels at age nine; no discrimination; assisting German-Jewish refugees; German invasion; leaving for France with his parents and brother; living in Bordeaux; fleeing to Montpellier upon German arrival; moving to Agde; his father's return to Belgium and subsequent deportation in 1942 (they never saw him again); joining Mouvement des jeunesses sionistes; organizing escapes for Jews to the free zone; being warned of his own arrest; non-Jews assisting him to escape; hiding for two weeks; obtaining false papers from the Jewish scouts (E.I.F.); learning of his mother's death; he and his brother living in a scout home in Polignac; arrest; escaping from Septfonds; fleeing to Italian-occupied Nice; being joined by his brother; working with the Jewish underground in Saint-Martin-Vésubie and Valdieri; arrest in Toulouse; incarceration in Noé; escape with a prisoner who recognized him from Armée juive; working for the Jewish resistance in Limoges; burning a building in Glénic to destroy records of Jews; military forays against the Germans; arrest; confessing to be Jewish, hoping to avoid execution as a Resistant; days of torture; deportation to Buchenwald, Dora, and Rottleberode; slave labor; and liberation from a death march in May 1945.
Mr. B. tells of returning to Brussels; hearing from his brother (he was in Palestine); and great satisfaction at seeing the destruction of Germany. He discusses his optimistic attitude and relations between national groups in concentration camps; continuing hostility toward older Germans; believing resistance is not heroic, but a normal reaction to particular circumstances; and pessimism about lessons learned from the Holocaust.
- Author/Creator
- B., David, 1921-
- Published
- Brussels, Belgium : Fondation Auschwitz, 1995
- Interview Date
- June 12, 1995.
- Locale
- France
Poland
Mielec (Poland)
Jarosław (Poland)
Brussels (Belgium)
Bordeaux (Aquitaine, France)
Agde (France)
Montpellier (France)
Polignac (Haute-Loire, France)
Nice (France)
Saint-Martin-Vésubie (France)
Valdieri (Italy)
Toulouse (France)
Limoges (France)
Glénic (France)
- Cite As
- David B. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-4012). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Rosenfeldt, Michel, interviewer.
Daalder, Hessel, interviewer.
- Notes
-
This testimony is in French.
