- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Israel H., who was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1922, one of three children of Polish émigrés. He recounts moving to Liège in 1924, then to Brussels in 1934; his very happy childhood; attending public school; his bar mitzvah; German invasion; an aborted attempt to flee south; anti-Jewish restrictions; he and his family choosing not to wear the yellow star; hiding with a non-Jewish family in Liège; his parents and siblings hiding in Brussels; attending university using false papers; his non-Jewish aunt delivering packages from his parents; denouncement; incarceration in Citadelle de Liège; transfer to Malines; a privileged position as a shower attendant due to his fluent German; convincing a camp official to release friends from deportation; one sister's arrival; arranging her escape from a deportation train; assisting those entering the deportation trains; hiding the list of deportations; liberation by British troops; walking to Vilvoorde; reunion with his family in Brussels; and providing the Malines deportation list to officials. Mr. H. discusses his parents' moving to São Paulo, Brazil, fearing a recurrence of the Holocaust; joining them; his daughter's birth; not sharing his experiences with his daughter; and visiting Malines, Auschwitz, and his grandfather's street in Kraków.
- Author/Creator
- H., Israel, 1922-
- Published
- Brussels, Belgium : Fondation Auschwitz, 1999
- Interview Date
- November 8, 9, and 10, 1999.
- Locale
- Germany
Hamburg (Germany)
Liège (Belgium)
Brussels (Belgium)
Vilvoorde (Belgium)
São Paulo (Brazil)
- Cite As
- Israel H. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-4238). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Rosenfeldt, Michel, interviewer.
Weyssow, Daniel, interviewer.
- Notes
-
This testimony is in French.
