Manuel F. Holocaust testimony (HVT-4473)

Videotape testimony of Manuel F., who was born in Paris, France in 1939, the only son of Polish émigrés. He recounts his father's arrest; his mother's escape with him to Limoges, then Milan; being hidden in convents, without his mother, in Milan and Rome; emigration with her to the United States in 1945; assistance from HIAS; his brother's birth shortly thereafter (his mother had a liaison in Italy); placement in two foster homes; wearing a cross for years since it had kept him safe in the convents; returning to his mother; locating a cousin in Paris whom he later brought to the United States; and his first marriage to a Dutch survivor. Mr. F. discusses having no memories of his experiences prior to age six; childhood behavioral problems resulting from his experiences; learning details of his father's deportation to and death in Auschwitz from Yad Vashem and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; his fondness for Yiddish; and not identifying with any religion.