- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Reuven F., who was born in Lille, France in 1925. He recounts his father's military service in World War I; difficulties communicating with his parents (they spoke only Yiddish and he mostly French); his father's draft into the military in 1930; their false sense of security due to their confidence in France and strong French identity; German invasion; anti-Jewish laws; humiliation at wearing the yellow star; the mayor's wife (who was Jewish) gluing pages of the lists of Jews together to prevent deportations; arrest and imprisonment in Cherbourg in November 1943; cruelty of the Todt Organisation administrators; transfer to Alderney concentration camp; most Jewish prisoners identifying themselves as French rather than Jewish; corresponding with his parents, who remained in Lille; a forced march and train transfer in late summer and fall 1944; an underground raid on the train in Belgium in September; their release and shelter by local villages; returning to Lille; reunion with his parents; their inability to comprehend his traumatic experiences; joining Gordonyah; illegal emigration to Palestine from Marseille in 1946; British incarceration at ʻAtlit; joining a kibbutz; and his parents' subsequent emigration.
- Author/Creator
- F., Reuven, 1925-
- Published
- Ramat Aviv, Israel : Beth Hatefutsoth, Nahum Goldman Museum of the Jewish Diaspora, 1984
- Interview Date
- September 7, 1984.
- Locale
- Belgium
France
Lille (France)
Cherbourg (France)
Marseille (France)
Palestine
ʻAtlit (Israel)
- Cite As
- Reuven F. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1079). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Rozner, Raphael, interviewer.
Choro, Dilah, interviewer.
- Notes
-
This testimony is in Hebrew.