Odette S. Holocaust testimony (HVT-2103) interviewed by Josette Zarka,
Videotape testimony of Odette S., who was born in France in 1925 to an affluent family. She recalls helping refugees from central Europe; the outbreak of war; the family's moves to Deauville, Dordogne, and Brive; participating in the scouts; moving to Larche in 1942, thinking it would be safer; three months in Italian-occupied Savoie; arrest with her parents in Larche in 1943; separation from her father (she learned later he was shot); transfer with her mother to Drancy via Périgueux and Paris; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau; digging ditches; her mother's death after six weeks; transfer to the Canada Kommando which provided her with extra food and clothing; watching people enter the gas chamber area; transfer to Zschopau; working in a munition factory; trying to sabotage the materials; organizing lectures among the inmates; escaping from a cattle car during evacuation; returning to Zschopau; being hidden by a French prisoner, then a German widow (Mrs. S. arranged her recognition by Yad Vashem); joining other deportees after liberation; traveling to Paris via Saint-Avold; and reunion with her uncle. Mrs. S. discusses friendship, the hierarchy and trying to create some normalcy in the camps, and overcoming her reluctance to have children.
- Published
- Paris, France : Témoignages pour mémoire, 1992
- Interview Date
- May 22, 1992.
- Locale
- Savoie (France)
Brive-la-Gaillarde (France)
Dordogne (France)
France
Deauville (France)
Larche (France)
Périgueux (France)
Paris (France)
Saint-Avold (France) - Language
-
French
- Copies
- 2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
- Cite As
- Odette S. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2103). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
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View in Yale University Library Catalog: http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/4286387
Record last modified: 2018-05-30 11:33:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/hvt4286387