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Mennerem W. Holocaust testimony (HVT-2673) interviewed by Annette Wieviorka and Berthe Burko-Falcman,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-2673

Videotape testimony of Mennerem W., who was born in Paris in 1923 to Polish immigrants. He recalls his family's poverty; speaking Yiddish at home; lack of religious observance; attending French and Jewish schools; the absence of antisemitism; remaining in Paris with his mother and three sisters after German invasion; his father and brothers-in-law fleeing; participation in a Bund youth group; his mother joining his father in the unoccupied zone; joining his parents in Montauban; moving to Nice; meeting a friend who had been in Drancy; deciding not to register as Jews; planning an escape to Switzerland; illegally crossing the Swiss border with his brother and friends; their arrival in Zurich; internment as refugees in Girenbad; their transfer to a camp in Arisdorf; weekends spent in Basel; returning to France with his brother and friends in 1944; contacting the Armeé secrète; joining the FTP; liberating Albertville; working for the Bund in Marseille, helping returning deportees; and returning to Paris to await his friends and family. Mr. W. notes that his parents, sisters, and their husbands were deported and killed.

Author/Creator
W., Mennerem, 1923-
Published
Paris, France : Témoignages pour mémoire, 1993
Interview Date
June 11, 1993.
Locale
France
Paris (France)
Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne, France)
Nice (France)
Albertville (France)
Marseille (France)
Basel (Switzerland)
Arisdorf (Switzerland)
Zurich (Switzerland)
Girenbad (Switzerland)
Language
French
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Mennerem W. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2673). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.