Advanced Search

Learn About The Holocaust

Special Collections

My Saved Research

Login

Register

Help

Skip to main content

Benjamin H. Holocaust testimony (HVT-2978) interviewed by Claire Gausset and Christophe Grootaers,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-2978

Videotape testimony of Benjamin H., who was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1918. He describes his family's move to Belgium; his father's successful business in Brussels; attending school in Anderlecht; German invasion; his family's arrest attempting to enter Switzerland; arrest with his wife in the Pyrenees fleeing to Spain; internment in Gurs; his release through Abbé Alexandre Glasberg; obtaining false papers; joining FTPF (the French communist underground movement); his second arrest; torture during interrogations in Limoges; transfer to Compiègne, then Buchenwald; and slave labor in Gustloffwerke I. Mr. H. recalls his decision to rely on himself, particularly as opposed to religion; communists' efforts to help each other; learning of his son's birth; transfer to Hadmersleben, then another camp; evacuation to Lovosice; liberation by Soviet troops; traveling to Sokolov via Karlovy Vary; repatriation to Brussels via Würrzburg; a joyful reunion with his friends, wife, and son; and learning of the extermination camps. He notes he remained under his false name as a non-Jew in the camps; the importance of friendship to his survival; and the impossibility of resisting in the camps.

Author/Creator
H., Benjamin, 1918-
Published
Brussels, Belgium : Fondation Auschwitz, 1993
Interview Date
June 15, 1993.
Locale
France
Poland
Warsaw (Poland)
Brussels (Belgium)
Anderlecht (Belgium)
Limoges (France)
Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic)
Sokolov (Slovakia)
Würzburg (Germany)
Lovosice (Czech Republic)
Language
French
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Benjamin H. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2978). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.