- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Wolf W., who was born in Cairo, Egypt in 1921. He recalls attending French school; speaking Yiddish at home; living in several European cities from 1929 to 1931; settling in Antwerp; antisemitism in school; apprenticing as a diamond cutter; German invasion; fleeing to Ghent, then Saint-Vincent; living with French farmers; his parents' internment in Récébédou in spring 1942; visiting them; arrest; imprisonment in Caussade, whose police chief had tried to warn him to hide; internment in Septfonds, then Drancy; deportation to Janislawice (Johannisdorf); singing Yiddish songs with Polish prisoners; Jewish prisoners fasting on Yom Kippur; transfer to Blechhammer; receiving help from British POWs; smuggling food from his work detail, which was outside the camp; sadistic public hangings; receiving one package from his mother; Karl Demerer's (the Jewish head) efforts to help inmates; the death march to Gross-Rosen in January 1945; evacuation to Buchenwald; another death march; transfer to Oranienburg; hiding during the evacuation; liberation by Polish troops; transfer to an American displaced persons camp; repatriation to Brussels; and reunion with his mother. Mr W. insightfully discusses intergroup relationships in the camps; efforts to raise morale; and paralysis of body and spirit resulting from humiliation.
- Author/Creator
- W., Wolf, 1921-
- Published
- Brussels, Belgium : Fondation Auschwitz, 1992
- Interview Date
- October 14, 1992.
- Locale
- Poland
Egypt
Cairo (Egypt)
Caussade (France)
Antwerp (Belgium)
Ghent (Belgium)
Saint-Vincent (France)
Brussels (Belgium)
- Cite As
- Wolf W. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2989). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Chaumont, Jean-Michel, interviewer.
Paulus, Claire, interviewer.
Margos, Rina, interviewer.
- Notes
-
This testimony is in French.
