Overview
- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Renée V., who was born in Brussels, Belgium in 1913. She recalls her secular childhood; her avowed atheism despite her Jewish ancestry; participating in anti-fascist activities; marriage; German invasion; briefly fleeing to France; returning to Brussels; arranging hiding places for her parents and husband's parents; continuing to teach; quitting to devote full time to the Resistance; arrest with her husband in July 1943; incarceration in St. Gilles; torture during interrogations; transfer to Vught via Cologne; slave labor for Philips; sabotaging the work; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau in June 1944; briefly seeing her husband; transfer to Langenbielau; slave labor for Telefunken; a death march in January 1945; staying briefly in several camps; liberation by the Red Cross near Hamburg in April; recuperating in Sweden; returning to Brussels; and reunion with her husband and parents. Mrs. V. notes some prisoners stole from each other and others shared; relations between national and political groups in camps; her high morale because she believed she was incarcerated for her Resistance activities, not simply because she was a Jew; reluctance to discuss her experiences, thinking no one would believe her; and eventually sharing some of her story with her son and students.
- Published
- Brussels, Belgium : Fondation Auschwitz, 1993
- Interview Date
- July 7, 1993.
- Locale
- Belgium
Brussels (Belgium)
France
Cologne (Germany)
Hamburg (Germany)
Sweden - Cite As
- Renée V. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3001). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Notes
-
This testimony is in French.
Physical Details
- Language
- French
- Copies
- 2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
- Physical Description
- 1 videorecording (1 hr., 47 min.) : col
Keywords & Subjects
- Subjects (Local Yale)
- Resistance.
Mutual aid.
Postwar experiences.
Survivor-child relations. - Subjects
- Holocaust survivors. Video tapes. Women. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives. World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, Jewish. World War, 1939-1945--Underground movements--Belgium. World War, 1939-1945--Prisoners and prisons, German. Forced labor. Husband and wife. Sabotage. Death marches. Concentration camps--Psychological aspects. Concentration camps--Sociological aspects. Belgium. Brussels (Belgium) France. Cologne (Germany) Hamburg (Germany) Sweden. Oral histories (document genres) V., Renée,--1913- Vught (Concentration camp) Auschwitz (Concentration camp) Birkenau (Concentration camp) Langenbielau (Concentration camp) Philips Business Communications (Firm : Hilversum, Netherlands) Telefunken G.m.b.H. International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
- Special Collection
-
Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
- Link to Yale University Library Catalog:
- http://hdl.handle.net/10079/bibid/4290028
- Record last modified:
- 2018-05-29 11:47:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/hvt4290028
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