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Michel M. Holocaust testimony (HVT-3072) interviewed by Robert Krell,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-3072

Videotape testimony of Michel M., who was born in Wasilków, Poland in 1927. He describes an affluent childhood prior to 1933; increasing antisemitism; brief German invasion; Soviet occupation; assisting Jewish refugees from the German zone; German invasion in June 1941; hiding with his family in Zabłudów after being warned by his father's non-Jewish acquaintance of a mass killing; ghettoization in Białystok; learning his father's arrest was imminent; their transfer to the Pruz︠h︡any ghetto in November 1941 to save his father; choosing not to escape in order to remain with his parents; deportation to Auschwitz in 1942; separation from his parents and sister; constructing crematoria and sorting clothing in Birkenau; one year of slave labor at I.G. Farben; Soviet POWs hiding him among them; transfer to Dora; continuing help from the Soviets; sadistic public hangings; transfer to Bergen-Belsen; and liberation by British troops. Mr. M. recounts returning to Białystok; disappointment at continuing antisemitism; reunion with his sister in Czechoslovakia; traveling to Paris with Haganah; marriage to a survivor in 1949; and emigration to Canada. He discusses relations between national groups in the camps; his will to survive; continuing nightmares; and sharing his experiences with his children while teaching them to respect all people.

Author/Creator
M., Michel, 1927-
Published
Vancouver, B.C. : Vancouver Holocaust Centre Society, 1984
Interview Date
September 19,1984.
Locale
Poland
Białystok
Belarus
Pruz︠h︡any
Wasilków (Poland)
Białystok (Poland)
Zabłudów (Poland)
Czechoslovakia
Paris (France)
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Michel M. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3072). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.