- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Louis C., who was born in Berlin in 1925. He recounts his father's service in World War I; living in Nice while his father was a German government attorney; returning to Berlin in 1931; loss of family servants due to the Nuremberg laws; sham improvements during the 1936 Olympics; his bar mitzvah in 1938; Kristallnacht; non-Jewish neighbors hiding his father; expulsion from school; attending an ad hoc Jewish school; his parents putting him, his sister, and cousin on a train; arrival in Oldenzaal; living in a refugee camp, an orphanage, then another camp; joining his parents in Antwerp; moving to Brussels; German invasion in May 1940; arrest by Belgians as an enemy alien while en route to school; train transfer to France; separation of Jews near Paris; transfer to Villeneuve-de-Berg; receiving Red Cross forms to notify his parents of his location; transfer a few weeks later to St. Cyprien, then to Gurs in May 1941; encountering his father; transfer to Les Milles in August; a brief visit with his mother and sister; deportation to Mauthausen; escaping with four others in spring/summer 1942; and traveling across France to Spain with assistance from the underground.
Mr. C. recalls enlisting in the French Foreign Legion; training in Africa and England as a spy; attachment to United States and British forces; parachuting into France in spring 1943; visiting his sister in a convent; blowing up German vehicles; returning to England; joining the D-Day invasion in June; moving with British and U.S. forces; returning to Berlin; discovering his house was destroyed; neighbors returning family valuables; a year in Israel training soldiers; emigrating to the United States in 1947; and marriage to a German Jew in 1951. Mr. C. discusses only he and his sister surviving from those relatives who did not leave Europe; continuing nightmares; sharing his story with his children; and his lost youth. He shows documents and photographs.
- Author/Creator
- C., Louis, 1925-
- Published
- Cleveland, Ohio : National Council of Jewish Women, Holocaust Archive Project, 1984
- Interview Date
- August 16, 1984.
- Locale
- Germany
France
Berlin (Germany)
Nice (France)
Oldenzaal (Netherlands)
Amsterdam (Netherlands)
Antwerp (Belgium)
Brussels (Belgium)
Villeneuve-de-Berg (France)
Spain
England
Israel
- Cite As
- Louis C. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-353). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Kay, Abraham, interviewer.
