Maxi L. Holocaust testimony (HVT-3221) interviewed by Régine Waintrater and Michele Ganem

Videotape testimony of Maxi L., who was born in Lyon, France in 1925, the oldest of fifteen children. He recounts his parents' Moroccan background; fleeing briefly during German invasion; his two-year apprenticeship in Villeurbanne; working in Lyon; being caught in a round-up in April 1943; internment in Montluc prison; a beating for trying to contact his family; transfer to Drancy in July; writing to his parents; deportation to Auschwitz in September; being selected (one of 100-120 of 1,200) for work; quarantine until October; remaining with French friends and Greeks who spoke French; transfer to the destroyed Warsaw ghetto; clearing rubble; assignment burning corpses; hospitalization in spring 1944; assisting the hospital chief; remaining with his friends during a death march and train transport to Dachau; witnessing cannibalism; transfer to Kaufering, then Allach; sharing food with his friends; liberation by United States troops; traveling to Paris; staying at the Hotel Lutetia; returning to Lyon (his family survived in hiding); and one year recuperating in Divonne-les-Bains. Mr. L. discusses group relations in the camps; his belief he would survive; being less afraid after leaving Auschwitz; and continuing close relations with his camp friends (they are like brothers). He shows letters and photographs.