Overview
- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Hélène K., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1925, an only child. She recounts antisemitism after the Anschluss; her father's arrest; his departure for Antwerp; illegally entering Belgium with her mother to join him; attending a Flemish school; fleeing when Germany invaded in 1940; arrest in Tournai; release with her mother; going to Brussels; learning her father had been killed by Belgian soldiers as a suspected spy; hiding with non-Jews; deciding not to enter a Catholic institution, not wanting to be separated from her mother; distributing leaflets for the underground; exposure as Jews; arrest; deportation to Malines, then Auschwitz/Birkenau; slave labor outside the camp; the smell of burning flesh; transfer to Ravensbrück; slave labor in a munitions factory; a death march; liberation by Soviet troops; and return to Belgium. Ms. K. discusses repressing most of her memories; inter-group relations and using tobacco as currency in the camps; focusing herself on her mother, thus numbing herself to everything else; and not wanting to burden her son with her experiences.
- Published
- Brussels, Belgium : Fondation Auschwitz, 1996 and 1997
- Interview Date
- December 18, 1996 and October 27, 1997.
- Locale
- Belgium
Austria
Vienna (Austria)
Antwerp (Belgium)
Tournai (Belgium)
Brussels (Belgium) - Cite As
- Hélène K. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-4071). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Notes
-
This testimony is in French.
Physical Details
- Language
- French
- Copies
- 2 copies: Betacam SP dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
- Physical Description
- 2 videorecordings (1 hr., 10 min. and 2 hr., 43 min.) : col
Keywords & Subjects
- Subjects (Local Yale)
- Survivor-child relations.
Postwar effects.
Aid by non-Jews.
Mutual aid.
False papers.
Hiding.
Antisemitism Prewar.
Child survivors. - Subjects
- Holocaust survivors. Video tapes. Women. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives. World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, Jewish. World War, 1939-1945--Children. Jewish children in the Holocaust. Jewish refugees. Jews--Migrations. Mothers and daughters. World War, 1939-1945--Underground movements--Belgium. Concentration camps--Psychological aspects. Forced labor. Concentration camps--Sociological aspects. Death marches. Austria. Vienna (Austria) Austria--History--Anschluss, 1938. Antwerp (Belgium) Tournai (Belgium) Brussels (Belgium) Oral histories (document genres) K., Hélène,--1926- Malines (Concentration camp) Auschwitz (Concentration camp) Birkenau (Concentration camp) Ravensbrück (Concentration camp)
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/4677092
- Record last modified:
- 2018-06-04 13:28:00
- This page:
- http://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/hvt4677092
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