Roger V. Holocaust testimony (HVT-4313) interviewed by Rik Hemmerijckx

Videotape testimony of Roger V., a Catholic, who was born in Bredene, Belgium in 1920. He recounts moving to Nieuwpoort in 1926; attending a Catholic, then a public school; working in his mother's store; military draft in 1940; service in Ghent for three months; transfer to Montpellier, France; the Nieuwpoort mayor bringing them home; working for the resistance recording truck and car traffic in Ostend to convey to the Allies; obtaining false papers indicating a younger age so he could travel freely; arrest in 1942 for black market activity; release six months later; arrest in April 1944 for resistance activities; imprisonment in Bruges and elsewhere for four months; transfer to Neuengamme; receiving a Red Cross package; transfer four days later to Blumenthal; volunteering as a smith, despite not knowing the skills; a man from Antwerp teaching him the work; relations between national groups; occasional trains of Jews, who were treated more harshly than the political prisoners; a death march to Neuengamme; evacuation to Lübeck; being placed on ships that were bombed; liberation; and repatriation to Nieuwpoort in August 1945. Mr. V. discusses establishing his business; becoming active in politics in his fifties; and speaking about his experiences at schools. He shows photographs and documents.