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Oral history interview with Bernard Mednicki

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1997.A.0441.93 | RG Number: RG-50.462.0093

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    Oral history interview with Bernard Mednicki

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Bernard Mednicki, born in 1910 in Brussels, Belgium, describes being the youngest of four children in an Orthodox Russian Jewish family from Kishinev (Chisinau, Moldova); his father serving in the Russian Army until the 1903 pogrom, when he deserted and moved his family to the west; attending a cheder and public school in Brussels, where he experienced some antisemitism; being apprenticed to an orthopedic technician; becoming a Belgian citizen in 1928 and being married in 1931; how in 1933 he became active in the anti-fascist Socialist Party and anti-fascist resistance; the German invasion on May 12, 1940; fleeing with his wife and children to Paris, France, assuming Christian identities; traveling through southern France and reuniting with his family in Riom; the travails of fellow refugees; his work with the French resistance during 1941-1942 in Clermont-Ferrand, France; his sabotage activities with the Maquis in the mountains near Volvic, France; smuggling goods and other survival techniques to obtain food for resistance families; traveling with his wife and children to Paris, aided by American soldiers; returning to Brussels in 1946; finding his sister’s three children, who were hidden during the war in a convent and a monastery; arriving in the United States with his wife and children in 1947; and his memoir (Never be afraid: A Jew in the Maquis, published posthumously in 1997).
    Interviewee
    Bernard Mednicki
    Date
    interview:  1982 April 27
    interview:  1982 April 30
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Gratz College Holocaust Oral History Archive

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Extent
    6 sound cassettes (60 min.).

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
    Conditions on Use
    No restrictions on use

    Keywords & Subjects

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    The Gratz College Holocaust Oral History Archive conducted the interview with Bernard Mednicki in Philadelphia, Pa., on April 27 & 30, 1982. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum received the tapes of the interview from Gratz College on October 17, 2000.
    Record last modified:
    2023-11-16 08:36:28
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn508734

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