Overview
- Interview Summary
- Henri Vles, born in Rotterdam, Netherlands in 1916, discusses his family and Jewish upbringing; his parents’ political awareness and their escape to the United Kingdom; working in his father’s business; being fired after the business was taken over by a non-Jewish manager; the German invasion; the German occupation; working in an office where residents could petition to be removed from the lists identifying them as Jewish; being arrested and taken to Westerbork; living conditions in Westerbork; working with Hans Kalmeyer; his wife’s job as Adriaan van As’ secretary; falsifying documents; continually being removed from transport lists; issues involving Portuguese Jews who claimed not to be Jewish; meeting the camp commandant Gemmeker; liberation; and the committee created to run the camp after liberation.
- Interviewee
- Henri Vles
- Date
-
interview:
2005 July 12
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, courtesy of the Jeff and Toby Herr Foundation
Physical Details
- Language
- Dutch
- Extent
-
3 videocassettes (DVCAM) : sound, color ; 1/4 in..
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
- Conditions on Use
- Restrictions on use. The interview is intended for education and research and that use for broadcast television requires a separate consent agreement.
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, Dutch. Altruism--Netherlands. Holocaust survivors--Netherlands. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Netherlands. Identification cards--Forgeries--Netherlands. Jews--Persecutions--Netherlands. Jews--Rotterdam--Netherlands. World War, 1939-1945--Collaborationists--Netherlands. World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Liberation. World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Netherlands. World War, 1939-1945--Deportations from Netherlands. World War, 1939-1945--Social aspects--Netherlands. World War, 1939-1945--Underground movements--Netherlands. Men--Personal narratives.
- Geographic Name
- Netherlands. Netherlands--History--German occupation, 1940-1945. Rotterdam (Netherlands)
- Personal Name
- Vles, Henri.
- Corporate Name
- Westerbork (Concentration camp)
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- This is a witness interview of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Perpetrators, Collaborators, and Witnesses: The Jeff and Toby Herr Testimony Initiative, a multi-year project to record the testimonies of non-Jewish witnesses to the Holocaust. The interview was directed and supervised by Nathan Beyrak, and it was conducted in the Netherlands for the Netherlands Documentation Project on July 12, 2005. The interview was received by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives Branch in March 2006.
- Funding Note
- The production of this interview was made possible by Jeff and Toby Herr.
The cataloging of this oral history interview has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. - Special Collection
-
The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2023-11-16 08:59:22
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn518707
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