Oral history interview with Philippe Akar
Philippe Akar, a notable Resistance fighter and author on the Resistance in World War II, was born January 19, 1919 in Paris, France. In this interview he discusses his family background; his ancestors’ migration from Alsace to Paris in 1871; not being observant Jews; learning about Hitler from newspapers and books; being aware of the growing antisemitism with the influx of Jews from Eastern Europe; being called up by the Vichy government to serve in November or December 1939; the antisemitism in the army; having two children with his non-Jewish wife (the first child was born in 1940 and the second was born just as he was traveling to Spain in 1942 to join the Free French Forces); stopping in a staging area in Mauleon, in southwestern France; crossing into Spain along with his brother, Alain; assuming the personage of a British aviator; being arrested and interned in the Miranda de Ebro concentration camp for six months; being expelled from Spain; arriving in Gibraltar on 17 April 1943; arriving in London to join the FFL on June 15, 1943, where he was a volunteer for the parachutist regiment between December 1943 and June 1944; being transferred to Paris in August 1944; his father’s deportation in 1944; becoming one of the best in explosives and a sabotage expert; being responsible for sabotaging German routes of retreat; blowing up rail lines and roads; liberation; and his retirement.
Some video files begin with 10-60 seconds of color bars.
- Interviewee
- Philippe Akar
- Interviewer
- Borbála Kriza
- Date
-
interview:
2017 October 28
- Geography
-
creation:
Ameugny (France)
- Language
-
French
- Extent
-
1 digital file : MPEG-4.
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection
-
Record last modified: 2023-05-30 12:37:03
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn598789
Also in Oral history interviews of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's European Holocaust Survivors project
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