Konrad B. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Konrad B., who was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1916. Mr. B. describes his childhood and education; his mother's decision to move the family to Paris after Hitler's rise to power; volunteering for the French army; and internment by the French in Nantes in 1939, then by the Germans in a POW camp at Montreuil-Bellay. He details a friendship; his parents' flight from Marseille through Spain and Portugal to the United States; his escape in October 1940; teaching in a Quaker school for children of Spanish refugees in Montauban; serving as a Resistance courier; reunion with his wife; and living with false identities. He recounts numerous instances of assistance from a variety of people; escaping a police round-up and hiding in the woods in 1942; eighteen months hiding with an elderly couple; and the death of his in-laws in a transport east from Drancy. He discusses his position after liberation as headmaster of a school for Jewish children hidden with Catholic families and the psychological impact of this experience on some of the children; regional differences in French attitudes toward the German occupiers; and his work translating the autobiography of Lucie Aubrac, a key Resistance fighter and principal in the trial of Klaus Barbie.
Extent and Medium
3 videocassettes (3/4" u-matic)
Conditions Governing Access
This testimony is open with permission.
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Copyright has been transferred to the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. Use of this testimony requires permission of the Fortunoff Video Archive.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- Barbie, Klaus, -- 1913-1991.
- B., Konrad, -- 1916-
- Aubrac, Lucie, -- 1912-
Corporate Bodies
- Montreuil-Bellay (Concentration camp)
- Society of Friends.
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Quakers.
- Church work with refugees.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- War work -- Churches.
- Resistance.
- Hiding.
- Forests.
- False papers.
- Prisoners of war -- France.
- Husband and wife.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- France.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, German.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Psychological aspects.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Jews -- Rescue.
Places
- France -- History -- German occupation, 1940-1945.
- Germany.
- Nantes (France)
- Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne, France)
- Berlin (Germany)
- Paris (France)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- ftamc