Odette A. Holocaust testimony

Identifier
HVT 2092
Language of Description
English
Level of Description
Collection
Source
EHRI Partner

Abstract

Videotape testimony of Odette A., who was born in 1914. She recounts completing medical studies in Paris in 1939; working in Montargis; dismissal due to anti-Jewish laws; moving to Nice; organizing a network with her future husband to rescue Jewish children; assistance from OSE, the Joint, the Bishop of Nice, and other church and civic officials; hiding some 450 children; manufacturing false documents; learning her father was hiding and her mother and sister were deported (they did not return); imprisonment; interrogations; transfer to Drancy; and deportation to Birkenau. Dr. A. describes caring for the ill en route; quarantine; working with a Polish staff physician; living with prisoner doctors, nurses, and the Mengele twins; assignment to a "hospital" block; obtaining medication through Canada Kommando workers; sharing extra food; watching Mengele's selections; liquidation of the Zigeunerlager (Gypsy Lager); transfer to Bergen-Belsen; working in a "hospital"; liberation by English troops; their shock at the conditions; continuing to care for sick prisoners; repatriation to Paris; reunion with her father; recovering in Cha?teau-d'Oex, Switzerland; joining her future husband in Nice; and their work for OSE aiding the children they had hidden. Dr. A. vividly details events in concentration camps, relations between prisoners, and her emotional state.

Extent and Medium

3 videocassettes

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. This testimony cannot be used for commercial purposes.

Related Units of Description

  • Associated material: Odette A. Holocaust testimony (HVT-3201), Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Rules and Conventions

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Process Info

  • compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies

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Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.