Serge K. Holocaust testimony

Identifier
HVT 2159
Language of Description
English
Level of Description
Collection
Source
EHRI Partner

Abstract

Videotape testimony of Serge K., who was born in Saint Mande?, France in 1929. He recalls his family's secular life; German invasion; fleeing with his family to Marseille via Argenton-sur-Creuse, Orle?ans, and Cha?teauroux; German bombardment en route; attending high school; joining the Jewish scouts (EIF); arrest with his family in May 1943; imprisonment; transfer to Drancy; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau in July 1943; separation from his father, mother and sister (he never saw them again); a prisoner advising him to say he was older; a privileged assignment indoors; hospitalization; a Polish non-Jew sharing packages with him; a doctor and German non-Jewish prisoner saving him from selections; a privileged position in the hospital removing corpses and cleaning rooms; assignment to Canada Kommando; trying to help arriving prisoners (e.g. warning young women to give their children to others); public hangings; friendship with Greek Jews that helped him feel human; the Sonderkommando uprising in October 1944; transfer to Gross-Rosen; slave labor in a quarry, a forest, then the burial brigade; liberation in May 1945 by Soviet troops; repatriation to Hotel Lutetia in Paris via Bratislava and Plzen?; and living in an orphanage in Boulogne-Billancourt for four years, which helped him adjust to "normal" life. Mr. K discusses the camp hierarchy; his dual identity both as a survivor and as someone with everyday problems; and his negative Jewish identity, defined for him by antisemitism.

Extent and Medium

4 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.

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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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.