Fernande H. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Fernande H., who was born in Paris, France in 1923. She recalls being the middle of five children; working for a small company; one brother's deportation in 1942 and her mother's in 1943; another brother joining the Resistance and escaping to England; her father and two brothers going into hiding; being arrested in 1944 for not wearing the star when her boss was investigated for hiding British parachutists; visits from non-Jewish friends; incarceration in Drancy for one month; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau in May 1944; a month in quarantine; during forced labor, sabotaging the building of a road to the crematoria to delay its completion; hiding during selections; prisoners in Canada Kommando smuggling extra things to them; a brief encounter with Henri Borlant, her Paris neighbor; transfer to Bergen-Belsen in January 1945; liberation by British troops; recuperating in Bergen-Belsen; repatriation via Hotel Lutetia in Paris; reunion with her father and brothers; and marriage three years later. Mrs. H. discusses persistent hope her brother would return (he did not); continuing nightmares; intergroup relations in the camps; her son's participation in a second generation group; and his understanding her reluctance to talk about these experiences. She shows family photographs.

2 videocassettes