Victor B. Holocaust testimony

Identifier
HVT 3207
Language of Description
English
Level of Description
Collection
Source
EHRI Partner

Abstract

Videotape testimony of Victor B., who was born in Re?zekne, Russia (presently Latvia) in 1915. He describes his assimilated family; his and his older brother's communist militancy; his secular "bar mitzvah"; arrest in 1936 for political activities; eight months imprisonment in Ri?ga; illegally traveling to Paris using false papers; completing law school; enlisting in the Foreign Legion in September 1939; being stationed in Le Barcares in 1940; attending officer training school; demobilization in Aix-en-Provence; living there, then in Marseille; forming a business as a front for Resistance activities; arrest in early 1944; two months imprisonment in Marseille; transfer to Drancy, Auschwitz/Birkenau, then a day later to Jawischowitz; slave labor in coal mines; receiving extra food from Polish civilian workers; a death march and train transfer to Buchenwald in January 1945; slave labor digging tunnels; another death march; liberation by French troops; hospitalization; and repatriation to Marseille. Mr. B. discusses arrival at Auschwitz/Birkenau as falling into another world that cannot be described; the camp hierarchy; focusing on food to the exclusion of all else; his priority to just survive one more day; feeling his experiences happened to someone else; his brother's "disappearance" during Soviet purges in the mid-1930s; a last letter from his parents; and sharing his story with his children and grandchildren. He shows photographs and documments.

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.

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.