François J. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of François J., a non-Jew, who was born in Brussels, Belgium in 1914. He recalls attending Catholic schools despite his and his parents' secularism; training, then working as a tailor; German invasion; traveling to Dunkerque with a friend, hoping to enlist; returning to Brussels; his uncle's open work in the Resistance; his own participation; marriage; his uncle's arrest, revelation of their network, and his arrest in 1943; incarceration in St. Gilles for ten months; designation as "Nacht und Nebel" (NN); transfer with about one hundred Belgians to Essen, Vechta, then Kaisheim; working as a tailor; transfer to Dachau; shock at seeing piles of corpses; dehumanization and learning to accept death; their protected status as NN; observing a child with his hands surgically grafted to his abdomen, the result of specious Nazi medical experiments; solidarity within his group; his hostility towards the privileged prisoners who "ran the camp"; liberation by United States troops; hanging a German; repatriation to Liège; a welcoming party which they could not enjoy due to their weak physical and emotional condtion; returning to Brussels with Red Cross assistance; and slowly recovering, both physically and psychologically. Mr. J. notes learning about the scope of the atrocities and killings only after liberation; lasting friendships formed in prisons and camps; nightmares and character changes resulting from his experiences; not sharing them with his wife and son; and belonging to a Dachau survivor organization.
Extent and Medium
8 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
People
- J., François, -- 1914-
Corporate Bodies
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
- Dachau (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Belgium.
- Concentration camp inmates.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Belgian.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
- Resistance.
- Nightmares.
- Revenge.
- Human experimentation in medicine.
- Friendship.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, German.
- Postwar effects.
- Mutual aid.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Postwar experiences.
Places
- Kaisheim (Germany : Concentration camp)
- Liège (Belgium)
- Belgium.
- Dunkerque (France)
- Brussels (Belgium)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat