Emile V. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Emile V., a non-Jew, who was born in Lanaye, Belgium in 1922. He recalls attending school in Liège and Tilff; receiving draft notification in May 1940; being sent to Paris; returning to Belgium three months later; organizing a resistance unit; noting German convoys and conveying that information to the resistance; working in Germany; returning to Belgium; arrest with his father on May 15, 1943 as spies; imprisonment in Liège, then Bochum; transfer to Esterwegen; no communication with the outside due to their "Nacht und Nebel" status (their clothing was marked "NN"); always remaining with his father; his death in December; losing hope; support from his friends; transfer to prison in Bayreuth; transport in December 1944 in cattle trains to Dachau (he still has nightmares about this); receiving packages from the Belgian Red Cross; liberation; returning to Liège in May 1945; the pain of telling his mother of his father's death; learning of extermination camps; and marriage in October. Mr. V. discuss relations between nationality groups in the camps; a friend who was experimented upon; better conditions in prisons than in camps; seldom talking about his experiences, even with his children, except with other deportees; and continuing hostility toward Germans.
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.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- V., Emile, -- 1922-
Corporate Bodies
- Esterwegen (Concentration camp)
- Dachau (Concentration camp)
- Croix-Rouge de Belgique.
Subjects
- Fathers and sons.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, German.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, Belgian.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Belgium.
- Concentration camp inmates.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Belgian.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Postwar effects.
- Mutual aid.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- Forced labor.
- Nightmares.
- Human experimentation in medicine.
Places
- Paris (France)
- Bochum (Germany)
- Liège (Belgium)
- Tilff (Belgium)
- Lanaye (Belgium)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat