Bernard D. Holocaust testimony (HVT-2993) [videorecording] / interviewed by Judith Feit and Elisabeth Inchusta, January 26, 1994.

Brussels, Belgium : Fondation Auschwitz, 1994.

1 videorecording (4 hr., 21 min.) : col.

French

This testimony is in French.

Videotape testimony of Bernard D., a Catholic, who was born in Gerponville, France in 1915. He recounts moving to Belgium when he was five; a Jesuit education; becoming a textile engineer; marriage; the births of three children; military service in 1937; remobilization immediately prior to German invasion; returning home; Resistance activities in Brussels; denunciation; surrendering when his wife was threatened with arrest; beatings during interrogations in St. Gilles; transfer to Bochum; slave labor; punishment for sabotaging the work; transfer to Esterwegen; slave labor sorting cartridges; a sham trial in January 1944 in Essen; designation as a "Nacht und Nebel" prisoner; transfer to Sachsenhausen; slave labor; public executions; Allied bombings; hospitalization; assistance from a Belgian doctor; transfer to Natzweiler-Struthof; drinking his own urine en route; transfer to Dachau, then Mauthausen; slave labor in a quarry; transfer to Gusen; resisting a kapo's homosexual advances; slave labor in an airplane factory; sabotaging the work; liberation by United States troops in April 1945; recovering in Linz; repatriation to Tournai via Reims; and reunion with his family. Mr. D. notes a beating for reading the Bible; observing Jews receiving more severe treatment; his children helping him become “normal” after the war, despite nightmares and psychological issues; and reluctance to share some of his memories, even with his children.

June 01, 2002

Bernard D. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2993). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Bernard D. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2993). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)