Nathan R. Holocaust testimony (HVT-3003) [videorecording] / interviewed by Elisabeth Inchusta and Hugo De Schameleire, December 22, 1995.

Brussels, Belgium : Fondation Auschwitz, 1995.

1 videorecording (3 hr., 9 min.) : col.

French

This testimony is in French.

Videotape testimony of Nathan R., who was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1925. He recounts his nanny in Warsaw; visits with his grandfather to a country home; his family's move to join relatives in Antwerp in 1930; attending school in Berchem; antisemitic harassment; German invasion in May 1940; expulsion from school; attending a Jewish school; deportation with his father to Malines in 1942; transfers to Ottmuth, Kleinmangersdorf, Babitz, and Trzebinia; slave labor; receiving help from friends; a privileged position due to his fluency in several languages; Jews from the Chrzanów ghetto giving them food; his father's hospitalization and death; saying kaddish at clandestine prayer services; transfer to Birkenau, then Auschwitz; separation from his uncle (he never saw him again); transfer to Warsaw; clearing rubble; brief hospitalization; trading bricks for food; a public execution; a death march in July 1944 to Kutno; transfer to Dachau, then Kaufering; a Red Cross visit; transfer to Langenberg; slave labor in an airplane factory; sabotaging the work; transfer back to Dachau; observing cannibalism; liberation by United States troops; repatriation to Antwerp; and reunion with his mother and sister (they had been in hiding). Mr. R. discusses many details of camp life; the importance to his survival of youth and assistance from others; not discussing his experiences with friends and family after the war, sensing they would not understand; a recent visit to Warsaw (he visited his nanny), Auschwitz and Chrzanów; serving as president of the Malines museum; and being very religious. He sings two camp songs.

June 01, 2002

Nathan R. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3003). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Nathan R. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3003). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)