André W. Holocaust testimony (HVT-4306) [videorecording] / interviewed by Yannis Thanassekos and Sophie Crema, May 23 and June 5, 2002.

Brussels, Belgium : Fondation Auschwitz, 2002.

2 videorecordings (4 hr., 59 min.) : col.

French

This testimony is in French.

This testimony cannot be for any purposes without permission of the donor until 2030.

Videotape testimony of Andre W., a Catholic, who was born in Uccle, Belgium, one of four children. He recounts attending Catholic school; German invasion; fleeing with his brother to Montpellier; returning home; attending university in Namur; going into hiding after refusing to report for forced labor; joining the Resistance; leading sabotage operations and armed resistance (several Jews were in his unit); arrest; daily interrogations and beatings in Avenue Louise, his worst memory; transfer a week later to St. Gilles; identifying a Jewish prisoner as a Resistant, thus saving him from deportation as a Jew; transfer to Breendonk, then three days later to Buchenwald in May 1944; prisoners from Breendonk killing a Belgian who had been very cruel; assignment to work in the hospital in the “small camp”; adapting to being surrounded by death; forming a group with other Belgians; arrival of prisoners from eastern camps who were frozen and starved to death; liberation in April 1945; repatriation in May; treatment for tuberculosis for two years; and completing his medical studies. Mr. W. discusses his fear of providing information leading to the deaths of others when he was tortured; the social order in concentration camps; first sharing his experiences with his children when they visited Buchenwald in the 1970s; and later visiting Breendonk with his grandchildren.

October 13, 2004

André W. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-4306). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

André W. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-4306). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)