Metadata: Collection of audiovisual testimonies of survivors of the Nazi concentration camps and killing centres
Collection
- Country:
- Belgium
- Holding institution:
- Auschwitz Foundation – Remembrance of Auschwitz
- Holding institution (official language):
- Stichting Auschwitz - vzw Auschwitz in gedachtenis
- Postal address:
- Huidevettersstraat 65 / Rue des Tanneurs 65, 1000 Brussel
- Phone number:
- +32 (0) 2 512 79 98
- Web address:
- http://www.auschwitz.be/
- Email:
- info@auschwitz.be
- Reference number:
- AuschF-Brussels-Bestand van de audiovisuele getuigenissen van de overlevenden van de concentratiekampen en vernietigingskampen van de nazi’s
- Title:
- Collection of audiovisual testimonies of survivors of the Nazi concentration camps and killing centres
- Title (official language):
- Bestand van de audiovisuele getuigenissen van de overlevenden van de concentratiekampen en vernietigingskampen van de nazi’s
- Creator/accumulator:
- Stichting Auschwitz – vzw Auschwitz in Gedachtenis; Fondation Auschwitz – Mémoire d’Auschwitz asbl
- Date(s):
- 1945/1999
- Date note:
- 20th century
- Language:
- French
- Dutch; Flemish
- German
- Extent:
- 228 recordings (ca. 1250 hours)
- Scope and content:
- This collection contains 228 video recordings of interviews with survivors of the concentration camps and killing centres. There are 158 interviews of men and 70 of women. The duration of the interviews is on average roughly 5 hours and 10 minutes. The large majority of the interviews were carried out in French (198 in total); we also note 29 interviews in Dutch and 1 in German. The interviewed persons mainly belong to the categories ‘Jewish deportee’ (120 individuals) and ‘deported resistance fighters’ (102 individuals). The concentration camps and killing centres that are most referred to are Auschwitz-Birkenau (77 interviews), Buchenwald (23) and Ravensbrück (16). We also point out 62 recordings related to the Kazerne Dossin in Mechelen and 22 recordings concerning the Breendonk camp. Note that for each interviewee, there exists an accompanying file with biographical information.
- Archival history:
- The recordings were carried out by the Stichting Auschwitz, in the framework of the program Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies of Yale University. Some recordings were made in cooperation with the Centre Audiovisuel de l’Université Libre de Bruxelles.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Stichting Auschwitz (‘Auschwitz foundation’) was created in 1980 by the Belgian association of former political prisoners of Auschwitz-Birkenau, camps and prisons of Silesia. The foundation’s mission is to preserve the memory to the Holocaust and Nazi-terror i.a. through historical research, the conservation of archives and the transmission of knowledge. For this purpose a study and documentation centre was developed, the non-profit association (vzw) Auschwitz in Gedachtenis (‘Auschwitz in remembrance’). In 2010 the association became one of the three recognised research centres in the context of the Décret relative à la transmission de la mémoire (13 March 2009) of the Communauté française. (http://www.auschwitz.be)
- Access points: locations:
- Auschwitz-Birkenau
- Breendonk
- Buchenwald
- Kazerne Dossin
- Ravensbrück
- Access, restrictions:
- Consultation is reserved for researchers. They are required to fill out a research declaration prior to consultation.
- Finding aids:
- There is a list of interviewed persons. Most of the interviews have been indexed, with mention of names of individuals, places, subjects, etc.
- Yerusha Network member:
- State Archives of Belgium
