Flem, Boris

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Description de l'interview extraite du site US Fortunoff / Biographie à venir

Boris Flem was born in Petrograd, Soviet Union (presently Saint Petersburg, Russia) in 1923. He recounts his father's death; emigrating with his mother and brother to join relatives in Hamburg in approximately 1925; placement in a children's home; his bar mitzvah; expulsion from public school in 1934; attending a Jewish school; his brother's emigration to the Netherlands; visiting him in the Hague; expulsion from Germany with his mother in 1938; joining his brother; attending school in Charleroi; German invasion; living in Brussels; returning to Charleroi; arrest in March 1942; incarceration in Mons, St. Gilles, Aix-la-Chapelle, Cologne, and Frankfurt; transfer to Würzburg; slave labor in a textile factory; sabotaging the products; the camp commander's efforts to keep them alive; the prisoners conducting classes for each other; a death march in April 1945; liberation by United States troops; assistance from the Red Cross; repatriation to Belgium; reunion with his brother (his mother had been killed); recuperating from tuberculosis in Leysin; marriage to a survivor; and returning to Brussels. Mr. F. notes his loneliness after liberation; reluctance to discuss his experiences, but sharing them with his daughter; continuing friendships with fellow survivors; and nightmares resulting from his experiences.

(Copyright : Fortunoff Video Archives for Holocaust Testimonies – Yale)

Ressources

Fiche interview

Code interview : YA/FA/039
Date interview : 07/03/1994
Lieu interview : Centre Audiovisuel de l’Université Libre de Bruxelles
Durée interview : 3h52
Langue interview : Français
Interviewers : Pascal Majerus et Elisabeth Inchusta
Cameraman : Jacques-Yves Le Docte
Consultation : Autorisée
Indexation thématique : Oui
Séquençage interview : non