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Wiener Library

Gurs concentration camp: Eyewitness report


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 1556 WL 1313

Held at: Wiener Library

Title: Gurs concentration camp: Eyewitness report

Date(s): 20th century

Level of description: collection

Extent: 1 file

Name of creator(s): Forester | Hedwig | fl 1940

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Gurs was a major internment camp in France, near Oloron-Sainte-Marie, 80 kilometers from the Spanish border. Established in 1939 to absorb Republican refugees from Spain, Gurs later served as a concentration camp for Jews from France and refugees from other countries. While under the administration of Vichy France (1940-1942) most non-Jewish prisoners were released and approximately 2000 Jews were permitted to emigrate. In 1941 Gurs held some 15,000 prisoners. The camp was controlled by the Germans from 1942 to 1944, during which time several thousand inmates were deported to extermination camps in Poland. An unknown number succeeded in escaping and reaching Spain or hiding in Southern France. Gurs was liberated in the summer of 1944.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Copy of an eyewitness report by Hedwig Forester of his arrest by the Nazis in Brussels, May 1940, transportation in cattle wagons, and arrival in Gurs concentration camp, France, 2 weeks later.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: German

System of arrangement:

N/A

Conditions governing access:

Open

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies can be made for personal use. Permission must be sought for publication.

Physical characteristics:

Pages missing

Finding aids:

Description exists to this archive on the Wiener Library's online catalogue www.wienerlibrary.co.uk

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

M. Schneider

ALLIED MATERIALS

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Archivist's note: Entry compiled by Howard Falksohn.

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: February 2008


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Concentration camps | War crimes | Humanitarian law
Jews | Religious groups
Third Reich | Nazism | Totalitarianism | Political doctrines

Personal names

Corporate names
Gurs concentration camp

Places
Brussels | Belgium | Western Europe | Europe
France | Western Europe | Europe