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