Description
Object description
French officer served with French Army in France, 1939-1940; escaped to GB, 1941; served with Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action, Free French Forces in GB and France, 1942-1944; inmate of Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camps, Germany, 10/1944-4/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Germany and France, 1917-1939: family origins; education; attitude towards Nazi regime; reaction to Munich Crisis, 9/1938. Aspects of period as officer with French Army in France, 1939-1940: conscription into French Army, 1939; Allied retreat after 10/5/1940; morale in French Army; attitude towards Fifth Column; reaction to Dunkirk Evacuation, 5/1940-6/1940 and Royal Navy's attack on French Fleet at Mers-el-Kebir, French Algeria, 7/1940; escape from France to GB, 1940-1941. Aspects of period as officer with Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action, Free French Forces in GB, 1942-1944: initial training as navigator with Royal Air Force, 1941-1942; recruitment to intelligence service; role and duties. Aspects of operations as officer with Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action, Free French Forces in France, 1944: parachuting into France, 3/1944; role organising French Resistance communications; capture by Gestapo and interrogation. Aspects of period as inmate in Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Germany, 10/1944-2/1945: arrival in camp; his change of identity.
REEL 2 Continues: work in German factory; escape from camp and re-capture. Aspects of period as inmate in Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp, Germany, 2/1945-4/1945: under treat of execution; conversations with V2 Rocket saboteurs; escape from train near Lüneburg, 4/1945; joining American forces near Hanover; temporary capture by Schutzstaffel (SS). Recollections of period as inmate in Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camps, Germany, 10/1944-4/1945: comparison between Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camps; control by 'criminal' inmates in Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp; work on V-weapons; sabotage attempt on V-weapons; his own Kommando at Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp; arrival of victims from concentration camps in east; use of limited power by 'political' inmates in Buchenwald Concentration Camp; divide and rule tactics employed in concentration camps; attitude towards Soviet inmates in Buchenwald Concentration Camp; memories of Wing Commander Forest Yeo-Thomas.
REEL 3 Continues: opinion of misconceptions about concentration camps; Nazi attitude towards camp inmates; contact with Jehovah's Witnesses in camps; behaviour of 'mussulmen'; possessing an escaping mentality; nature of Rottleberode Subcamp; degree of breakdown in Germany, spring 1945; atypical nature of his camp experience; effects of experiences on personal attitudes. Reflections on service in Second World War: opinion of achievements of French Resistance in France, 1944; observations on British during Second World War.