The Yiddish Book Center's

Wexler Oral History Project

A growing collection of in-depth interviews with people of all ages and backgrounds, whose stories about the legacy and changing nature of Yiddish language and culture offer a rich and complex chronicle of Jewish identity.

Walking Through France During World War II

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Lili Bermant z"l retells her family's story of walking through France to escape Nazi soldiers and eventually passing a family who looked very much like her own, walking tiredly along the road but in the opposite direction. The Germans, they realized, were closing in on France.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Lili Bermant.

This excerpt is in English.

Lili Bermant was born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1927. Lili died in 2011.

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Other video highlights from this oral history

The Maginot Line

2 min 43 sec

Jew numbers and the underground railroad:

1 min 47 sec

Listening to Hitler on the Radio

1 min 1 sec

How a German Officer Saved My Family

5 min 32 sec

My Early Take on Being Jewish

3 min 11 sec

Joining a Zionist Group in Cuba

3 min 50 sec

My Son Was Not Bar-Mitzvahed

2 min 20 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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