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.

A Family Saved from Deportation by Camille Huysmans

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Sonia Pressman Fuentes, co-founder of the National Organization for Women, recalls the story of how her family escaped deportation in Antwerp as dictated to her in her family's records in the Brussels archives. Camille Huysmans, mayor of Antwerp, refused to enact an order of deportation - just barely buying enough time for Sonia's family to flee the continent.

Wikimedia commons image attributions:

photograph of Camille Huysmans is from the Society for the National Archief

the poster for the Red Star Line is an illustration by Henri Cassiers

both images are used under creative commons public domain

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Sonia Pressman Fuentes.

This excerpt is in English.

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Other video highlights from this oral history

My Brother's Intuition: How We Left Germany in 1933

5 min 5 sec

"Eh, Let It Be Already": Abortion in Pre-War Berlin

3 min 55 sec

A Mother's Broken Promise, An Uncle's Gambled Dowry, A Hat Full of Bullet Holes: The Beginning of My Parent's Marriage

11 min 54 sec

"It Never Left Me": My Return Trip to Germany

4 min 49 sec

Passengers of The Red Star Line: The Only Survivor at the Museum Opening

7 min 46 sec

Records of My Ancestors: My Trip to Poland

7 min 35 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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