Testimony of Elchanan Italie, born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 1920, regarding his experiences in The Hague, Leiden, Kammersdorf Schiessplatz camp and using a false identity

Testimony of Elchanan Italie, born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 1920, regarding his experiences in The Hague, Leiden, Kammersdorf Schiessplatz camp and using a false identity His childhood and family background in Rotterdam; move to a rabbinical seminary in Amsterdam, 1934; Nazi rise to power in neighboring Germany. German occupation, 1940; move to The Hague; displays of antisemitism; the blooming of Jewish social and cultural life in the Netherlands; finds an emergency hiding place in a hospital; hiddden by a Dutch worker in Leiden; life in Leiden using a borrowed identity; infiltrates Kammersdorf Schiessplatz; life using a false identity; daily life in camp with Dutch and German non-Jews; grows a vegetable garden in camp; good relations with the German commander; labor for the camp physician; visit to the Netherlands and soccer games in Berlin; liberation and return to Leiden while ill with tuberculosis; life in an orphanage in Leiden; receives a forged identity document from friends; the liberation of Leiden. Witness' quick return to the observance of Torah and religious commandments; work as the Jewish community's secretary; joins Bachad, 1946; quick adjustment; witness obtains recognition of his friends, who obtained a false identity document for him, as Righteous Among the Nations; witness' strong ties with his rescuers.