Testimony of Yitzhak Izidor Holtzman Etzion, born in Wuerzburg, Germany, 1921, regarding his experiences in Bordeaux, Vichy, Rouen, Brens and refugee camps in Switzerland

Testimony of Yitzhak Izidor Holtzman Etzion, born in Wuerzburg, Germany, 1921, regarding his experiences in Bordeaux, Vichy, Rouen, Brens and refugee camps in Switzerland Zionist family; displays of antisemitism and economic problems, 1933; move to France; life in Neuf Brisach including work of his father as a cantor and ritual slaughterer; attends a rabbinical school in Paris, 1934; joins the Jewish Scouts; return to Neuf Brisach; displays of antisemitism. Evacuation of residents to the south of France, September 1939; transfer to Bordeaux; drafted to an explosives factory; German occupation, June 1940; transfer to Vichy; counselor in the Scouts movement; registration of local Jews at the police station, 1941; deportation from Vichy, summer 1942; transfer to Rouen; receives letters from his family from Le Lonzac; deportation of the Jews from Rouen, autumn 1942; escape in the direction of Switzerland via Evian with the help of the Jewish Scouts commander; capture of Jewish refugees in the train station in Evian; escape to Brens; help from a French priest in crossing the border. Detention in Lujon; life in refugee camps in Switzerland including acting as a counselor to Jewish orphans; aliya to Eretz Israel, 1945.