Testimony of Joseph Mason Harman, born in Valenciennes, France, 1933, regarding his experiences as a child in western France and using a false identity in Valenciennes

Testimony of Joseph Mason Harman, born in Valenciennes, France, 1933, regarding his experiences as a child in western France and using a false identity in Valenciennes Life before the war; life with a family without French citizenship. German occupation, June 1940; escape to western France; life in western France; escape back to the family home; life in Valenciennes including yellow badge; attends a public school; antisemitic propaganda in the press and on the radio; sending of parcels to family in Poland; registration of the Jews in the French police stations; German soldiers and French gendarmes break into his home, summer 1941; deportation with Jews without citizenship; jumps out of the railroad car and escapes from the train station; taken in by a female neighbor; life in the neighbor's home as a foster child using a non-Jewish identity; continuation of studies at school; teachers turn a blind eye to his Jewishness; visits to the church; membership in the church choir; theological debates with the priest; contact with Jews in Valenciennes; liberation, summer 1944. Arrival of OPJ (Organization for Protection of Jews and Care of Jewish Children) representatives at the foster home; transfer to an institution for Jewish children in Paris; life in the children's institution; aliya to Israel with Youth Aliyah, 1948.