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INTERVIEW:
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Born:
00/00/0000
Place of Birth:
Frankfurt am Main
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Collection:
Unrestricted - Fortunoff Video Archive
Date of Interview:
Interviewed By:
Dana L. Kline

Interview Summary
Video testimony of Vernon L., who was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany in 1923. He recounts moving to Düsseldorf in 1928; cordial relationships with non-Jews; increasing antisemitism after 1933; Hitler Youth attacking his Makabi ha-tsaʻir group; anti-Jewish restrictions; fleeing to London in 1936; he and his family receiving visas for the United States; emigration with his family to Detroit in 1938; attempting to enlist in the United States Army; being rejected as an “enemy alien;” military draft in 1943; obtaining US citizenship; serving as a radio operator in the 99th Division Infantry Intelligence and Reconnaissance Platoon; deployment in France, Belgium, and Germany; evacuation to to Paris, then Oxford, due to frostbite and trench foot; transfer to the Air Force’s Air Technical Intelligence; working as a German translator; leading a unit to extract German engineers specializing in rocketry; observing liberated concentration camp prisoners; and military discharge in 1955. Mr. L. discusses working as a lawyer that assisted former prisoners obtain reparation payments; and a sense of guilt regarding those “who really suffered.” He shows photographs and documents.

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