[Manuscript diary from a World War II French Resistance fighter imprisoned during the Holocaust] /

This remarkable handwritten document chronicles in incredible detail Rossignot's journey over the span of two brutal years, beginning with his arrest on March 20, 1943. He is first imprisoned, then in September of 1943 sent to the Buchenwald camp, and in September of 1944 sent to Dora, nickname...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Rossignot, Claude (Author)
Other Authors: Rossignot, Auguste
Format: Manuscript
Language:French
Subjects:
Description
Summary:This remarkable handwritten document chronicles in incredible detail Rossignot's journey over the span of two brutal years, beginning with his arrest on March 20, 1943. He is first imprisoned, then in September of 1943 sent to the Buchenwald camp, and in September of 1944 sent to Dora, nicknamed "Dora-la-Mort", before being liberated on April 15, 1945. Rossignot was a French resistance fighter and classified as a political prisoner during his time at the camps, with his uniform bearing an upside-down red triangle with an "F", to identify him as a French political prisoner. He learned later that his name appeared on the "Nacht und Nebel", or "Night and Fog" list, a directive issued by Hitler on December 7, 1941, targeting political activists and resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied territories. These people were to be imprisoned, murdered, or "disappeared", while their families wondered about their whereabouts. Assigned prisoner number 10.122, his descriptions of daily life in the camps, the starvation, the labor, the torture, the transports, and the mass executions are incredibly detailed, and often stomach-churningly graphic. Over the course of the diary, Rossignot describes every step of his imprisonment in remarkable detail. In 1958, a small publisher in Cannes, France, published a printed version of his manuscript in a very small run. No copies of this exist in the United States. The published diary also lists the author as "A. Rossignot", although the first page of the handwritten manuscript clearly displays his name as Claude Rossignot. In researching this diary, we searched Holocaust records and found that associated with the prisoner number 10.122 are both the names Auguste and Claude Rossignot, both with the birthdate of October 4, 1902. The Arolsen Archives even include photographs of documents from his journey as a prisoner in both names. Whether one was his middle name or he changed his first name for his own supposed protection is unknown. Rossignot's diary is a vivid and important historical document, providing a first-person perspective on one of the most brutal experiences any modern human has ever endured.
Item Description:Title supplied by vendor information.
Housed in a custom slipcase and clamshell box with spine title: Rossignot témoignage.
Some of the letters give the author's name as Auguste Rossignot.
Handwritten in ink on lined paper, on rectos only.
Physical Description:136 leaves ; 22 cm