Overview
- Interview Summary
- Dominique Amigou Mendy, born August 4, 1909 in Ziguinchor, Senegal, discusses his early life as a farmer in Casamance, Senegal; being a volunteer in World War I, and a second lieutenant in the Free French Forces; his return to Senegal in 1918; joining the merchant marines in Dakar in 1929 as a mechanic; his response to Degaulle's speech June 18, 1940; training as a photographer in France; joining the Resistance in the Bordeaux-Loupiac network; working as an intelligence officer for the maquis; securing hideouts, food and money for British parachutists in Bordeaux, and transporting arms between France and Britain; evading Nazi attention as an intelligence officer in the resistance because of their racist views; delivering an arms shipment to Oradour-sur-Glane, France about a month before the Nazi massacre of its population on June 10, 1944; arriving in Coutras, France to be denounced by an associate; his April 21, 1944 arrest by the Gestapo and torture in Bordeaux to reveal names of his comrades; not revealing information, but suffering permanent injuries; his simulated execution by the Nazis at 3 am and other painful humiliations; his transfer to Compiegne, France and deportation to Germany by cattle car along with other French Africans including Sidi Camera and Ernest Armand Huss; stopping at Buchenwald, which had no room for them; arriving at Neuengamme May 24, 1944; wearing the red triangle denoting political prisoners; intense, painful interrogations; his separation from white French prisoners; playing into the Nazi view of Africans as stupid, resulting in some soldiers taking pity on him; convincing a Cameroonian Kapo that he was not a maquisard but was rounded up by the French and taken against his will to France; working as a domestic for the Kapo and other Nazi officers; washing windows, sweeping floors, and being fed meager portions, which he always shared with his fellow French prisoners; being called "Bimbo" by the Nazi officers; procuring a small bar of soap after telling the Nazis he was black because he was dirty; being liberated from Neuengamme on April 7, 1945 by the Danish Red Cross; being transferred by boat to Copenhagen, Denmark; returning to France then Senegal; working as a personal photographer to Leopold Senghor until 1980; and receiving the Medal of the Resistance, the Croix de Guerre, and the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor on November 4, 1982.
- Interviewee
- Dominique A. Mendy
- Interviewer
- Magueye Kasse
- Date
-
interview:
1998 January 05
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Magueye Kasse
Physical Details
- Language
- French
- Extent
-
2 digital files : WAV.
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
- Conditions on Use
- Restrictions on use. Restrictions may exist. Contact the Museum for further information: reference@ushmm.org
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- Africans--Germany. Concentration camp guards--Germany. Croix de guerre (France) Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Africa--Personal narratives. Kapos. Men--Personal narratives. Photographers. Political prisoners. Senegalese--France. Torture--France. World War, 1914-1918. World War, 1939-1945--Blacks. World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Liberation. World War, 1939-1945--Deportations from France. World War, 1939-1945--Military intelligence--France. World War, 1939-1945--Parachute troops. World War, 1939-1945--Prisoners and prisons. World War, 1939-1945--Underground movements--France.
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- Magueye Kasse donated the oral history interview with Dominique Mendy to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum July 2012. The interview was conducted January 5, 1998.
- Special Collection
-
The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2023-11-16 09:29:54
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn74762
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Also in Magueye Kasse oral history collection
Oral history interviews with Theodor Wonja conducted February 9, 1997 and Dominique Mendy conducted January 5, 1998
Date: 1997 February 09-1998 January 05
Oral history interview with Theodor Wonja
Oral History
Theodor Wonja Michael, the son of a Cameroonian father and a German mother, discusses his thoughts on race, civilization, and culture; the difficult relationship between Germany and Africa; the experiences of Africans in German concentration camps; the two main groups of black people persecuted by the Nazis; being fourteen when the war started; avoiding relationships with Aryans; his fear of falling ill, going to the hospital, and being sterilized; how the stories of black Holocaust survivors are marginalized; the African slave trade; and the importance of looking at African influences in German art and literature today.
