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Interview with Raymond Renaud (France)

About the biography of Raymond Renaud:

Raymond Renaud was born on 15 July 1923 in Palinges, in Burgundy. His father was a convinced communist. He learned carpentry and was a member of the communist youth. On 14 August 1942, Raymond Renaud was arrested for transporting and distributing leaflets. In April 1943, tried as the youngest Frenchman to date before the Dijon Special Court, he was sentenced to 13 months in prison. After being handed over to the German occupation authorities, he began his deportation to Buchenwald concentration camp on 17 September 1943, arriving there on 18 September 1943.

Housed in Block 40, Raymond Renaud was assigned to earthworks and forestry work detachments and to Gustloff-Werk II, the armaments factory near Buchenwald concentration camp. On 22 February 1944, when he learned of the arrival of French political deportees coming from Auschwitz, Raymond Renaud went to meet them, hoping to get news about his father, who had already been deported to Auschwitz in July 1942. Two Frenchmen told him about his father's death. After his liberation on 11 April 1945, Raymond Renaud returned to France on 8 May and to his home town of Palinges on 17 May.

For over 20 years, Raymond Renaud has been involved in remembrance work with young people. In 2014, he received the Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur. On 30 October 2022, the city of Weimar named him its honorary citizen. On the occasion of the 78th anniversary of the liberation of Buchenwald concentration camp, Raymond Renaud will tell his story.

A cooperation with the Citizens' Alliance against Right-Wing Extremism Weimar.

An event organised by the Buchenwald and Mittelbau Dora Memorials Foundation in cooperation with the Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Thüringen.