Jack R. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Jack R., who was born in Mukachevo, Czechoslovakia in 1928. He describes his very loving parents; attending Czech public school; Hungarian occupation in 1938; anti-Jewish measures; deportation of non-Hungarian Jews to Poland; clandestinely studying for his Bar mitzvah with a Polish rabbi in 1941; German invasion in 1944; ghettoization; his brother's draft into a labor battalion (he never saw him again); separation from his mother and sisters upon arrival at Auschwitz on March 26, 1944; transfer with his father to Buchenwald and Zeitz; forced labor at the Brabag factory; his father's death after a severe beating for stealing an onion; volunteering to return to Buchenwald; hiding in the sick barrack until liberation; and traveling to Prague with a friend. Mr. R. recalls learning that none of his family members had survived; traveling to Munich in 1946; living in Fo?hrenwald displaced persons camp; emigrating to the United States in August 1947; and living in an orphanage, then with foster parents. He discusses his trauma when accused of stealing in a camp; his postwar abandonment of Judaism; and subsequently realizing its importance in his life.
Extent and Medium
4 videocassettes
Conditions Governing Access
This testimony is open with permission.
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Copyright has been transferred to the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. Use of this testimony requires permission of the Fortunoff Video Archive.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- R., Jack, -- 1928-
Corporate Bodies
- Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Föhrenwald (Displaced persons camp)
- Braunkohle Benzin AG.
Subjects
- Jews -- Hungary -- Munkács.
- Hungarian occupation.
- Mutual aid.
- Refugee camps.
- Child survivors.
- Forced labor.
- Fathers and sons.
- Faith.
- Jews -- Ukraine -- Mukacheve.
- Concentration camps -- Psychological aspects.
- Jewish ghettos.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
Places
- Zeitz (Germany : Concentration camp)
- Munkács ghetto.
- Mukacheve (Ukraine)
- Czechoslovakia.
- Munich (Germany)
- Prague (Czech Republic)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat