William Z. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of William Z., who was born in Znacevo, Czechoslovakia in 1919. He recalls attending school until age thirteen; apprenticeship and working for his father as a cabinet maker; Hungarian occupation; forced labor in a Hungarian army battalion; visits to a local Jewish family; a promise of protection from a Hungarian general; and obtaining weapons for partisans with funds from the local Jewish family. Mr. Z. recounts obtaining a leave from the general; finding his home abandoned; learning his family was in the Munka?cs ghetto and joining them; smuggling his two brothers out with papers from the general; deportation with his family to Auschwitz/Birkenau in May 1944; working with his younger brother in Jaworzna; a death march to Gross Rosen; losing his brother en route; transfer to Buchenwald; and being put in boxcars from which he was liberated. He tells of recuperating at a former Hitler Youth Camp; returning to Munka?cs; finding one brother and sister; settling in Karlovy Vary with his brother; and emigration to the United States with his wife, child and brother. He mentions a Yom Kippur service at a camp that gave him courage to go on and face later experiences.

2 videocassettes