John P. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of John P., who was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1931. He recounts attending school; visiting his large extended family; anti-Jewish laws; antisemitic harassment; German invasion in March 1944; their building's designation as a yellow-star house; his father's deportation to a labor camp; his last visit before deportation (they never saw him again); ghettoization; his mother obtaining Swedish papers; relocating to a safe house in November; he and his mother escaping from a round-up; returning to the safe house; liberation by Soviet troops; reunion with a few surviving aunts and an uncle; hoping for his father's return; receiving documents confirming his father's death in Auschwitz; studying medicine; the revolt in 1956; escaping to Austria; emigrating to Ottawa, Canada; his mother joining him in 1958; marrying a Budapest survivor; the births of two children; divorce; emigrating to the United States; and remarriage. Mr. P. discusses a 1985 visit to his surviving uncle in Hungary; sharing his experiences with his children and wife; a recent antisemitic incident at work triggering anxiety and flashbacks; and psychological problems resulting from never having grieved for his father. He shows photographs.
Extent and Medium
2 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
- P., John, -- 1931-
Subjects
- Survivor-child relations.
- Postwar effects.
- Postwar experiences.
- Safe houses.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Jews -- Hungary -- Budapest.
- Mothers and sons.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Antisemitism -- Prewar.
- Antisemitism -- Postwar.
- Escapes.
- Child survivors.
Places
- Budapest (Hungary)
- Hungary.
- Austria.
- Hungary -- History -- Revolution, 1956.
- Budapest ghetto.
- Ottawa (Ont.)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat