Martin H. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Martin H., who was born in 1929 in a small village, one of four children. He recalls his family's affluence; moving to Prague; recuperating from an illness in Banin; living with his grandparents in his birth village due to his health; attending cheder and public school; his younger brother joining him in 1938; Hungarian occupation; illegally traveling to Budapest; living with a Jewish family in IV. Keru?let; becoming ill; admission to a Joint hospital; returning to his birth village; ghettoization in Khust; hiding with his brother; round-up to the train station; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau; separation from his brother and grandmother; transfer to Monowitz; rebuffing a kapo's homosexual advances; a severe beating; transfer to Gleiwitz; privileged work in the kitchen; the Kommandant's wife giving him extra food; British POWs giving him extra food; a death march to Gross-Rosen; a guard giving him food; execution of a group that attempted escape; train transfer to Buchenwald; observing cannibalism; assignment to the kitchen; smuggling extra food to fellow prisoners; liberation by United States troops; returning to Prague seeking relatives; working as a translator for the United States military in Germany; emigration to London on a children's transport; becoming a diamond cutter, then a professional bridge player; and marriage. Mr. H. notes the importance of luck to his survival; learning his family had been killed; and nightmares resulting from his experiences.
Extent and Medium
3 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
- H., Martin, -- 1929-
Corporate Bodies
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Monowitz (Concentration camp)
- Gross-Rosen (Concentration camp)
- Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Men.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- Child survivors.
- Hungarian occupation.
- Hiding.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Mutual aid.
- Postwar effects.
- Postwar experiences.
- Jews -- Ukraine -- Khust.
- Sexual harassment.
- Forced labor.
- Prisoners of war -- Poland.
- Death marches.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Cannibalism.
- Nightmares.
Places
- Czechoslovakia.
- Prague (Czech Republic)
- Banin (Czech Republic)
- Budapest (Hungary)
- IV. KeruĚlet (Budapest, Hungary)
- Khust ghetto.
- Gleiwitz (Poland : Concentration camp)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat