Arthur R. Holocaust testimony

Identifier
HVT 2574
Language of Description
English
Level of Description
Collection
Source
EHRI Partner

Abstract

Videotape testimony of Arthur R., who was born in Derecske, Hungary in 1928, one of seven children. In a reflective and detailed testimony, he remembers centering their life on the synagogue, religious school, Sabbath, and Jewish holidays; increasing antisemitism in the mid-1930s; rescinding of Jewish business licenses, including his father's; increasing poverty; his father's draft into a Hungarian forced labor battalion; German occupation in 1944; ghettoization in Nagyva?rad (Oradea); deportation to Auschwitz; separation from his mother and younger brothers (they perished); pervasive hunger; maintaining contact with one brother and sister (they did not survive); selections; volunteering for transport thinking he could not survive in Auschwitz; transfer to Braunschweig; slave labor at a truck factory; help from his German supervisor; praying daily; the factory's destruction in Allied bombings; transfer to Watenstedt, Ravensbru?ck, and Woebbelin; liberation by United States troops; recovering at a military hospital, then in Helsingborg, Sweden; learning his father survived; and emigrating to the United States. Mr. R. discusses difficulties completing school with much younger students; reunion with his father; his marriage and children; recurring nightmares of leaving his home; and a disturbing visit to Germany. He shows photographs, documents, and artifacts.

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

Corporate Bodies

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Places

Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.