Bernard R. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Rabbi Bernard R., who was born in Ti?a?chiv, Czechoslovakia (presently Ukraine) in 1924. He recalls his rabbinic family; attending yeshiva, then teaching there; Hungarian occupation; his father's deportation to Romania; hiding with his mother; briefly moving to Mukacheve; returning home when deportations started; moving to Oradea (Grosswardein); tutoring at a yeshiva; obtaining false papers to avoid deportation; German occupation in 1944; a futile attempt to enter Romania; building bunkers; ghettoization; working outside of the ghetto; brief detention; hiding in a bunker during a round-up; discovery by the Hungarian police; a brutal interrogation; forced labor in the ghetto; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau; learning his mother and sister were there; establishing contact with them; continuing to pray in a group; assignment to the kommando dismantling a crematorium; remaining behind when the camp was evacuated; desertion of the guards; and liberation by Soviet troops. Rabbi R. recalls reunion with his sister in Bucharest (his mother had perished); reunion with his father in Prague; marriage to a cousin; and emigration to the United States. Rabbi R. emphasizes the importance of his religious faith and shows family photographs.

6 videocassettes