William K. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of William K., who was born in Szarvas, Hungary in 1911, the oldest of seven children in an Orthodox family. He recalls brief military service in 1930; establishing a trucking business; disbelief that the events in Germany would effect Hungarian Jews; revocation of his business license in 1940 due to antisemitic laws; compulsory service in a slave labor battalion in Gyoma; assignment as a truck driver during the German offensive in Ukraine; discharge in spring 1942; hiding in a mental institution in Gyula and in his home to avoid further service; German invasion in March 1944; anti-Jewish measures; an escape attempt with his sister; their arrest; transfer to Szolnok; deportation with his family to an Austrian slave labor camp; working as a tractor driver; transfer with his family to Bergen-Belsen in December; their liberation from an evacuation train by United States troops on April 13. Mr. K. describes brief stays with his parents and two sisters in displaced persons camps in Germany and Belgium; living in Antwerp; emigrating with his family to the United States in 1949; marriage; and his daughter's birth.
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
- K., William, -- 1911-
Corporate Bodies
- Bergen-Belsen (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors.
- Postwar experiences.
- Hiding.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Family.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Conscript labor -- Hungary.
- Refugee camps.
- Forced labor.
Places
- Antwerp (Belgium)
- Szolnok (Hungary : Concentration camp)
- Szarvas (Hungary)
- Hungary.
- Gyula (Hungary)
- Gyoma (Hungary)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat