Pavel T. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Pavel T., who was born in Slovakia in 1941. He recounts living in permanent fear as a child; Jews meeting in their home in Ilava; his father's dental practice; being warned in summer 1941 they would be deported; escaping with his parents, grandfather, and uncle to woods in Zliechov; his father's patients helping them dig a bunker; near discovery; building another bunker near Valaská Belá; moving several more times; cold and starvation; his mother protecting him with her body when Germans approached; his uncle leaving to find food and not returning (he was arrested and saved from execution by classmates); liberation by Soviet troops; not speaking for nine months due to his fear; and seldom speaking of these times with his family. Dr. T. notes thirty-five family members were killed by the Nazis; lifelong effects of these experiences; recognizing a Slovak Nazi, Alexander Mach, when he sought medical treatment from Dr. T and asking him not to return; gratitude to many people who risked their lives to save his family; rarely discussing his experiences with his daughters; welcoming the end of communism; and his grandfather's postwar reorganization of Jewish life. He shows photographs, documents, and objects from the war years.

1 videocassette