Michael B. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Michael B., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1931. He recounts his father's death when he was a year old; visits to his grandparents in Budapest; the Anschluss in 1938; antisemitic propaganda; his mother withdrawing him from school; their conversion to Roman Catholicism, hoping for safety; futile attempts to emigrate to the United States; traveling to Budapest in spring 1941; German occupation in March 1944; anti-Jewish measures; forced relocation in June; their housemate, Béla Vihar, entertaining the children; Allied bombings; forced labor with his scout troop; his mother obtaining a Vatican letter of protection; hiding during round-ups; moving into a Vatican safe house with his mother and grandmother; their transfer to the ghetto in December; liberation by Russian troops in January 1945; leaving in the spring due to food shortages; briefly living in Nyíregyháza; assistance from the Jewish community; moving to Debrecen, then Nagyvárad (Oradea); returning to Budapest; traveling through Vienna to Paris in September 1946; emigration to the United States; marriage; his career as a chemist; and visiting his half-brother in Vienna in 1969. He discusses his father's publishing career and Vihar's book. He shows photographs and memorabilia.
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
- B., Michael, -- 1931-
Subjects
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Child survivors.
- Grandparent and child.
- Safe houses.
- Postwar experiences.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Forced labor.
- Mothers and sons.
- Jews -- Hungary -- Budapest.
- Refugees, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Christian converts from Judaism.
- Jews -- Migrations.
Places
- Oradea (Romania)
- Paris (France)
- Nyíregyháza (Hungary)
- Debrecen (Hungary)
- Nagyvárad (Hungary)
- Austria -- History -- Anschluss, 1938.
- Budapest ghetto.
- Austria.
- Budapest (Hungary)
- Vienna (Austria)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat