Joseph L. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Joseph L., who was born in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia (presently Serbia) in 1931, an only child. He recounts his secular family's affluence; attending Serbian and Jewish schools; their move to Belgrade; German bombardment; returning to Novi Sad; Hungarian occupation; his father's incarceration in a labor camp; his mother securing his father's release; moving to Budapest; attending Hungarian school, then a Jewish gymnasium; learning of the murders of relatives in the January 1942 mass killing in Novi Sad; returning to Novi Sad; his mother visiting her ill sister in Budapest; German invasion in spring 1944; his father's arrest; bringing him food (he never saw him again); an uncle (a convert to Christianity) supplying him with false papers so he could bring him to join his mother and grandparents in Budapest; receiving a postcard from his father (he had been deported); living in a Swedish safe house in the ghetto; his bar mitzvah; Raoul Wallenberg saving his mother from a round-up; Soviet bombardment; round-up with his mother by the Arrow Cross; their escape; assistance from a non-Jewish acquaintance; returning to the ghetto; liberation by Soviet troops; returning to Novi Sad; attending school; two antisemitic teachers; emigration to Israel in 1948; and military enlistment. Mr. L. discusses nightmares resulting from his experiences; efforts as a radio broadcaster to increase awareness of the Holocaust; and visiting Budapest with his son. He shows a family tree and photographs.
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
- L., Joseph, -- 1931-
Corporate Bodies
- Nyilaskeresztes PaĚrt.
Subjects
- Survivor-child relations.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Escapes.
- Nightmares.
- Bar mitzvah.
- Mothers and sons.
- Jewish ghettos.
- Jews -- Hungary -- Budapest.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- Postwar experiences.
- Postwar effects.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Antisemitism -- Postwar.
- False papers.
- Safe houses.
- Hungarian occupation.
- Child survivors.
Places
- Novi Sad (Serbia)
- Yugoslavia.
- Budapest (Hungary)
- Belgrade (Serbia)
- Budapest ghetto.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat