Martin M. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Martin M., who was born in Tîrgu-Mure̦s, Romania in 1925, an only child. He recounts participating in Deror-ha-Bonim; Hungarian occupation; anti-Jewish restrictions, including his expulsion from school; attending a private school in Budapest; obtaining false papers; returning home to be with his parents when he heard his town had been ghettoized; deportation to Birkenau two months later; separation from his mother; volunteering for kitchen work; a German guard, and former friend, beating him, then ordering the cook to give him extra soup; transfer to Lille with his father; working as a painter; being beaten for stealing food; joining his father's group carrying equipment into an underground munitions factory; local children and civilian workers giving them extra food; a public hanging of three escapees; a death march and train transfer to Dachau; his father's hospitalization and death; train transfer; escaping with a group (several were shot); hiding in abandoned houses; liberation by United States troops; transfer to Garmish-Partenkirchen displaced persons camp; prisoners killing a kapo; working as a driver for UNRRA; providing German prostitutes to U.S. soldiers (his form of revenge); returning home seeking relatives (none survived); recovering a photograph of his parents; establishing haschsharas in Mediaș and Turda; assisting with illegal emigration to Palestine; arrest of members of his Zionist group; marriage in 1948; attending university in Timișoara; and emigration to Israel via Vienna with his wife and mother-in-law in 1959. Mr. M. discusses physical ailments resulting from the camps, and not attending Holocaust memorial events in order not to relive his experiences.
Extent and Medium
5 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
- M., Martin, -- 1925-
Corporate Bodies
- United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.
- Dachau (Concentration camp)
- Birkenau (Concentration camp)
- Deror-ha-Bonim (Organization : Romania)
Subjects
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Men.
- Jewish ghettos.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Fathers and sons.
- Jews -- Romania -- Tîrgu-Mureș.
- False papers.
- Hiding.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Mutual aid.
- Postwar experiences.
- Postwar effects.
- Forced labor.
- Concentration camp inmates -- Family relationships.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities.
- Death marches.
- Escapes.
- Refugee camps.
- Revenge.
- Hungarian occupation.
Places
- Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Germany : Refugee camp)
- Lille (France : Concentration camp)
- Tîrgu-Mureș ghetto.
- Vienna (Austria)
- Palestine -- Emigration and immigration.
- Timișoara (Romania)
- Mediaș (Romania)
- Turda (Romania)
- Budapest (Hungary)
- Tîrgu-Mureș (Romania)
- Romania.
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat