Dalma S. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Dalma S., who was born in Piešt̕any, Czechoslvakia in 1925, one of five daughters. She recounts being raised in Liptovský Mikuláš; her father's position as a reform synagogue cantor; cordial relations with non-Jews; Slovak independence resulting in anti-Jewish laws; expulsion from high school; two older sisters moving to Budapest to avoid deportation; hiding with an aunt in Piešt̕any to avoid deportation; returning home; traveling illegally to Budapest; finding her sisters; arrest; transfer to a prison in Uz︠h︡horod after six weeks; their release; arrest at the Slovak border; two years incarceration in Nováky; encountering a friend (her future husband); participating in theatrical productions and poetry readings; her future husband's participation in the camp underground; escape during the Slovak uprising; traveling to Banská Bystrica; joining partisans in the mountains; returning to Liptovský Mikuláš; obtaining false papers from a non-Jew (his father was a Hlinka guard commander); living with a non-Jewish former classmate as her cousin; German soldiers billeting there; not being reported despite many locals knowing she was Jewish; liberation by Soviet troops; reunion with her sister in Bratislava (two of her sisters survived); marriage; studying acting; hiding their Jewish identity during the communist regime (her daughter did not know she was Jewish until age fourteen); and her grandson's emigration to Israel after the fall of communism. Ms. S. notes that living in Nováky was like being "in the shadow of death" despite cultural events; knowing many of the guards after the war (they were never punished); and her identity as both Slovak and Jew.

1 videocassette