Ferdinand B. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Ferdinand B., who was born in Sec̆ovce, Czechoslovakia (presently Slovakia) in 1921, one of six children. He recounts his family's orthodoxy; attending the local school; cordial relations with non-Jews; receiving religious instruction with his brother from a tutor; the whole town attending his bar mitzvah; anti-Jewish restrictions after Slovak independence; pervasive presence of Hlinka Guards; draft into the forced labor Sixth Battalion; working in tunnels in several locations, including Sabinov; being moved to Humenné, then Svätý Jur; remaining with a group from Sec̆ovce; transfer to Banská Štiavnica where they joined the partisans in the Slovak uprising; many dying in the German attack, including his brother; hiding in Banská Bystrica; liberation; reunion with one sister who had been in Auschwitz (his other sisters and parents did not return); and returning to Sec̆ovce where he felt people still loved him. Mr. B. discusses moving to Bratislava in 1963 to join his sister, where he oversaw the religious burials of Jews.

1 videocassette