Peter V. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Peter V., who was born in Nitra, Czechoslovakia (presently Slovakia) in 1929, an only child. He recalls his father's position as a bank director; his family observing major Jewish holidays within their assimilated lifestyle; attending an orthodox day school; participating in Zionist youth groups; establishment of the Slovak state; anti-Jewish laws preventing his entry to public school and expulsion from their house; deportations beginning in 1942; their official exemption due to his father's expertise; recognizing that the arrival of Germans in 1944 imperiled them; his father arranging to be smuggled away; staying with his mother since the journey would be too arduous for him; traveling with her to Zlaté Moravce, Volkovce, Banská Bystrica, Tisovec, Hronec, then Horná Lehota; encountering partisans; moving to Šumiac; receiving false papers from the town authorities; remaining until December; liberation by Romanian troops; returning home; finding their house had been looted; learning his father had been killed and his grandparents deported from Vienna; changing his surname; attending war crime trials of Hlinka guards as a form of revenge; and continuing antisemitism. Mr. V. notes many non-Jews who helped his family, including a Hlinka guard who offered to hide his father; he and his mother vowing not to speak German again after the war; and reconnecting to the Jewish community beginning in 1989. He shows documents.

1 videocassette