Juraj M. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Juraj M., who was born in 1936 in Tel Aviv, Palestine (presently Israel), the only child of recent Czech immigrants. He recounts returning to Žilina due to his maternal grandmother's illness and his father's poor health; increased antisemitism with the formation of the Slovak state; hiding with non-Jewish friends; betrayal; incarceration in the Žilina camp for one or two months; non-Jewish friends arranging his and his parents' release and false papers; living with them in Rajecké Teplice; leaving for Banská Bystrica during the Slovak uprising; his father joining the partisans and his mother nursing the wounded (he stayed with her); hiding in the woods when Germans approached; a woodsman in Hrončok sheltering them and explaining their presence when Germans asked; moving to Bratislava after liberation; difficulties due to his parents' poor health from their war experiences; his father's decision to remain with his only brother rather than returning to Israel; his mother's sacrifices so he could attend university; marriage; the births of two children; remaining in Slovakia in 1968 because he could not leave his parents alone; his ill health; and working for the Jewish community. Mr. M. discusses difficulty understanding the danger of their situation as a child; his parents often discussing their war experiences; sharing his experiences with his children; his mother's resentment that they did not emigrate to Israel after the war; and his sense that it was a mistake to remain in Slovakia.
Extent and Medium
1 videocassette
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. This testimony can only be used for research or education. The testimony donor's full name can never be used. It cannot be used for any mass media until 2020.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- M., Juraj, -- 1936-
Corporate Bodies
- Žilina (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Postwar experiences.
- Survivor-child relations.
- Partisans.
- Postwar effects.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- False papers.
- Child survivors.
- Hiding.
- Fathers and sons.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Slovakia.
- Jewish children in the Holocaust.
- Mothers and sons.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Children.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
Places
- Bratislava (Slovakia)
- Banská Bystrica (Slovakia)
- Rajecké Teplice (Slovakia)
- Hrončok (Slovakia)
- Slovakia -- History -- Uprising, 1944.
- Palestine.
- Žilina (Slovakia)
- Tel Aviv (Israel)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat