Overview
- Interview Summary
- Alex Zelczer, born in 1927 in Vásárosnamény, Hungary, describes his parents and nine siblings; helping in the family’s bakery business; how life changed in 1939 when the Hungarian government started to copy the Nazi propaganda campaign; how the flour ration affected the bakery; how in 1943 the police forced his father to open the bakery on the Sabbath; how on the last day of Passover in 1944 one of his father’s non-Jewish customers offered to hide the Zelczer family on his farm, but they decided against it; being sent to the ghetto a few weeks later; being deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau; being separated from his family and never seeing his parents again; being moved to Jaworzno, where he was assigned to build a power plant; going to the infirmary in January 1945 because he was too weak to walk; remaining in the camp when the other prisoners were evacuated and sent on a death march; being liberated by the Russians on January 26, 1945; walking home and being nursed back to health by a cousin; reopening the bakery with his four surviving siblings; not feeling comfortable in Vásárosnamény and going to a displaced persons camp in Germany; living in the camp until 1947; and immigrating to the United States in 1947.
- Interviewee
- Alex Zelczer
- Date
-
interview:
2005 May 10
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Congregation Shaarey Tikvah, Beachwood, Ohio www.shaareytikvah.org
Physical Details
- Language
- English
- Extent
-
1 DVD : MPEG-4.
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
- Conditions on Use
- Restrictions on use. Restrictions may exist. Contact the Museum for further information: reference@ushmm.org
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- Antisemitism--Hungary--Vásárosnamény. Concentration camp inmates--Medical care--Poland. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Poland--Personal narratives. Holocaust survivors--United States. Jewish children in the Holocaust--Hungary. Jewish families--Hungary--Vásárosnamény. Jewish ghettos--Hungary--Vásárosnamény. Jewish refugees--Germany. Jews--Hungary--Vásárosnamény. Jews--Legal status, laws, etc.--Hungary. Refugee camps--Germany. World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Liberation. Men--Personal narratives.
- Geographic Name
- Germany. Hungary--History--1918-1945. Jaworzno (Kraków, Poland) Poland. United States--Emigration and immigration. Vásárosnamény (Hungary)
- Personal Name
- Zelczer, Alex, 1927-
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The interview was acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2014 from Louise K. Freilich, on behalf of Congregation Shaarey Tikvah, Beachwood, Ohio.
- Special Collection
-
The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2023-11-16 09:31:56
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn78771
Additional Resources
Supplementary Materials (2)
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Oral history interview with Mimi Ormond
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Oral history interview with Helen Potash
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Oral history interview with Sarah Radzeli
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Oral history interview with Hannah Rath
Oral History
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Oral history interview with Judith Shamir
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Oral history interview with Leo Silberman
Oral History
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Oral history interview with Walter Wertheim
Oral History
Walter Wertheim, born in Mönchengladbach, Germany in 1925, describes his family, which had been in the same area for 300 years; being 13 years old at the time of Kristallnacht; being prevented from attending school; going to Cologne, Germany temporarily and returning home; how his father organized tutoring sessions for him; going to a Jewish high school in Cologne; being sent on a Kindertransport to England in May 1939; being in several foster families; not being able to attend school in England; how his father was able to leave Germany for the United States; going to New York, NY in June 1940; graduating at the age of 16; enlisting in the U.S. Army; becoming a lawyer after the war; and the friends and family he lost in the Holocaust.
