Marika F. Holocaust testimony (HVT-852) interviewed by Dori Laub and Sara Moss Herz,

Videotape testimony of Marika F., who was born in Keszthely, Hungary in 1925. She recalls her very happy youth; fear starting with the Anschluss; expulsion from school; anti-Jewish laws; appropriation of the family's business resulting in her father's depression; and his job with non-Jews who later helped the family. Dr. F. describes ghettoization in Zalaegerszeg in 1944; forced labor; a "feast" before their deportation; beatings of her father and her friend; transport to Auschwitz in early July; brutal treatment by kapos; remaining with her mother, aunt, a friend and her friend's mother; transfer to Birkenau; horrendous conditions; and constant thirst. She details their transfer on August 1st to Hessisch-Lichtenau; improved conditions; her illness from handling chemicals in an armament factory; and being saved from return to Auschwitz by another prisoner. She recounts several transfers in April 1945; a death march; their escape; hiding for three weeks in a village with two German women; arrival of Soviet soldiers who raped Mrs. F.'s friend and aunt; their return to Hungary; her later emigration; marriage, studies and her career in Europe. Dr. F. discusses the importance of the support of her mother and aunt to her survival.