Paul O. Holocaust testimony (HVT-647)

Videotape testimony of Paul O., who was born in Hajdúhadház, Hungary in 1924, the oldest of four children. He recalls thinking a German-Jewish visitor was exaggerating stories of persecution; meeting his future wife in Debrecen; rabbinical studies in Budapest; draft into a Hungarian forced labor battalion in 1944; remaining with friends from rabbinical school; serving on the Russian front; escaping with his friends; rejoining his unit when he realized escape was impossible; feigning illness to be sent back to Hungary; return to the front lines when his ruse was discovered; changing his papers to indicate he was stationed in Budapest; being sent to Sátoraljaújhely, then Budapest; a Jew in hiding telling him to go to the Swiss consulate where he found friends from rabbinical school; visiting relatives; obtaining Swiss protection for them; liberation by Soviet troops in January 1944; learning about the death camps in spring 1945; reunion with his future wife and his father (the rest of his family had been killed); marriage; traveling to Germany; his father's emigration to Palestine; and theirs to the United States. Mr. O. discusses his children's relationship with his father.