Nancy M. Holocaust testimony (HVT-2036) interviewed by Toby-Blum Dobkin

Videotape testimony of Nancy M., who was born in Kiskunhalas, Hungary in 1925. She recounts cordial relations with non-Jews; a close, warm extended family; German occupation in 1944; friends and neighbors seeming to enjoy watching the departure of the Jews; transport to the Szeged ghetto; deportation with her family to a German camp; her grandmother's death; transfer to a farm; relatively "easy" conditions; assistance from a German secretary; arduous forced labor; encouragement from contacts with Italian POWs; her father's unflagging sense of humor; evacuation to Theresienstadt in March 1945; working in the camp's sham kindergarten; smuggling food and clothing to relatives; Red Cross inspections; the debilitated state of prisoners arriving from other camps; liberation by Soviet troops; traveling with her family to Budapest; returning to Kiskunhalas; marriage; her daughter's birth; illegally entering Czechoslovakia in 1949 with her husband and daughter; traveling to Vienna; assistance from HIAS; emigration to Israel; harsh living conditions in Beersheba; her husband's death in 1957; emigrating to the United States; and remarriage. Mrs. M. discusses a recent visit to Hungary with her husband and granddaughter; her strong connection and visits to Israel; the importance of luck to her survival; and her great appreciation for life.