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Kurt R. Holocaust testimony (HVT-2432) interviewed by Nadine Weinstein and Elanore L. Lampner,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-2432

Videotape testimony of Kurt R., who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1913. He recalls his family's orthodoxy; attending medical school; violence against Jewish students; the Anschluss; anti-Jewish restrictions and violence, including expulsion from medical school; obtaining visas for his parents to Czechoslovakia; smuggling himself and his younger sister to Czechoslovakia in September 1938 with assistance from Czech army officers; reunion with their parents in Trenčín; forced labor; volunteering to enter Novaky labor camp in 1942 to avoid deportation; his parents' and sister's arrival; meeting his future wife; selection, with his parents, for deportation; his sister influencing the commander to exempt them; working as an orderly in the infirmary; liberation by Slovak partisans in August 1944; placing his parents with a farmer; four months service with the partisans; deserting and hiding in a village; avoiding a mass killing of local Jews by German soldiers; hiding with other Jews in a forest bunker; liberation by Soviet troops; learning his parents had been deported; reunion with his wife; completing medical school in Vienna; marriage in Bratislava; and emigration to the United States in 1949. Mr. R. discusses establishing his medical career and his children and their families.

Author/Creator
R., Kurt, 1913-
Published
Baltimore, Md. : Baltimore Jewish Council, 1993
Interview Date
February 28, 1993.
Locale
Slovakia
Austria
Vienna (Austria)
Trenčín (Slovakia)
Bratislava (Slovakia)
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Kurt R. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2432). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.