Joseph E. Holocaust testimony (HVT-2561) interviewed by Joni-Sue Blinderman

Videotape testimony of Joseph E., who was born in Kosyny, Czechoslovakia (presently Ukraine) in 1920, one of four children. He recalls attending a Hungarian school; living with relatives in Mukacheve to attend the Hebrew gymnasium; participating in a Zionist group; Hungarian occupation in 1938; violence against Jews; graduating in 1940; moving to Budapest; draft into a Hungarian slave labor battalion; working in several locations in Hungary, Transylvania and Yugoslavia; transfer to Lʹviv, then Brody in 1942; burying dead soldiers on the Russian front; a privileged position as a mechanic in Proskuriv; improved treatment by his commander; transfer to Stanislav; retreating toward the Hungarian border in 1944; their commander allowing them to escape; arrival of Soviet troops; being taken as POWs to Zaporiz︠h︡z︠h︡i︠a︡; joining the Czech military in Moscow; advancing to Brno; searching for his family in Kosyny (none survived); living with cousins in Brno; attending university; emigration to Israel in 1949; military service in the 1956 Sinai Campaign; and emigration with his wife and children to the United States in 1958. Mr. E. discusses the importance of luck to his survival. He shows photographs.