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Jolan W. Holocaust testimony (HVT-2577) interviewed by Joni-Sue Blinderman,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-2577

Videotape testimony of Jolan W., who was born in Senec, Czechoslovakia (presently Slovakia) in 1921, one of seven children. She recalls her orthodox family's affluence; her father's death when she was twelve; attending high school in Bratislava; biannual family reunions in Dunajská Streda at her maternal grandparents' home; her mother sending her and her sisters to join a brother in Budapest after the war began; her other brothers being sent later (she never saw her mother again); marriage in 1942; conscription of her husband and brother for forced labor; their return; hiding to avoid ghettoization; acquiring papers as a non-Jew; living with a non-Jewish woman and her sisters-in-law; visiting her sister in the ghetto; her husband living in a Wallenberg safe house; smuggling him food; witnessing the mass shooting of Jews at the Danube; working with her sister-in-law in a boot factory; liberation by Soviet troops; reunion with her husband and siblings; moving to Debrecen; returning to Budapest; the births of two children; her husband's death in 1953; fleeing to Vienna, Linz, then Salzburg during the 1956 revolution; assistance from HIAS; emigration to the United States with assistance from her husband's family, and her second marriage. Ms. W. notes all of her siblings survived. She shows photographs.

Author/Creator
W., Jolan, 1921-
Published
New York, N.Y. : A Living Memorial to the Holocaust-Museum of Jewish Heritage, 1993
Interview Date
March 24, 1993.
Locale
Hungary
Budapest
Czechoslovakia
Senec (Slovakia)
Bratislava (Slovakia)
Dunajská Streda (Slovakia)
Budapest (Hungary)
Debrecen (Hungary)
Vienna (Austria)
Linz (Austria)
Salzburg (Austria)
Language
English
Copies
3 copies: 3/4 in. dub; Betacam SP restoration master; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Jolan W. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2577). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.