Pavel S. Holocaust testimony (HVT-3349) interviewed by Anna Hyndráková

Videotape testimony of Pavel S., who was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1921. He recalls his cordial relations with non-Jews; one antisemitic professor; German occupation; his father's suicide in 1940; his deportation to Theresienstadt in December 1941 (he never saw his mother again); reunion with his fiancée; their marriage on December 16, 1943; deportation to the Auschwitz/Birkenau family camp the next day; slave labor; his wife sharing food with him; assignment to the children's block; selection during liquidation of the family camp in March 1944; transfer to Schwarzheide; Allied air raids; sharing food with his friends; the death march to Varnsdorf in April 1945; the guards' disappearance; walking to Theresienstadt; returning to Prague; reunion with his wife in July; his draft into the Czech army; the births of his sons in 1947 and 1950; and working as a translator. Mr. S. discusses teaching the children in Auschwitz and their relative "happiness"; Joseph Mengele attending their weekly shows; Ota Kraus's books about the children's block; neither informing his children and grandchildren they were Jewish nor sharing his experiences with them; his sense that Hitler won even though he and his wife survived; and continuing nightmares. He shows photographs and documents.