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David R. Holocaust testimony (HVT-479) interviewed by Sue Danford,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-479

Videotape testimony of David R., who was born in Mukacheve, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (presently Ukraine) in 1916, one of nine children. He recounts his family's orthodoxy; emigration of siblings to the United States; cordial relations with non-Jews under the Czech regime; his father's death in 1920; working in a factory; Hungarian occupation; his mother's death in 1939; antisemitic harassment; moving to Budapest; draft into a Hungarian slave labor battalion in 1943; hospitalization; returning to his unit; German invasion; transfer to Uz︠h︡horod, then Terka; building roads and bridges; sketching portraits of soldiers for extra bread; returning to Uz︠h︡horod; building tank barricades; liberation by Soviet troops; returning home; painting signs for the Soviets; his brother's return in February 1945; learning his family had been deported; another brother's return; traveling to Irshava, then Budapest; illegal emigration to Palestine via Novi Sad, Belgrade, Zagreb, Trieste, and Milan; assistance from UNRRA; interception of the ship by the British; brief incarceration; living on a kibbutz; serving in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war; marriage in 1949; his son's birth in 1951; and emigration to the United States to join his sister and two brothers in 1954.

Author/Creator
R., David, 1916-
Published
Cleveland, Ohio : National Council of Jewish Women, Holocaust Archive Project, 1985
Interview Date
January 9, 1985.
Locale
Hungary
Austria
Mukacheve (Ukraine)
Budapest (Hungary)
Uz︠h︡horod (Ukraine)
Terka (Poland)
Irshava (Ukraine)
Novi Sad (Serbia)
Belgrade (Serbia)
Zagreb (Croatia)
Trieste (Italy)
Milan (Italy)
Palestine
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
David R. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-479). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.