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Simon F. Holocaust testimony (HVT-485) interviewed by Lyn Silberman,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-485

Videotape testimony of Simon F., who was born in Ti︠a︡chiv, Czechoslovakia (presently Ukraine) in approximately 1920, the eleventh of sixteen children. He recalls his family's orthodoxy; apprenticeship as a knitter; Hungarian occupation; one brother's emigration to Palestine in 1939; working in a sweater factory in Budapest beginning in 1939; evading draft into a Hungarian slave labor battalion for eighteen months; slave labor in a parachute factory in 1943; marriage in August 1944; deportation to Kőszeg in November; encountering a brother; slave labor digging ditches; receiving extra food from kitchen workers; helping older prisoners; his brother-in-law praying daily; a mass shooting during a death march to Mauthausen; transfer to Gunskirchen; liberation by United States troops in May; traveling with his brother to Prague; reunion with some sisters (eight of the sixteen siblings survived); reunion with his wife in Budapest; living in a displaced persons camp in Germany; working for UNRRA; and emigration to the United States after three and a half years. Mr. F. discusses participating in a survivor group that erected a monument in 1961; attending a gathering in Washington; and sharing his experiences with children.

Author/Creator
F., Simon, 1920?-
Published
Cleveland, Ohio : National Council of Jewish Women, Holocaust Archive Project, 1984
Interview Date
September 11, 1984.
Locale
Hungary
Czechoslovakia
Ti︠a︡chiv (Ukraine)
Budapest (Hungary)
Kőszeg (Hungary)
Prague (Czech Republic)
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Simon F. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-485). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.