Jack W. Holocaust testimony (HVT-506) interviewed by Sue Danford

Videotape testimony of Jack W., who was born in Velyikyy Bychkiv, Czechoslozakia (presently Ukraine) in approximately 1927, one of eleven children. He recalls his family's orthodoxy; Hungarian occupation; his father's and older brother's draft into Hungarian slave labor battalions; his father's release; German invasion; deportation with his family to the Mátészalka ghetto in May 1944, then to Auschwitz six weeks later; selection for work with his father (his mother and younger siblings were killed); briefly seeing two older sisters; praying secretly daily; liquidation of the Zigeunerlager (Gypsy Lager); transfer eight days later to clear the Warsaw ghetto rubble; a death march and train transport to Dachau; transfer to Kaufering and Landshut, then back to Dachau; hospitalization with his father; his father's death; train evacuation; abandonment by the guards in Garmisch Partenkirchen; escaping; hiding in a barn; liberation by United States troops; hospitalization; reunion with a sister in Czechoslovakia, a brother in Sighet, and another sister in Velyikyy Bychkiv; moving to Hungary in 1946; meeting his future wife; traveling to Vienna; marriage; his daughter's birth; and emigration to the United States in 1950 to join his sister. Mr. W. discusses the physical and psychological impact of hunger; the importance of his father to his survival; not sharing his experiences; and his daughter's interest when she was older.