Joseph N. Holocaust testimony (HVT-607)

Videotape testimony of Joseph N., who was born in Mukacheve, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (presently Ukraine) to a large, religious family. He recalls Mukacheve becoming part of Czechoslovakia after World War I; cordial relations with non-Jews; military draft in September 1938; Hungarian occupation; anti-Jewish laws; conscription into a Hungarian slave labor battalion; serving in Szentkirályszabadja and Budapest; hiding briefly; rejoining his battalion in Budakeszi; transport to Buchenwald, then to Offenburg five days later; slave labor building railroads; transfer to Dresden; Allied bombings; a death march to Dachau; a German woman throwing them bread; stealing food and sharing it with a friend; liberation by United States troops; transfer to Plzeň; traveling to Prague, then Mukacheve; learning that a younger brother had perished in the Soviet Union; joining another brother in Teplice; and emigrating to Israel in 1949, then to the United States in 1964. Mr. N. discusses the importance of luck to his survival; sleep difficulties due to pervasive painful memories; sharing his story with his son; and his belief that proper revenge was not taken on the Germans.