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Alexander B. Holocaust testimony (HVT-3435) interviewed by Raymond Kaplan,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-3435

Videotape testimony of Alexander B., who was born in Paks, Hungary in 1929. He recalls his comfortable, assimilated family; his parents' divorce; his mother's remarriage in 1938; anti-Jewish violence in school; German occupation in March 1944; deportation with his mother and grandmother in July to Auschwitz/Birkenau; separation from his family; transfer two weeks later to Mühldorf; slave labor building railroads; transfer a few months later to Kaufering; observing cannibalism by Russian POWs; train transfer to Dachau in late April; being injured en route during an Allied bombing; liberation on April 29 by United States troops; hospitalization; returning home seeking relatives; learning only his stepfather had survived; a non-Jewish friend returning family possessions (he helped many Jews); doing business in Budapest; assistance from the Joint; his deep sense of loneliness; living in Judenburg, Ulm, Bad Aibling, and Aglasterhausen displaced persons camps; taking university courses in Heidelberg; emigration to the United States in 1949; military draft in 1951; assignment as an interpreter in Germany; and marriage in 1954. Mr. B. discusses his career and family, and a trip to Hungary with his wife in 1978. He shows photographs.

Author/Creator
B., Alexander, 1929-
Published
Mahwah, N.J. : Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 1995
Interview Date
December 1, 1995.
Locale
Germany
Hungary
Paks (Hungary)
Heidelberg (Germany)
Language
English
Copies
2 copies: 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Alexander B. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3435). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.