- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Moshe A., who was born in Ložín, Czechoslovakia in 1918. He recalls living in Vranov; his father's dental practice; his assimilated home, although his grandparents were religious; attending gymnasium in Michalovce; antisemitic harassment; attending Hebrew gymnasium in Mukacheve; participating in Hashomer Hatzair; infrequent visits home when his family moved to Pezinok; attending university in Prague in 1936; returning home in 1938; eight months on a hachsharah, training to emigrate to Palestine; leading a Zionist youth group in Bratislava; a failed attempt to emigrate to Palestine; forced construction labor for the Germans in 1941 in Liptovský Hrádok; sabotaging the work; teaching in a Jewish school in Podolinec; working in a notary's office in 1943, from which he obtained blank birth certificates and wedding licenses to use for false papers for Jews; visiting his girlfriend in Poprad; encountering a former friend who was a Hlinka guard; joining his parents in Bánovce; obtaining papers as a non-Jew; hiding with non-Jewish neighbors; being assigned to leave for Hungary at a Hashomer Hatzair meeting in Nové Mesto; traveling with Polish refugees from Prešov to Budapest in January 1944; and German invasion in March.
Mr. A. tells of having his parents and two younger sisters smuggled to Hungary; later arranging his parents' return to Slovakia, thinking it safer; obtaining false papers for his sisters and future wife; his assignment building bunkers; dressing as a Hungarian train officer to organize routes for Jews to Romania; encounters with smugglers in Oradea; arrest of some underground colleagues; a non-Jew organizing their escape; working with Rudolf Kasztner; meetings with Yoel Palgi and Peretz Goldstein, whose parachuting mission, he believed, harmed the rescue efforts; organizing children's homes with assistance from Ottó Komoly, the Swiss embassy, and the Red Cross; visiting the ghetto to take children to safer homes; an Arrow Cross soldier arranging the release of arrested colleagues; liberation by Soviet troops in January; moving the children to country locations where food was available; helping beat a Nazi who had killed a friend, but finding no satisfaction in revenge; moving to Košice to organize Beriḥah illegal emigration routes to Palestine; marriage; assistance from the Joint; reunion with his oldest sister; conversation with Abba Kovner about revenge; the trauma of learning his parents had not survived; and emigration to Palestine in 1946. Mr. A. discusses conflicts among Jewish groups and moral dilemmas choosing whom to save and whether to fight.
- Author/Creator
- A., Moshe, 1928-
- Published
- Tel Aviv, Israel : Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, 1993
- Interview Date
- January 1, January 15, January 28, February 28, and April 23, 1993.
- Locale
- Hungary
Budapest
Czechoslovakia
Ložín (Slovakia)
Vranov nad Topl̕ou (Slovakia)
Michalovce (Slovakia)
Mukacheve (Ukraine)
Pezinok (Slovakia)
Prague (Czech Republic)
Bratislava (Slovakia)
Liptovský Hrádok (Slovakia)
Podolinec (Slovakia)
Poprad (Slovakia)
Bánovce nad Bebravou (Slovakia)
Nové Mesto nad Váhom (Slovakia)
Prešov (Slovakia)
Budapest (Hungary)
Oradea (Romania)
Košice (Slovakia)
- Cite As
- Moshe A. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3497). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Tarsi, Anita, interviewer.
- Notes
-
This testimony is in Hebrew.
