Dezider L. Holocaust testimony (HVT-3984) interviewed by Peter Salner

Videotape testimony of Dezider L., who was born in Prešov, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1912, one of three children. He recalls attending local Slovak and Jewish schools, then an academy in Košice; helping in his father's store; his leadership role in Maccabi; Slovak independence resulting in anti-Jewish violence by the Hlinka guard; deportation to Auschwitz/Birkenau via Žilina and Lublin in 1942; volunteering as a carpenter; a severe infection; a Greek fellow-prisoner obtaining medication and bandages which saved his life; praying with others on Yom Kippur; a death march to Mauthausen in January 1945; beginning to hope he would survive; liberation by United States troops; returning to Prešov via Bratislava, seeking his parents and siblings; reunion with his sister and her child, the only survivors; marriage; and return of family property which was later taken by the communist government. Mr. L. discusses the importance of faith to his survival, which he believes was a series of miracles.