Viliam F. Holocaust testimony (HVT-4113)

Videotape testimony of Viliam F., who was born in Ložín, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (presently Slovakia) in 1917, the oldest of three children. He recounts his father's death in 1922; attending school in Michalovce; working for the Bata Shoe Company in Zlín for over four years starting in 1931; transfer to Batizovce; Hungarian occupation; deportation to Kráľovský Chlmec, then Vyšné Nemecké; his mother's friend assisting them to return to Michalovce; joining the military in Sabinov; an officer retaining him as a clerk when he was ordered east; anti-Jewish restrictions imposed by the Hlinka guard; release from service about a year later; refusing to wear the yellow star; smuggling his sister and a friend's daughter to Budapest via Lastovce; leaving them to visit an aunt in Lučenec; arrest; transfer to Kamenica nad Cirochou, then Michalovce; deportation to Rogoznica, then Międzyrzec; escaping from a train with others; hiding in a farm shed; the farmer feeding them; posing as a prisoner of war to obtain work; hiding in a forest; smuggling themselves into the Międzyrzec ghetto; liberation in May 1944; traveling to Brześć Litewski; military enlistment; attending artillery training in Poprad; advising a HInka guard official to disappear; finding his mother and siblings after the war; marriage; military draft; serving for three years; the births of two children; his sister and mother emigrating to the United States; and his brother leaving. Mr. F. discusses learning of the extermination camps after the war; his mother becoming more religious; recognition of his mother's and siblings' rescuers by Yad Vashem; the importance of luck to his and his family's survival; and not sharing his experiences with his children and grandchildren.