Daniel F. Holocaust testimony (HVT-153) interviewed by Dori Laub and Laurel Vlock,

Videotape testimony of Daniel F., who was born circa 1928 in Craidorolț, a small town in Transylvania near Satu Mare. He tells of being educated in Craidorolț, Huedin, and Satu Mare before moving to Oradea in 1941 after the Hungarian annexation of Transylvania. The transfer of the Jews of Oradea to the ghetto of Satu Mare, which took place in the spring of 1944, is related. Mr. F. describes life in the ghetto, where he and his family remained until their deportation to Auschwitz. He recounts his separation from his family upon arrival and his internment in the Zigeunerlager (Gypsy Lager), where he soon witnessed the murder of a young friend. He recalls the infamous selection of Rosh ha-Shanah, 1944, when 1400 boys, including himself, were to be put to death, and he explains how he managed to elude this fate. He details his gradual weakening as he was taken from a labor transport in Birkenau to the slave labor camp in Kaufering, Germany (where he remained from October, 1944 until March, 1945) to Dachau, where, close to death and indifferent to his fate, he was liberated. Mr. F. also reflects on the refusal of Jews, particularly his father, to recognize the mortal danger they were in; the importance of friendships to his survival; and the victory his survival represented.