- Summary
- Videotape testimony of Harry W., who was born in Bežovce, Czechoslovakia in 1916. He tells of moving to Uz︠h︡horod in 1920; attending public and Hebrew school; the beauty and peace of their Shabbat observance; being stabbed by another boy in an anti-Semitic incident; studying at the Yeshivas in Mukachevo and Bratislava; and leaving in 1938 because of the Hungarian occupation of his hometown. He describes being drafted into a Hungarian labor battalion; working in many places in Hungary, Yugoslavia and the Ukraine; harsh conditions and lack of food; working in Budapest where he could leave the camp; being offered shelter in one of Raoul Wallenberg's Swedish safe houses and refusing to leave his fellow workers; transfer to Austria; the death march to Mauthausen; transfer to Gunskirchen; liberation by Americans in May 1945; and his recovery from typhus. Mr. W. relates his return to Uz︠h︡horod; various business ventures in Hungary and Czechoslovakia; the reunion with his three younger sisters (six others had perished); difficulties living under the Soviets; emigration to Israel, to Canada, then to the United States. He recalls his mother's charitable personality and an encounter with a boyhood friend who lost his faith in Judaism because of Holocaust experiences. Mr. W. concludes that such evil had nothing to do with God but was due to humans.
- Author/Creator
- W., Harry, 1916-
- Published
- New York, N.Y. : Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale, 1984
- Interview Date
- November 5, 1984.
- Locale
- Hungary
Ukraine
Yugoslavia
Czechoslovakia
Bežovce (Czechoslovakia)
Israel
Mukacheve (Ukraine)
Uz︠h︡horod (Ukraine)
Bratislava (Slovakia)
Romania
Budapest (Hungary)
- Cite As
- Harry W. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-509). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
- Other Authors/Editors
- Strochlic, Kathy, interviewer.
Knoller, Eva, interviewer.
- Notes
-
Related publication: Against the tide : childhood in Czechoslovakia / Harry Weinberg. -- New York : Shengold Publishers, c1989.
