Ernest E. Holocaust testimony (HVT-546) interviewed by Barbara Hadley Katz and Mindy Brownstein,

Videotape testimony of Ernest E., who was born in Berehovo, Czechoslovakia in 1917. Mr. E. describes his work as a studio photographer; his first awareness of the Nazis; the Hungarian takeover of his part of Czechoslovakia; the antisemitism of the Hungarian Nazis; and the changes in his lifestyle because of legal restrictions. He relates receiving aid from his parents, who had emigrated to the United States; moving to Budapest; and being drafted as a slave laborer in the army in 1942. He tells of his work for the army; his escape, with a friend, helped by false papers; his capture; and the tortuous journey to Bergen-Belsen. He recounts his life in Bergen-Belsen; the journey to Theresienstadt; volunteering to work in the hospital, despite his own illness; the gradual disappearance of the Nazis; and liberation by the Russians. He speaks of appropriating a motorcycle and beginning the journey home; contracting typhus; and the reunions with his brother and sister. Mr. E. relates his marriage; crossing from Hungary to Czechoslovakia; his emigration to and life in the United States; his new interest in keeping Jewish traditions; and his belief that the prayers of his religious mother helped him to survive.