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Oral history interview with Eldar Berko

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1995.A.1272.326 | RG Number: RG-50.120.0326

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    Oral history interview with Eldar Berko

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Eldar Berko, born in September 1924 in Humenne, Czechoslovakia (Slovakia), discusses his older brother and two sisters; his nonreligious family; his father’s trucking business, which he worked for when he turned 17; joining the Betar group; songs from Hlinka Gvarda; how he did not know what was going on and how Jews were being treated; being taken to what he believed was a work camp but discovering that it was Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1942; the population of Auschwitz; the Russian POWs; how he and a friend stole food from a Kapo and were punished; the Block Alteste, who was a sadist; his experiences as a Sonderkommando; building the crematoria; one of his friends being hanged for attempting an escape; having an affair with a girl in town, where he went to get supplies; the so-called "Gypsy" camp; being marched out of the camp in January 1945; being taken by train to Gross Rosen; being taken by train to Schongau, Germany, where the Germans left them; the arrival of American troops; returning to Czechoslovakia in July 1945 after his liberation; beginning school to train to be an electrical technician; meeting his wife in 1947; enlisting in the Israeli Military (IDF) in 1948 in Czechoslovakia and then going to Israel; serving two years in the Israeli Army; and then moving to Ramat Tzvi, where he was an electrician.
    Interviewee
    Eldar Berko
    Date
    interview:  1997 December 18
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, courtesy of the Jeff and Toby Herr Foundation

    Physical Details

    Language
    Hebrew
    Extent
    8 videocasettes (Betacam SP) : sound, color ; 1/2 in..

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
    Conditions on Use
    No restrictions on use

    Keywords & Subjects

    Personal Name
    Berko, Eldar, 1924-

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    Nathan Beyrak conducted the interview with Eldar Berko in Israel on December 18, 1997. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received the tapes of the interview on June 10, 1999, as an accretion to the original collection of Israel Documentation Project interviews received by transfer in February 1995.
    Funding Note
    The production of this interview was made possible by Jeff and Toby Herr.
    The cataloging of this oral history interview has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
    Record last modified:
    2023-11-16 08:16:12
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn503244

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