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Oral history interview with Otto Presburger

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1995.A.1272.341 | RG Number: RG-50.120.0341

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    Oral history interview with Otto Presburger

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Otto Pressburger, born on June 29, 1923 in Trnava, Czechoslovakia (Slovakia), describes his father, who was a leather merchant; growing up in a financially stable family; being the youngest of five brothers; his family practicing Orthodox Judaism, but all the children were interested in the Zionist movement; experiencing a little antisemitism growing up; the Nazis imposing prohibitions on the Jews of his town in 1938; being sent to a work camp in Trentschin (Trencin, Slovakia) in 1940; escaping and returning home where he built roads; his family being separated and sent to different Nazi camps in March 1942; being sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau; being placed in Block A of Birkenau where he built roads; conditions in the camp; witnessing Nazi guards killing Jews; being sent back and forth between Auschwitz and Birkenau to help erect a school and other camp buildings; being sent also to Harmeze and Budy for short periods to do construction and other work; being in the infamous Block 11 at Auschwitz, where people were shot in its basement; befriending a Kapo, named Kozelchik, who helped him and other Jews be safe and get extra food; how in 1944 resistance against the camps’ Nazis began to increase; being evacuated to Gross-Rosen in January 1945; his group not stopping in Gross-Rosen and continuing on through the Sudetenland; arrived in Karlovy Vary, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic); being caught and sent to the camp Muelsen-St. Micheln; escaping disguised as a Czech political prisoner; being caught after an American attack and ended up in the camp Litomerice; being deported to Flossenbürg and escaping with a friend from the train; traveling to the village of Hradec Králové, Czech Republic, where a farmer housed them and was the head of the local underground movement; staying there until the end of the war; returning home and joining a group leaving for Palestine; arriving in Palestine on April 15, 1947; being injured when the British attacked his ship and spending time in a hospital; being transferred to Atlit, where one of his brothers found him; reunited with his mother in Tel Aviv; joining the Israeli Army in 1948; marrying in 1950; and considering Auschwitz as a school for life.
    Interviewee
    Otto Presburger
    Date
    interview:  1998 April 01
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, courtesy of the Jeff and Toby Herr Foundation

    Physical Details

    Language
    Hebrew
    Extent
    11 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
    Presburger, Otto, 1923-

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    Nathan Beyrak conducted the interview with Otto Presburger in Israel on April 1, 1998. 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 08:16:17
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn503285

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