Overview
- Interview Summary
- Jan Holomek, born and raised in Jalubí, recollects events and talks about his experiences between 1943 and 1945, highlighting the deportation of Roma (including him) from his native village in the district of Uherské Hradiště; life and the neighborhood before they were taken by the Czech police; life inside the concentration camps Auschwitz and Buchenwald, the work they performed, and the treatment they received from the guards; and the death march which he and fellow prisoners were forced to take just before the war ended.
- Interviewee
- Jan Holomek
- Date
-
interview:
1997 March 08
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, courtesy of the Jeff and Toby Herr Foundation
Physical Details
- Language
- Czech
- Extent
-
3 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
- Topical Term
- Death march survivors. Death marches. Forced labor. Holocaust survivors--Czech Republic. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Romanies--Czech Republic--Jalubí. Romani Genocide, 1939-1945. Romanies--Personal narratives. World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps. World War, 1939-1945--Deportations from Czechoslovakia. World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives. Men--Personal narratives.
- Geographic Name
- Czechoslovakia--History--1938-1945. Germany. Jalubí (Czech Republic) Oswiecim (Poland)
- Personal Name
- Holomek, Jan.
- Corporate Name
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp) Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Oral History Branch coordinated the interview with JanuaryHolomek on March 8, 1997 as part of the Museum's Czech Roma Documentation Project.
- 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. - Special Collection
-
The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2023-11-16 08:33:00
- This page:
- http://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn513251
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Also in Oral history interviews of the Czech Roma Documentation Project
Oral history interviews of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Czech Roma Documentation Project.
Date: 1997
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Oral history interview with Marie Proházková
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Oral history interview with Rudolf Daniel
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Oral history interview with Antonin Daniel
Oral History
Antonin Daniel, born on June 4, 1922 in Bilovec, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic), describes being one of five children in a Romani family; being sent to Hodonin concentration camp in Czechoslovakia in 1940; working in a rock quarry; being released after seven months and returning to Bilovec; being deported one year later to Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland; constructing a Romani camp (Birkenau) in Rajsko, Poland; being one of 200 Roma sent to Stammlager Auschwitz, where he was reunited with his brothers; working at a railway station, loading and unloading wagons; being discharged from the infirmary for a leg wound and being sent to work in the gas chambers; helping to undress prisoners and collect their jewelry; being forbidden to reveal to people where they were going as they headed into the gas chambers; peering into the chamber during the gassings and watching people falling down dead; working in the gas chambers for two days and spending two days hauling bodies to the crematoria; getting more food for working these assignments; he and his brothers being transported to Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany in 1944; being transferred to Dora concentration camp in Germany, where conditions were harsh; being part of a death march to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany in the spring of 1945; the liberation of Bergen-Belsen in April 1945; returning with his brothers to Bilovec, finding their house plundered and ruined; moving to Olomouc, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic) and getting a job working in construction; and getting married in 1950 and having eight children.