Description
Object description
Czechoslovakian Jewish schoolchild in Berehovo, Czechoslovakia and Debrecen, Hungary, 1938-1944; inmate of Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Poland, 5/1944; forced labourer in Lieberose Subcamp, Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp and inmate of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, Germany, 6/1944-1/1945; inmate in Mauthausen Concentration Camp and Gunskirchen Subcamp, Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Austria, 2/1945-4/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Berehovo, Carpathian Ruthenia, Czechoslovakia, 1930-1938: family; education; relations between Jews and non-Jews, pre 1938. Aspects of period as schoolchild in Berehovo, Carpathian Ruthenia during Hungarian Occupation, 1938-1940: reaction to Hungarian take-over, 11/1938; previous Hungarian acts of terrorism; Hungarian attitude towards question of nationality; impact of occupation on daily life; influx of Polish refugees, 9/1939; restrictions on father's business; anti-Jewish attacks. Recollections of period as schoolchild at boarding school in Debrecen, Hungary, 1940-1943: character of school.
REEL 2 Continues: viewing of propaganda films; attitude towards work of Jewish Schoolboy Labour Brigade; self-defence training received from school teacher; standard of living in Debrecen; apprehensiveness about future; attitude towards Allies and Axis powers. Aspects of period as schoolchild in Berehovo, Carpathian Ruthenia, Czechoslovakia, 1944: arrival of German Gestapo, 3/1944; his father's plans to escape to Turkey; arrest of thirty Jewish civilians and their ransom, 3/1944.
REEL 3 Continues: confiscation of family home; move into Berehovo Ghetto, 4/1944. Aspects of period as inmate in Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Germany, 5/1944: transportation to Auschwitz II-Birkenau by train, 5/1944; selection procedure and need to lie about age; processing of arrivals; witnessing new arrivals entering gas chambers. Aspects of period as inmate in Lieberose Subcamp, Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, Germany, 6/1944-12/1944: removal to camp; description of camp; exposure of his pretence of being a carpenter; opportunity to write postcard.
REEL 4 Continues: rations available; work in hospital; evacuation of camp, 12/1944. Aspects of period as inmate in Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, 1/1945: march to camp, 1/1945. Aspects of period as inmate in Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Austria, 2/1945-4/1945: narrow escape from bombing. Aspects of period as inmate in Gunskirchen Subcamp, Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Austria, 4/1945: conditions; liberation by 71st Infantry Div, United States Army; physical condition of inmates on liberation; removal to Hersching Airfield and death of father; physical and psychological condition on liberation. Reflections on Holocaust experience: religious beliefs; attitude towards Germans; behaviour of inmates towards each other; executions at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, Germany, 1/1945; march through Berlin, Germany,12/1944.
REEL 5 Continues: act of sabotage; killing of Ukrainian guard by inmates.