Francis O. and Ilia O. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Francis O., who was born in Novi Sad, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (presently Serbia) in 1913, and his wife Ilia O., who was born in Kisač, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (presently Serbia) in 1915. Mr. O. recounts his mother's death in 1915; his father's draft into the Austrian military in World War I; living in a Serbian village with his grandparents, the only Jews there; singing in the church choir; returning to Novi Sad in 1918; living with his aunt; learning that he was Jewish; attending a Jewish school; his father's two remarriages; the births of two half-sisters; participating in Hashomer Hatzair; starting university in Zagreb in 1931; exposure to many Zionist factions; meeting his future wife; joining Betar; his father's death; his position with a law firm in Novi Sad; assisting Jewish refugees to emigrate to Palestine; serving as an officer in the Yugoslav military reserves; traveling to Belgrade and Kladovo to assist Jewish refugees leave Šabac; German invasion in 1941; Hungarian occupation; draft into a Hungarian slave labor battalion in spring 1941, building roads and cleaning sewers; obtaining documents to move with his wife to Budapest in September; living with an aunt; learning of the massacre in Novi Sad; meeting Joel Brand once; obtaining false papers as non-Jews; traveling to Istanbul via Bucharest and Babaeski in spring 1942; establishing relations with a Yugoslav woman, Allied representatives, and the Jewish Agency; providing intelligence to them; working for the United States Office of War Information; developing a network with Teddy Kollek, Isaac Berman, Ehud Avriel, and others to transmit intelligence and support rescue operations; obtaining visas for Jews in Budapest; contact with the local cardinal, the future Pope, John XXIII; and sending Allied propaganda to German-occupied countries. Mr. O. details many events and people with whom he was involved, during and after the war, and shows photographs and documents.

8 videocassettes