Aca S. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Aca S., who was born in Bačka Topola, Yugoslavia in 1923. He recounts his family's affluence; the Jews identifying as Hungarians; membership in Betar; Hungarian occupation in 1941; his father's immediate arrest and deportation; deportation with many Jews to Bečej; release after a few weeks; futile attempts to escape and join the partisans; German occupation in March 1944; incarceration in Bačka Topola concentration camp; his mother's arrival in April; deportation to Auschwitz in May; transfer shortly thereafter to Oberwüstegiersdorf; slave labor in a textile factory; assistance from a fellow prisoner; transfer to Schotterwerk, then Dörnhau; sharing food he "stole" with other prisoners; a Todt supervisor breaking his glasses; a German guard providing new ones; transfer to Flossenbürg in January 1945; registering as a non-Jewish Serbian; remaining when the Jews were transported out in April 1945; a death march beginning April 19; collapsing; a guard not shooting him, thinking he was from his Hungarian town; liberation by United States troops in Stamsried; hospitalization; returning to Bačka Topola; and reunion with his mother. Mr. S. describes relations between prisoner groups in camps; his belief in communism; learning his father and brother had been killed; marriage to a survivor; imprisonment from 1951 to 1953 for criticizing communism; his leadership role in the Jewish community; difficulties due to the break-up of Yugoslavia; his daughter's emigration to Israel; and the future of the Jews in the former Yugoslavia.
Extent and Medium
2 videocassettes
Conditions Governing Access
This testimony is open with permission.
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Copyright has been transferred to the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. Use of this testimony requires permission of the Fortunoff Video Archive.
Rules and Conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Process Info
compiled by Staff of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
People
- S., Aca, -- 1923-
Corporate Bodies
- Bačka Topola (Concentration camp)
- Betar.
- Organisation Todt (Germany)
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Dörnhau (Concentration camp)
- Flossenbürg (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors.
- Video tapes.
- Men.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Mothers and sons.
- Forced labor.
- Concentration camps -- Sociological aspects.
- Death marches.
- Hungarian occupation.
- Mutual aid.
- Aid by non-Jews.
- Postwar experiences.
Places
- Bačka Topola (Serbia)
- Yugoslavia.
- Novi Sad (Serbia)
- Bečej (Serbia)
- Belgrade (Serbia)
- Stamsried (Germany)
- Oberwüstegiersdorf (Poland : Concentration camp)
- Schotterwerk (Poland : Concentration camp)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat