Karol G. Holocaust testimony
Abstract
Videotape testimony of Karol G., who was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1919, the third of five children. He recounts his mother's death when he was six; living with his grandparents in Filakovo, then with an aunt in a primitive Romanian village; their impoverished life; raising their own food and trading for other needs; attending four years of school; returning to Filakovo in his early teens; working as a porter; Hungarian occupation; enlisting in the military in 1940; being transfered to a Jewish slave labor battalion; being moved to many locations; slave labor building railroads and aqueducts; being assigned to care for horses; receiving extra bread due to his position and sharing it with his peers; liberation by Soviet troops; returning to Filakovo; learning one brother had escaped to England (his other brother had died prior to the war) and one sister had survived the camps; moving to Bratislava; and a variety of jobs. Mr. G. sings Jewish songs and prayers and Hungarian songs written during the war, expressing longing for home.
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
- G., Karol, -- 1919-
Subjects
- Postwar experiences.
- Mutual aid.
- Hungarian occupation.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Songs and music.
- Forced labor.
- World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives.
- Men.
- Video tapes.
- Holocaust survivors.
Places
- Filakovo (Slovakia)
- Budapest (Hungary)
- Hungary.
- Romania.
- Bratislava (Slovakia)
Genre
- Oral histories. -- aat