Otto W. Holocaust testimony

Videotape testimony of Otto W., who was born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia (presently Slovakia) in 1924, one of two brothers. He recounts his parents' orthodoxy; attending public school; expulsion due to antisemitic laws after Slovak independence; he and his brother hiding with an uncle; his parents' deportation to Žilina in 1941; obtaining papers as a non-Jew from a non-Jewish friend; one visit to his parents (he never saw them again); denunciation by an acquaintance; deportation with his brother to Nováky; slave labor; joining the partisans during the Slovak uprising; fighting in Banská Bystrica and other places; his brother's death; attacking German transportation lines; being wounded; capture by the Germans; a friendly soldier sending him to local authorities; many deaths when their transport was attacked by Allied planes; arrival in Melk; transfer to Mauthausen; execution of Allied POWs who had assisted them in Banská Bystrica; transfer to the tent camp; a death march; escape; liberation by United States troops; hospitalization in Steyr; returning to Bratislava; and losing his job due to antisemitism following the Slansky trial. Mr. W. notes chairing a Mauthausen survivor organization, and becoming an atheist as a result of his experiences.

2 videocassettes