Joseph H. Holocaust testimony (HVT-2733) [videorecording] / interviewed by Raymond Kaplan and Bernice Denmark, June 15, 1994.

Mahwah, N.J. : Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 1994.

1 videorecording (54 min.) : col.

English

Associated material: Hersh, Joseph. Interview 15111. Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation. Access at https://vha.usc.edu.

Videotape testimony of Joseph H., who was born in Seredne, Czechoslovakia (presently Ukraine) in 1919, one of eleven children. He recounts his family's relative affluence; Hungarian occupation; obtaining an exemption from forced labor from a physician in Budapest due to ill health; draft into a Hungarian slave labor battalion in 1943; the draft of two of his brothers into another battalion (they did not survive); a brief visit to his family in spring 1944; their deportation immediately afterwards (his parents, siblings, and their children were all killed); returning to his battalion; a death march from the Ukrainian front; briefly working on an Austrian farm; a death march to Mauthausen; wishing he would be killed; transfer to Gunskirchen; being assigned to dig a mass grave and bury prisoners; liberation by United States troops; hospitalization; returning to Seredne; finding his home had been destroyed; leaving after receiving death threats; emigration to the United States; marriage; and the births of his children. Mr. H. notes nightmares resulting from his experiences, particularly when thinking about the killing of his siblings and their children.

June 01, 2002

Joseph H. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2733). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Joseph H. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-2733). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)