Armin H. Holocaust testimony (HVT-3923) [videorecording] / interviewed by Peter Salner and Monika Vrzgulova, March 19, 1996.

Bratislava, Slovakia : Milan Šimečka Foundation, 1996.

1 videorecording (2 hr., 22 min.) : col.

Slovak

This testimony is in Slovak.

This testimony or excerpts from it cannot be broadcast in Slovakia or the Czech Republic.

Videotape testimony of Armin H., who was born in Nitra, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (presently Slovakia) in 1910, the oldest of five children. He recalls apprenticing as a locksmith; enlistment in the military in 1930; discharge in 1932; marriage in 1937; moving to Prievidza; military draft in Žilina in 1938; transfer to Čadca; returning to Prievidza; moving to Topol̕čany; his daughter's birth (their first child had died); a friend in the Hlinka guard providing false papers and for a time protecting him from deportation; deportation with his wife and daughter to Nováky in May 1942, then to Auschwitz that fall; separation from his wife and daughter upon arrival (he never saw them again); assignment caring for horses in Budy; eating food intended for the horses; becoming ill; hospitalization in Auschwitz; assignment to the Union Factory; becoming a shift leader; forming a group that bribed a Polish guard to smuggle them food; sabotaging the machinery so the workers could rest; the death march in January 1945; arrival at Gross-Rosen; a severe beating; train transport to Buchenwald, then Theresienstadt; liberation by Soviet troops; traveling to Nitra via Bratislava; reunion with a sister; returning to Prievidza; marriage to a survivor; and the births of two children. Mr. H. discusses prisoner relations in the camps, and the importance to his survival of his strong will and better conditions in the Union Factory. He shows photographs.

June 01, 2002

Armin H. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3923). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Armin H. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3923). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)