Title
Martin R. Holocaust testimony (HVT-166) [videorecording] / interviewed by Dori Laub and Ron Taffel, October 30, 1982.
Summary
Videotape testimony of Martin R., who was born in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, in 1925. He recounts his prewar childhood; the Yugoslavian resistance to Hungarian occupation; his mother's decision to take her children to Baja, Hungary; the mass drowning of Communists and Jews of Novi Sad, including his father; and the attitude of onlooking Croatians. He tells of his brothers' conscription as slave soldiers on the Russian front; the forced removal of his family by Hungarian soldiers, while Hungarian civilians looked on in approval; and the transport to Subotica, where he was separated from his family and taken to Backa Topola. He describes the train ride to Auschwitz and his arrival there; his transport to Wüstegiersdorf, a labor camp in Silesia; and his work there. He recalls his transport to Bergen-Belsen, then Hildesheim as a slave laborer; return to Bergen-Belsen in April 1945; and liberation there. Mr. R. also speaks of his inability to erase memories and recurring dreams of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen.