Testimony of Mordekhai Grinbaum Bareket, born in Konyar, 1924, regarding his experiences in a labor battalion and in Soviet captivity until 1947

Testimony of Mordekhai Grinbaum Bareket, born in Konyar, 1924, regarding his experiences in a labor battalion and in Soviet captivity until 1947 His childhood; attends a Jewish high school. His brother's fate after his draft and combat in the Carpathian mountains, 1942; imprisonment and murder of his father in a political prison in Skolnok, 19 March 1944; draft into labor battalions in Skolnok; forced labor unloading and loading military railroad cars; abuse of the Jews in the battalion by the Hungarian sergeant; Allied air-raids; deportation of the Debrecen Jews to Auschwitz, June 1944; rise of Szalasi to power, 15 October 1944; transfer of the labor battalion to Szekesfehervar; escape to Sarbogard with three friends, November 1944; in hiding on a farm; taken captive by the Red Army, December 1944; transfer to Pecs; on foot and trains en route to Rustavi for 25 days; forced labor with lead and iron; establishment of a POW camp; steals bread; release, September 1947. Travel on trains to Focsani; return home, 27 October 1947; joins Dror Habonim; training for the Haganah by Chaim Guri; aliya to Israel via Italy on a fishing boat, the "Santo Antonio II" ship.