Aharon Dov Alfred Gelis

Testimony of Aharon Alfred Dov Gellis, born in Sopron, Hungary, 1918, regarding his experiences in Bratislava, in hiding in a bunker and in a private transport of the Kasztner train to Switzerland Life before the war; move to Bratislava; life in Bratislava including education. Absorption of refugees; collaboration by Slovakians with the Nazis; pogroms implemented by Slovakians; attacks on the Jews by the Hlinka Guard including looting; deportations to labor camps; concentration of the Jews in the district city; deportation of the Jews in transports to Poland, 1942; contact with Rabbi Weissmandel; activities of Rabbi Weissmandel (along with Gizi Fleishmann, Nathan Swalb, Sali Meier and others) to stop the transports in exchange for bribery of Germans; concentration of the remainder of the Jews on the day after Yom Kippur (September) 1944; deportation of the Jews to Sered and other camps; in hiding in a printing press; escape of Rabbi Weissmandel from the deportation train; rescue of Rabbi Weissmandel by a farmer and his being hidden in the attic of the farmer's home; witness' life in a bunker with other people; smuggle of Rabbi Weissmandel to the bunker; life in the bunker for six months, until Pesach (March) 1945; approach of the Red Army front; offer by Israel Kasztner to join the Kasztner train to Switzerland on the last private transport; move to Switzerland; move to Basel; joins a group of refugees who arrived from Theresienstadt; administration of community life under the leadership of the Head of the Rabbinical Court of Hungary, Rabbi Steitz; meets travelers from the Kasztner train after their arrival to Switzerland from Bergen-Belsen. Return to Budapest; reunion with his mother, sister and brother; aliya of the family to Eretz Israel, 1947; return to Bratislava; marriage; return aliya to Israel with his wife, 1949.