Testimony of David Jancsi Meizel Barzilai, born in Nitra, Czechoslovakia, 1924, regarding his experiences in hiding in Balassagyarmat and Kiskallo

Testimony of David Jancsi Meizel Barzilai, born in Nitra, Czechoslovakia, 1924, regarding his experiences in hiding in Balassagyarmat and Kiskallo Financially secure family; death of his father; his mother owns an independent business; attends a mixed school; termination of his studies by order of the authorities. Pesach seder night and the arrest of his middle brother and his apparent execution by the Hlinka Guard, 1942; aliya of witness' eldest brother to Eretz Israel; transfer of his mother to Hungary on foot; finds a hiding place with his uncle in Balassagyarmat; volunteers to labor for the German Army, June 1944; camp life including labor building an airfield in Kiskallo, until December 1944; approach of the Red Army front; transfer on foot to Germany; liberation by the Red Army. Return to Balassagyarmat; volunteers to work as an investigator for the Soviet police; release; return to Budapest; joins Ahdut Ha’avoda aliya training; joins a Polish "kibbutz"; move to Braunau am Inn; move to Koblenz; life in Sorano; aliya attempt on the "Tirat Zvi" ship, December 1947; detention in Cyprus; aliya to Eretz Israel, 1948; enlists in the Harel Brigade of the IDF; release; life in Rishon Le Zion.