Testimony of Shmuel Yaakov Lazarovitz, born in Tác, Hungary, 1915, regarding his experiences during World War II

Testimony of Shmuel Yaakov Lazarovitz, born in Tác, Hungary, in 1915, regarding his experiences during World War II The second son in an observant family of eight; the family owned a small factory that produced carbonated drinks; attendance at a Czech school and learning at a cheder in the afternoon; good relations with the local population; eight years of schooling; service in the Czech Army, 1937; return to Tác; conscription to labor battallions; avoidance of dangerous duties clearing mines in the vicinity of Lwów; arrival of new transports of Jews every day; surrender of the division to the Soviets; burning of a structure with its Jewish inhabitants by the Germans before the arrival of the Soviets; return to Tác, which had been occupied by the Hungarian fascists; concentration of the Jewish population in a temporary ghetto in Tác before their deportation to Auschwitz; deportation of the Tác Jews, including the witness and the members of his family; arrival at Auschwitz; selection; sending of his parents and some of his siblings to extermination; transfer from Auschwitz to construction work at a coal-processing plant, where the Jewish inmates worked with Polish civilians; substandard conditions; high mortality; receiving help from the Polish workers; evacuation of the camp inmates in open railroad cars as the Soviet forces approach; separation from his brother during the transport; transfer to labor north of Berlin; liberation in Berlin; Acts of revenge against the Germans by the Soviets; return to Tác; meeting Jewish survivors; attempt to leave Soviet-occupied Tác and failure due to sealing of the border; marriage in Tác, 1947; birth of his son; exile without his family on charges of being a speculator, 1948; pardon, 1953; return to Tác; leading an observant way of life under the restrictions of the Communist authorities; aliya to Israel with his son, 1979; life in Rishon Lezion.