Testimony of Alex Yishayahu Cohen, born in Budapest, Hungary, 1924, regarding his experiences in Budapest, Josfavo and Salgotarjan

Testimony of Alex Yishayahu Cohen, born in Budapest, Hungary, 1924, regarding his experiences in Budapest, Josfavo and Salgotarjan From an Orthodox family; membership in Hanoar Hatzioni. Restrictions on Jews; Aryanization; drafting of his father to forced labor; German occupation, 1944; anti-Jewish legislation; yellow badge; marking of Jewish houses; draft notice to forced labor, May 1944; deportation by train to the concentration point at Josfavo on the Czechoslovakian border; transfer to Salgotarjan, June 1944; attitude of the Hungarian gendarmes; confiscation of Jewish property; transfer to Hatvan by freight train, June 1944; air-raids on the train at Miskolc; return to Salgotarjan, August 1944; Allied air-raids; labor cleaning streets; transfer across the Austrian border on foot, October 1944; escape back to Budapest; obtains protective passes from the Swiss embassy; deportation of his father in a death march, November 1944; finds shelter in an orphanage under the protection of a Zionist organization and the Swedish embassy; liberation, 19 January 1945. Draft notice into the Hungarian Army, January 1946; certificate to make aliya to Eretz Israel; move to Austria by train; life in the Bensheim DP camp; illegally crosses the border; move to Paris by train; aliya to Israel on the ship, "Kedma", 1949.