Testimony of Jacob Markovich, born in Nagyleta, Hungary, 1922, regarding his experiences in labor battalions in Hungary, Transylvania and Marghita

Testimony of Jacob Markovich, born in Nagyleta, Hungary, 1922, regarding his experiences in labor battalions in Hungary, Transylvania and Marghita Childhood in an Orthodox family in Szeghalom; move to Budapest for Yeshiva studies; return after three years; apprenticeship as a tailor; move with his sister to Budapest. Reporting to a labor battalion, October 1943; forced labor for approximately one year building an airfield in Szentkiralyszabadja; living conditions in Szentkiralyszabadja; transfer to Transylvania after a year; labor in a sawmill under comfortable conditions; receiving information regarding an expected transfer to Germany; escape with four friends to a forest and from there to Marghita; joining a labor battalion in Marghita; approach of the front; joining the Hungarian Army personnel that had been demoblilized; return home. Move to Bucharest; joining Bnei Akiva; aliya training; move to Budapest; unsuccessful aliya attempt to Eretz Israel through Aliya Bet, detention in Cyprus; return aliya to Eretz Israel, 1947.