Testimony of Natan Motovitz, born in Chust, Czechoslovakia in 1924, regarding his experiences in Chust and in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Buchenwald and Flossenbuerg camps

Testimony of Natan Motovitz, born in Chust, Czechoslovakia in 1924, regarding his experiences in Chust and in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Buchenwald and Flossenbuerg camps Life in the Carpathian Ruthenia area as a young child; move to Chust; he studies in a Czech school and in parallel in a heder; membership in the Hungarian Scouts movement; Deportation of his father to service in the labor battalions in 1939; deportation of his family to Ukraine, summer 1941; theft of valuables; they cross the Dniester River; return to Chust; his father returns; German occupation, March 1944; wearing a yellow badge; Chust Ghetto life; labor as a mechanic in the German command headquarters; deportation of his family to Auschwitz-Birkenau camp on the last transport; selection in Auschwitz-Birkenau camp; transfer to Buchenwald camp; transfer to labor in a weapons factory in Germany; US Army air-raids; transfer on a death march, April 1945; liberation at Flossenbuerg camp by the US Army; Move to Bratislava and Prague with help from the US Army; reunion with his mother and sister; move to Chust; escape during an attempt to draft him into the Red Army; escape to Budapest; establishment of a Zionist youth group lead by an emissary from Eretz Israel; escape over the border of Hungary, to Salzburg; escape to the Villa Rosa (a transit station for refugees); move to Milan; life in a "kibbutz" and at the Villa Brivio; attempt to make illegal aliya to Eretz Israel on the "Kaf-Gimel [Yordei Hasira]" ship; detention in Cyprus; life in camp. No. 55 in the summer; aliya to Eretz Israel, October 1946.