Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Bert Dan - November 17, 1982

Life Before the War

You were a soldier then?

I wa...I was a soldier in the army, but no gun. The guns were taken away from us. And uh, we were in there working on the fields for about less than six months. And then we were in the East, we were free to go whatever we want to do. And then in 1940, at that time the Hungarians wanted a part of Romania back from--the army--the Hungarians wanted a part of Romania back that actually belonged to them before the First World War. And though the decision made in Italy at that time ??? I'm sure that you heard of that, the history, you know that, that ??? decision made at a big chunk of Transylvania is being transferred back to Hungary. And that part where I come from was, is the city, it was Kolozsvar.

Could you spell that?

Well, I'll spell it to you in Hungarian and Romanian, so you'll know exactly.

Okay.

The Romanian name was Cluj, C-l-u-j. And in Hungarian it is called Kolozsvar. It is K-o-l-o-z-s-v-a-r. Kolozsvar.


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