Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Nathan Roth - February 4, 1983

This interview is being conducted on the afternoon of February 4, 1983, at the University of Michigan-Dearborn campus.

Could you tell me your name please?

My name is Nathan Roth.

And where you're from?

I am from Velikiy Bereznyy, Czechoslovakia.

Um, where were you during the war years?

During the early war years, I was in Velikiy Bereznyy and then I went to Budapest. From Budapest, I came back home when the Germans moved into our part of the country and uh, we were deported to uh, the Camp in Ungvar. And from Ungvar we went to Auschwitz. And from Auschwitz, to Jaworzno. And from Jaworzno, we uh, were evacuated at the end of the war and, uh, due to the eva...evacuation I escaped and made my way back to Ungvar.

Ok, let's start with uh, your life before the war. Tell me something about Velikiy Bereznyy-- what you remember about your life in that town before the war started.

It was a very serene town. Uh, I went to cheder, which is the like the lower school were you learn the alef bet. Then I went to yeshiva. First in Bereznyy, where the Dian had a yeshiva. And from there I went to Munkacs uh, to a yeshiva. And...

Let me interrupt for a minute. Did--you also went to public school?

Yes, I went to public school. I went to yeshiva and I started in five o'clock in the morning, to cheder and yeshiva and then at one o'clock I went to public school until five-thirty.

With Jews and non-Jews?

With Jews and non-Jews. And then after public school uh, we went back to cheder and or to yeshiva, until seven-thirty in the evening. So basically, the day consisted from five o'clock in the morning until seven-thirty in the evening when I got back home. It was everyday except Friday. Friday you came home at noon. And I just remembered something that, uh, on the way home from cheder--home, I stop by my older sisters house were she had freshly baked kolac and always had a, a treat over there before going home Friday afternoon. It just came to my mind, right now.