Jozef Holocaust Survivor Testimony
Jozef was born in 1934 in Bánovce nad Bebravou, then part of Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia). As the country fell under the influence of Nazi Germany, his family, like many other Jews, experienced escalating antisemitic persecution.
In 1942, Jozef—just eight years old—was sent to the Nováky forced labour camp with his mother and two sisters, where they were imprisoned as forced laborers. On August 29, 1944, during the Slovak National Uprising, partisans liberated the camp, and Jozef and his family fled to nearby villages and hid in the mountains.
Their freedom was short-lived. Jozef was eventually captured and deported to the Sereď forced labour camp. In 1945, he was sent to the Kinderheim (children’s home) at the Theresienstadt ghetto and concentration camp. He was liberated there few months later by Soviet troops on May 9, 1945.
After the war, Jozef rebuilt his life in communist Czechoslovakia, where he resumed his studies, married, and started a family. In 1968, political unrest led them to Belgium, and in 1981, he immigrated to Canada, where he still lives today.
Jozef is a powerful witness to history—having survived war and exile, and rebuilt his life in freedom.
