Farewell

My father, Yehuda Hollander grew up in an Orthodox Jewish community in Muzsaj, a small village located in the Czechoslovakian Carpathian Mountains.  He was nine years old when World War II broke out, changing his life and the lives of his family members forever. Under the harsh Hungarian decrees, their tranquil village lives became unbearably difficult. In a moment, his childhood was arrested when the German Army invaded in 1944. Hell on earth. The deportation to the Ghetto, the train to Auschwitz, the selection, many long months of trying to survive in impossible conditions of starvation and humiliation in the concentration camps, and death camps, transports and death marches. He was 15 years old when the War ended. He did not have an easy life after that, either. Searching for the remnants of his family, life in the displaced persons camp, ha'apala to Israel, deportation to Cyprus – these are all just part of his embattled life story.  All his life my father told me about those years, some of them he documented in video and in writing.  Seven years after his death, I decided to write down his life story.