Moisei Katz grew up with six siblings. His father was a coachman for wood transportation. He attended heder until the age of thirteen. After his father was "drafted" as forced laborer in the Hungarian army, he continued his father's work as coachman. In 1944, he was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau from the Iza ghetto. He was liberated from the Buchenwald concentration camp by the American army in 1945 and returned to Koshelovo, via Prague and Budapest. He moved to Khust in 1954 and worked in his profession as chauffeur.
Other Interviews:
On the Way HomeArrival in Prague
Liberation
Leaving For Home
Saving the Synagogue in Khust
Khust, Ukraine
How did Jewish returnees re-settle in places that were once part of a cohesive and vibrant prewar Jewish community? The daily disappointment of finding out who did not survive and thus not return home is no doubt a reality of every Jewish returnee. However, diving into testimonies of Carpathian Ruthenian Jews, another reality seems to emerge: the necessity to move on and continue life, even under the new Soviet rule. The sense of community, reinforced by the shared fate as Shoah survivors, and reconstituting traditional Jewish life appears to be evident among Carpathian-Ruthenian Jews in Subcarpathian Rus' during the postwar period. In this clip, Moisei Katz shares with us an episode about the rescue of a synagogue in Khust in the early 1950s.