Now watch a clip of Chaim Klein's testimony:
Brief biography of the witness
Chaim Klein was born in February 1919 in the village of Hrušovo in Subcarpathian Ruthenia into a pious, Hasidic family. The local rabbi arranged for him to study in the nearby village of Apša, where there was a better Jewish school. He studied at a yeshiva, a Jewish religious school, in Solotvino, which in Czech was called Slatinské doly. Later, at his father's request, he studied at a renowned rabbinical school in Máramarossziget, just across the border river Tisza in Romania.
In July 1941, as a Jew, he was called up by the Hungarian authorities for forced labor. As part of a military labor batallion, he reached occupied Ukraine, where he was captured and placed in a gulag. He was released in November 1944 and joined the Czechoslovak Army Corps in the USSR.
After demobilization, he moved to Ústí nad Labem, where, despite his strict religious upbringing, he became a member of a leftist youth group (the so-called plugat hachshara) preparing to emigrate to Palestine and work on a collective farm, a kibbutz. He did not manage to emigrate in time, he was even detained on suspicion of an illegal attempt to cross the border and imprisoned for six months. He was drafted into the Auxiliary Technical Battalions (PTP), and after his release he settled in Teplice. From 1974 to 2003, he led the local Jewish community and was its last synagogue singer.
The interview was recorded on May 2, 1996 in Teplice.
Where do you think Chaim Klein really wanted to live? Why do you think he stayed in Czechoslovakia?