Second online testimony - David Laszlo - November 5 2025
The second testimony session introduced participants to the life story of David Laszlo Mandel, a Hungarian Jewish survivor whose experience illustrates the transnational dimension of the Holocaust.
Deported from Hungary to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944, he was successively transferred to the Fünfteichen subcamp of Gross-Rosen and later to Buchenwald, where he was liberated in April 1945.
His testimony highlighted the brutality of deportation, forced labour and camp transfers, as well as the resilience required to survive.
After the war, he stayed in France, returned briefly to Hungary, worked for the American military in Germany and eventually emigrated to Israel in 1949.
His journey provides young NESHAMA ambassadors with a powerful personal perspective on the European history and lasting consequences of the Shoah.