Bill Basch

Bill Basch (F / Hungary, 1927), Holocaust survivor

• KEYWORDS : <Auschwitz>

• MEMOIRS : The Last Days (doc, 1998)

Biography

• Jewish Virtual Library

Bill Basch was born 1927 in the small agricultural village of Szaszovo, in the Carpathian Mountains, Hungary.

In the Fall 1942, Basch was taken by his mother to Budapest; he was 15 years old. There he worked as an apprentice without pay, relying on relatives and acquaintances for food. Soon he joined the underground movement in the city comprised of Jewish youth from all over Europe who sought refuge in Hungary. In 1944 Raoul Wallenberg arrived and Basch began working for him, deliver false papers, via the sewer system, to Jews staying in Wallenberg’s safe houses. In November 1944 he was arrested and sent to Buchenwald. He was liberated at Dachau after surviving a Death March.

In 1947 he emigrated to the United States.

Doc : The Last Days (doc, 1998)

The Last Days is a documentary, directed by James Moll and produced by June Beallor and Kenneth Lipper in 1998. Steven Spielberg was one of the executive producers, in his role as founder of the Shoah Foundation. The film tells the stories of five Hungarian Jews during the Shoah. Shoah survivors Bill Basch, Irene Zisblatt, Renee Firestone, Alice Lok Cahana, Tom Lantos, Dario Gabbai and Randolph Braham are featured in the film.

The film won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.