No Code Website BuilderThe DEGOB (National Committee for the Care of Deportees) interviewed deported women and men who returned to Hungary between 2 December 1944 and 13 April 1946. Nearly 5,000 survivor testimonies were recorded, including those of 25 former forced labourers from the Penig subcamp.
Because these statements were given close in time to what was experienced — and therefore had not yet been influenced by the fates of other deportees read about, seen, or heard — they are of particularly high historical value.
The women fought to survive, went hungry, and suffered from abuse and illness. It is therefore self-evident that some details, figures, and place names may not fully correspond to the historical record, as these women could often only estimate certain information.
Twenty-four of the twenty-five testimonies were given in Hungarian, and one in German. The 24 Hungarian-language originals can be viewed in the “magyar” menu, and the single testimony in German in the “deutsch” menu.
The documents come from the DEGOB website: http://degob.hu/index.php
On 14 November 1944 the Arrow Cross took me from the star house to the brick factory in Óbuda. On 15 November we were already transported onward; the route was Piliscsaba, Dorog. We received nothing to eat, and nowhere was there any place to sleep. In Sütő we slept in the open marketplace. In Szőny we lay in a stable together with cows and horses.
The most terrible, however, was the night we spent in Gönyű on the “death bridge”: the sick lay among the corpses in filth and darkness; many slipped off the smooth deck of the barge and fell into the Danube. By morning the number of dead had doubled. Here I experienced the horror of horrors.
Everywhere there were corpses along the roadside. Often, I saw an elderly person step aside because they could no longer endure the hardships – they collapsed and died.
In Győr I felt I could not go on any longer, and I escaped. A decent farmhand, who knew that I had nothing, wanted to hide me – as if I were a relative of his wife. But an Arrow Cross man denounced me, and I was taken to the police in Győrszentiván. Then I was returned to a transport. In Győr I was put into a barrack where we were locked in together with the most seriously contagious patients. Typhus and dysentery decimated the people in the barrack.
Dunaszeg was the next stop; we lived there in a pigsty. Finally, we were loaded into wagons near Hegyeshalom. We no longer had any possessions, because during the escape we had thrown everything away. There were 114 people in one wagon. A woman died on the way; her body was not removed from the wagon until two days later.
We arrived in Ravensbrück, where we spent exactly one month. The accommodation was dreadful, we were starving; our suffering was without limit.
In mid-January we were sent to Penig. Penig was a labour camp; we worked in a factory producing aircraft parts. The camp was 4 km from the factory. This was the reason the death rate in that camp was so high: in our light clothing and half-starved, no one could endure that long walk. The rations might not even have been bad, but because the camp was not right next to the factory, the factory management could not control the SS – and so the SS constantly stole our evening meal and the “supplement” (extra ration). Only in the rarest cases did we receive any part of the supplement.
We had very many sick, and 3-4 died each week, because unfortunately there were no medicines at all. The weakest were precisely the 19-20-year-olds; the older women endured the hardships and hunger better.
Our situation was further worsened by the fact that we often had roll call three times a day. On 13 April the SS drove onward those who could still walk. About 70 sick and weak women remained behind in the camp. On the afternoon of 15 April, the Americans arrived, and already on 17 April we were in a sanatorium near Altenburg. The Americans placed everything at our disposal; they cared for us excellently and treated us wonderfully.
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From 23 October 1944 until 1 December 1944 I worked at the National Clothing Institute (Országos Ruházati Intézet) as a worker in an armaments plant, as a seamstress. A woman called Basáné, who was sympathetic to the Arrow Cross, gladly drew up our list of names and brought it in; on 1 December the Arrow Cross then came to collect us for deportation.
They arrived at about 10 o’clock in the morning, and for the entire day they drove us on foot. First they took us to Szent István Park, where we were not even allowed to rest, and then we went on to Teleki tér (Teleki Square). More Arrow Cross men arrived, gathered a group together, lined us up in rows and took us straight away to Józsefváros station. We were loaded into wagons and the doors were locked. For the journey, 72 people were given 12 loaves of bread. On the way we suffered terribly from lack of water.
Eight days later we arrived in Ravensbrück. There they put about 4,000 of us into a large tent. We endured hellish torment, because there was scarcely any room even to stand. After ten days they set up the camp barracks inside the tents. There were then about 2,500 people in one tent, and three of us lay in one bed. We were given no water; indeed, we were not even allowed to go outside to relieve ourselves. We had no means of washing at all. Even there we began to become infested with lice.
We had to go out to work as well: in the bitterest cold we shovelled sand, wearing only a summer dress, while they drove us on, beating and punching us. They took everything from us: our clothes, our papers. They cut off our hair.
On 9 January we were selected for work and taken to Penig. We travelled there in goods wagons; it took three and a half days. During the journey we received neither food nor drink. It was very cold, and a great many women’s feet were frostbitten. In Penig we were housed in a camp 4 km from the factory. We worked as labourers in a munitions factory. We walked 8 km on foot to and from work every day.
Our daily rations were practically nothing: we received 12 decagrams of bread (about 120 g) and half a litre of soup. There were also days when we received no bread at all. The SS men behaved brutally towards us: they beat and punched us. Those who tried to ask for a second serving at meals were struck on the head with their mess tin.
On 13 April the SS heard that the Americans were coming. Everyone had to be ready to pack within five minutes. They led the transport away, but 80 of us were left behind sick. I was bedridden with sciatica. They said another wagon would come for us. We already knew then that the Americans were coming, and we hid. Luckily the wagon did not come — but the Americans arrived on Sunday, 15 April, in the afternoon. They discovered our camp and brought us sacks full of tinned food and chocolate.
Two days later Red Cross vehicles and doctors came to us. They were all Americans, among them many Jews of Hungarian origin. We were taken to a sanatorium in Altenburg for a ‘fattening-up cure’. There I gained 20 kilos in three months.
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On 1 December 1944 I was taken away from the Sotex armaments factory in Sütő Street, which was under the protection of the International Red Cross. First, they drove us to the brickworks; the next day they took us to Józsefváros station, where we were loaded into wagons, and at 11 o’clock at night we departed.
Eight days later we arrived in Zurndorf; there we were handed over to the Germans. They transported us in German Pullman carriages to Ravensbrück. We remained there for a month.
Every day we went out to work: we shovelled sand or loaded coal. I consider it likely that they put bromide in our food, because everyone was dizzy. We were beaten and punched. Our hair was cut off. I believe the cut hair was collected in order to manufacture fabric from it.
In Penig we worked in a factory producing aircraft parts. That meant walking 8 km on foot every day, uphill. The work was hard; they drove us on and mistreated us. The food was appalling. If anyone dared to ask for food, they were beaten. An SS woman struck me on the head with my mess tin because I asked for food.
We had very many deaths; most died of typhus and of total exhaustion because of the cruel starvation.
On 13 April the SS men fled and took many women with them. I stayed behind because the day before I had developed a thrombosis in my leg. Two days later the Americans liberated us.
We were 70 sick women, and we were taken in Red Cross vehicles to the hospital in Altenburg. George Friedmann, an American Jewish lieutenant, was the hospital commandant; he made superhuman sacrifices for us and for our recovery.
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On 1 November 1944 I reported to Börgöndpuszta on the basis of an individual call-up notice. Things were not too bad there, because we were under the authority of the Wehrmacht. Our work consisted of digging trenches; it was hard, but bearable. Our provisions were also adequate. For breakfast we received black coffee, twice a day soup, and enough bread.
I spent three weeks there; afterwards I was released with a Schutzpass (protective pass) and moved into the protected house at Pozsonyi út 56. On 28 November the Arrow Cross and the police took us from the protected house to Teleki tér 10. From there, two days later, we ended up in the brick factory in Óbuda. We spent a dreadful week there.
Then, at Józsefváros railway station, we were loaded into railway cars and taken to Ravensbrück. We remained there for four weeks. Immediately after our arrival we were forced to undress and everything was taken from us. Ten thousand people lived in one tent. We were terribly cold, because the tent was surrounded only by a tarpaulin. The food was bad and scarce. We slept on the ground; there was not even room to sit down.
On 8 January I was sent to Penig with a labour transport. We worked in a factory producing aircraft wings. We walked 8 km to the workplace every day. Even so, our situation there was somewhat easier. Twice a day we received thin soup, 200 grams of bread, and 10 grams of margarine. We did heavy physical labour and suffered greatly from hunger because the rations were so poor. It often happened that we ate grass. Especially among the young, very many perished there.
The SS brutalized us constantly. In particular, a sergeant named Adolf tormented us in an inhuman way. It also happened that they even withheld the little soup we were given.
After many sufferings, the camp was finally evacuated on 29 March. Two days later, on the road, I escaped together with two companions. We hid in the forest for three days and lived on fodder beets, until at last the American troops liberated us. After that we were very well off, because we received everything our hearts could desire.
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I lived in Budapest, where my husband had a thriving medical practice. In September 1944 my husband was taken away for trench-digging work, and I moved into a Swiss protected house in order to protect myself from deportation. On 1 December 1944 the Arrow Cross occupied the house, took us to the building at Teleki Square 5, plundered us there and left us only the bare necessities. After that they took us straight to Józsefváros station, where we were loaded into railway wagons.
We travelled for nine days, and during that time we were given a little warm food only once. I had a few walnuts and some sugar with me; that is what I lived on. After nine days of arduous travel, we arrived late at night in Ravensbrück.
We were housed in tents up on the hill. They took everything from us; we were left with only a single item of clothing. At about half past two in the morning we were woken; after that we stood at roll call, then we were sent out into the hills to shovel sand. The SS guards were dreadful: they drove us on and beat us while we worked. For the first twelve days we lay on bare bricks; it was cold, the tents were covered only with tarpaulins, and when a German commission came, beds were brought in. 2,200 of us were crammed into a very small space.
My feet became frostbitten. We had a female guard called Wanda; when I showed her that with feet like this, I could not go out to work, she slapped me violently. She was always intent on seeing as many of us perish as possible, and she constantly spoke to us about the crematorium. I was very weak, had lost weight down to 35 kilos, saw people dying every day, and felt that I too would not be able to endure much longer.
One day I was taken to the baths, and afterwards there was a medical examination. The SS doctor learned that I was the wife of a doctor; he felt great pity at seeing me in this state and asked whether I wanted to go to a factory. Of course, I said yes, because I did not want to be left behind there as an invalid. So, one day I was assigned to a work transport and we were taken on foot onwards to Penig.
In Penig our situation was somewhat better. The rubber truncheon still whistled there often enough, but there were facilities to wash, and we were allowed out of the blocks, so that we had more of a sense of still being human. At the previous place we could not wash; we were badly infested with lice there. We went to work in an aircraft factory; from the camp to the workplace, it was 4 km. We walked this distance on foot every day, and 18 of our comrades died in this way: they could no longer manage the march with their aching feet, and the SS shot them.
On 16 April 1945 the camp was evacuated because the Americans were approaching. We were driven onwards on foot; the guards fell back one by one, so that when we reached Chemnitz, we realised that we were alone. For one or two days we hid in barns; once there was an air raid and one comrade died from the blast pressure. The Americans liberated us. We remained there for another five weeks, and when our health had recovered somewhat, we set off for home.
I did not find my husband or my son at home. I found my flat completely plundered, and here I stand – once an exceedingly well-to-do doctor’s wife – utterly poor, abandoned, without a penny. At DEGOB I was given the promise that I would be accommodated and that they would try to ease my fate.
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I moved together with my parents into a Swiss protected house. We were able to live there only for a short time, when my brother and I were taken to the railway station and put into a wagon. Of course we took very little with us; we could not have carried much anyway. During the journey, which lasted a week, we were given no food; at Hegyeshalom we received a little bread and 2 decagrams of margarine.
When we arrived in Ravensbrück, the SS took everything from us. We even had to hand over our clothing, and were given lice-infested things instead. We lived in tents for ten to twelve days; there we lay on the ground. From there we were moved into such cells/quarters where there were already bunks.
We began to work; nearby there was a sand pit. We loaded the sand onto small wagons and pushed them away. Each day we received coffee, three decilitres of soup, 30 decagrams of bread, and an “extra ration”. This was either one to two decagrams of margarine or sausage.
The female guards were very bad and cruel; standing at roll call, and everything connected with it, provoked a particular fear every time. In the cold we had to stand outside for hours, in addition to the heavy work.
After some time, there was a selection for a transport. We were given short little coats; some were warmer, others thinner – everyone received whatever happened to be left. They took our trousers away, however. In this way we came to Penig.
There we worked in a factory, alternating in three shifts. We had to walk eight kilometres to the workplace and then still wait outside until the women working before us came out, because only then were we allowed to go in. Often, in 20 degrees of cold, we stood for a long time in a single item of clothing and waited.
At first the sick were still spared and did not have to go out to work. From the constant freezing I contracted pneumonia. I lay in the block; there was no medical treatment. My food consisted of two decilitres of “black” coffee, soup, and ten decagrams of bread.
When the Americans were already very near, the SS fled with those who were healthy. They threatened us with volleys of gunfire, but they did not carry it out. They did, however, leave us behind without a single bite to eat. Fortunately, this situation did not last long, because shortly afterwards the Americans liberated us.
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Economically, the Jewish laws did not affect me, because as a seamstress I worked until the very last day. I supported myself, because in the last period my husband had to perform labour service continuously.
When the Germans came to Hungary, I was forced to wear the yellow star and to live in a star house, where the possibilities of going out were severely restricted. Apart from that, there were many other deprivations - both regarding food and, for example, the prohibition on visiting public places; it was forbidden to enter a building that was not marked with a yellow star; on the tram one was allowed to ride only in the trailer car - and hundreds of similar things. The Szálasi government crowned all of this by simply locking the gates of all star houses. Then I obtained Swiss protection and moved into a protected house. From there the Arrow Cross took me to Teleki tér; we spent one night there. The next stations were Tattersall and the brick factory in Óbuda. From the Arrow Cross men who escorted us we constantly suffered rudeness and brutality. Meanwhile a week passed during which we did not receive anything to eat even once – only once a warm soup, which the Red Cross sent after us.
On 2 December we were loaded into railway cars at Józsefváros station – only women between 16 and 40 years of age. The others were thrown back into the ghetto. Until Hegyeshalom / Zurndorf they did not open the car door; there the Germans took us over from the Hungarians. On the way there were several cases of fever, but of course we could not help.
On 10 December we arrived in Ravensbrück; that was where our captivity began – I felt like a prisoner. SS men came out, also police personnel, and women as well; they beat and assaulted us. There we learned what it meant to be a “prisoner” – and that we too were prisoners. With this transport about 2,000 of us arrived. They drove us into a tent whose floor was bare brick, with no possibility of lying down at all. We spent days there – how many I do not know, because I was completely dazed; day and night merged into one another. They told us there were no barracks, and until space could be made we would have to live in the tent. We spread our blankets on the floor – they said we should not pity them, because “they will take everything from us anyway.” There was hardly any room to lie down; at best we sat or stood.
After a few days we were bathed; they took away all our belongings – rucksack, clothes, everything – and after the bath they gave us utterly impossible, worn-out clothing. I was lucky, because I received a coat; the others had no outer coat at all – and that is how we spent the winter.
Our rations were: in the morning black coffee, at midday turnip soup without any taste, which was practically inedible, and 25 dekagrams (250 g) of bread. Every morning, they drove a few hundred people out to work that was completely pointless: we had to shovel sand on a slope, which was very hard – especially because it had become winter and we were not clothed for it at all. They treated us terribly, beating and assaulting us constantly; there was not a minute of rest. We could not wash; one had to queue for the toilet – briefly: the conditions were dreadful.
After one month, on 10 January, they assembled a transport and I was included in it. They took us to Penig. There we were placed in a barrack, and one thing was especially noteworthy: they even gave us a blanket. We worked in the Junkers aircraft factory producing aircraft parts. Working time was 8 hours daily. The food in the factory was tasty, but very little. The factory was about 3-4 km from the camp; we walked the distance on foot. We were constantly hungry; everyone lost weight terribly, without exception. In the end we could barely remain on our feet.
Under these conditions we spent three months there. On 13 April we set off under escort of SS soldiers and female guards, to an unknown destination. In the first days we marched 20-30 km a day on foot. On the third day we were loaded into wagons and travelled for three days in wagons. During that time, we received nothing to eat at all. We had not seen bread for many days, let alone eaten it. Once we were given a few boiled potatoes. We travelled by wagon as far as Dachau. From there we marched on foot again to an alleged camp, which, however, could not be found. We slept in the forest, and once I managed to escape together with two others.
We went from village to village and obtained food from houses. People did not like to let us in, but nevertheless we spent the occasional night in stables or attics. Most of the time, however, we were outside, in haystacks, and slept in a pine forest. Twice we were caught by SS soldiers who were escorting another transport, but we escaped from them as well. After a week we reached a farmer who hid us; we stayed in his attic until 4 May, when the Americans came to the village of Gottschau and liberated us. We remained in the farmer’s house; then one of my companions went to hospital, and I returned home with the other companion.
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When all Jewish women aged 16-40 were required to report to the KISOK sports field, I actually should not have had to go, because my husband was in forced labour service, and the wives of forced-labour servicemen were exempt. However, our building commander forced me to go anyway; he said they would decide there whether I had to go or not. But there they asked nothing – rather, I was assigned to a transport, and we had to march on foot to Ferihegy immediately. We arrived there at midnight. From there we were taken to Gyömrő to dig trenches; we were there for six days.
After that they dragged us around the country in all directions for another three weeks; in the end we reached the road to Vienna and marched as far as Zurndorf. We slept constantly out in the open, in rain and mud. Washing was only rarely possible; they gave us hardly anything to eat. Completely ragged and broken, we arrived in Zurndorf. There the Germans took us over, put us on a train, gave us hot soup, and then transported us straight to Ravensbrück.
Ravensbrück was an enormous camp; there were prisoners of many nationalities. We shovelled in a sand pit for 10 hours a day. Our food was a thin vegetable stew with no fat, but with sand, pebbles, and grass in it. When we arrived, they took everything from us, and instead of our warm clothes they gave us summer clothing and wooden clogs. Everyone soon became completely weakened. There was a lot of dysentery. There was also a hospital, but not a single sick person ever came out of it. We were sent to Penig with a work transport.
We travelled for three and a half days without food. Penig was a small camp; 700 of us lived in wooden barracks, 4 km from the town. I was already so weak that I did not want to work, but an SS man said: “Work, or you will die!” We worked in an aircraft-parts factory, 8 hours a day. The whole time we had to stand at the machine, and after work there was another 4 km walk, and in the morning the same again.
The treatment was cruel: SS women and SS men escorted us on the road and beat us on the way with thick whips. Very many starved to death. We were already so weak that a single blow would knock us over. They beat us even if we washed our hands. The Russian men sometimes secretly gave us a little food, because the other prisoners received more than the Jews.
When the camp was evacuated, a friend and I hid; when the Germans had gone, we came out, and it turned out that 70 of us had remained there. For two days we were in the camp without food or drink; we ate grass and leaves. When the Americans came in, I weighed 28 kg. The Americans cried when they saw us. We were placed in an officers’ rest home, and there we were provided with all kinds of good things so that we could regain a little strength.
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Zsuzsa Heumann stated the following on July 6, 1945 in Budapest
I was working at the armaments plant of the Hungarian Cutlery Factory. From there, on 1 December 1944, I was taken to the brickyard, and on 2 December we were loaded into goods wagons at Józsefváros station. On 9 December we arrived in Ravensbrück. We still had a little food with us, which we had brought along. In Zurndorf the Germans gave us a hot meal and transferred us into passenger carriages. On the way I would have had an opportunity to escape, but my mother had already been taken away two weeks earlier, and I always believed I would see her again – so I stayed.
In Ravensbrück they put us – about 2,400 people – into a tent; they took our clothes and gave us other clothing. We slept on the ground. We went out to work, shovelled sand, and pushed tipper wagons. Our guards were SS men as well as Polish and Czech political prisoners. We were given enough to eat, but it was inedibly bad. At that time, we could still cope with the work because we had left home in good condition and were not yet completely exhausted. We spent a month there.
In January we went to Penig, 56 kilometres from Leipzig. We worked in an aircraft factory that was 4 km from the camp; so, every day we had to walk 8 km. It was dreadful: we had to go in ranks of five, marching in military order – always under SS escort. The food was good, but very scarce. We were beaten very often, without any reason, purely for the SS’s amusement. Many of them were drunk, and then they always beat us. The work was not too hard – at least not for me – because I had a good foreman. We were there until 13 April. On the 11th another 150 Poles arrived; on the 13th the Jewish women were forced onto the road on foot.
On the first night 500 were left behind in Chemnitz; and each night individual groups were left behind. After about a week of marching they put us into wagons. There were 90 people in one wagon. Next to me a former classmate of mine, Zsuzsa Fischer, died. A mother, Ilona Schenk, gave birth – or rather miscarried. The baby died, of course. It lay among us in blood for a day and a half, until an SS woman came, grabbed the little corpse, and threw it out of the wagon. The dead were thrown out like that as well.
A calf was also in the wagon with us; it became wild on the journey. The main reason for that was that it was a favourite pastime of the SS to throw five or six potatoes into the wagon – we would all leap up, and there was a great scramble so that at least someone might catch a potato. A Swabian SS man looked after the calf. He was not a bad person: the grass they brought for the calf he sometimes gave to us – we had no other food.
At a small station a Czech man pitied us so much that he brought a barrel of potatoes and a barrel of millet porridge, and it was passed into the wagon for us.
In this way we travelled as far as Tachau (now Tachov, Czech Republic). We did not even stop there, but continued foot for 30-35 km. During the night ten of us escaped. We hid in a forest, but the next day a Swabian soldier caught us. We begged him desperately to let us go; he took pity and let us go.
Pretending to be Christian Hungarian refugees, we asked to be admitted to a hospital. There we were treated well; we worked in the kitchen. In the last week three Hungarian Jews were seized in the town. They were made to dig their own grave and were shot. We were terrified that it might be discovered that we too were Jews.
On 5 May, at 10.45 a.m., the Americans came in and liberated us.
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Edith Himmler: Until 1 June 1944 I was allowed to work with a special permit. Then I lost my job because of the Jewish laws. After that I worked as a labourer at the Sotes armaments plant until 1 December, when I was deported.
Vera Váradi: My husband had already been in Russia as a forced labourer for three years. My father had been interned in Germany for a year, and my brother and I were deported together on 1 December. Our 75-hectare family estate was taken from us in the spring of 1943 as part of the expropriation of Jewish property. I, too, worked at a Sotes armaments plant.
Anna Kaufmann: As a seamstress I was not directly affected by the Jewish laws; I was able to continue working right up to the end. On 23 October I was ordered to report to the Kisok sports ground, but I was able to escape. I went into hiding in Budapest. When I went home once more shortly before the deportation, I was arrested. I had a Swiss Schutzpass and thought I was safe – and in that belief I went home to fetch my things. The entire building was cleared out, and I was taken to Katona József Street, then to the brickyard. From there we marched on foot to Hegyeshalom; on 1 December we were loaded into wagons. During the transport we were given no food.
Edith Himmler (continued): The armaments plant was under the protection of the International Red Cross – we felt safe. When the plant was then officially declared an armaments factory, we were deported to Germany. At Józsefváros station we were loaded into wagons – 70 people per wagon – and over the whole period we were given food only twice. We got as far as Zurndorf, were transferred into passenger trains, and reached Ravensbrück that same evening.
There we were put into tents. Conditions were appalling: no water, no washing facilities, no toilets. Once we were bathed; our clothes were taken away and we were given filthy, ridiculous garments – we could no longer recognise one another. Life there was dreadful. To eat we received only unseasoned soup made from fodder beet, full of sand. Many suffered from diarrhoea and we lost weight rapidly – down to 40 kg. After one and a half days of hard labour in the cold, we hid and stopped working. There were many deaths.
On 9 January we were bathed again, everything was taken from us once more, and from 1.15 a.m. until 6 a.m. we had to stand outside naked. Afterwards we were given clothing and loaded onto transport. After four days of travel, we arrived in Penig. For those four days we were given ¼ kg of bread and 100 g of margarine – no water. We ate snow.
In Penig we were given a bowl of soup and the next day taken to a camp 3.5 km away. We were placed in barracks that were still under construction. Work began the following day. Under SS supervision we worked at the Junkers aircraft works; we were beaten, slapped, and thrashed. We worked 12 hours a day on day and night shifts.
The food tasted good, but it was far too little – we were constantly hungry. The hard physical labour left us completely exhausted. Many died because there was no help.
On 13 April we were evacuated. All three of us escaped. We slept in cemeteries, hid with farmers. On 15 April the Americans arrived and liberated us in Röhrsdorf. We stayed there for another week; then the Americans took us by lorry to the Gera-Linz camp. After liberation we were very well.
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The Arrow Cross took me from Budapest, from a so-called Schutzhaus (“protected house”), on 25 November. At Józsefváros station we were loaded into railway wagons and taken across the border. At Zurndorf the Germans took charge of us. There they gave us something to eat and then transferred us into passenger carriages. I had food with me in my rucksack. They took us directly to Ravensbrück.
There were many Hungarian Jewish women there, as well as political prisoners of other nationalities, and also murderers, including men. For a month they gave us bromide, and we were completely dazed. On arrival they took everything from us, even our clothes, and put us into summer dresses. If someone had particularly good shoes, those were taken as well. We lived in barracks; SS women guarded us.
For three weeks we were in quarantine because every one of us had diarrhoea. During that time we were given no water at all. We were not even allowed to go outside to the latrines; instead there was a bucket in the barrack room.
From there I was sent to Penig (Saxony). We lived in a barrack camp and worked in the Max Gehrt works aircraft-parts factory. We worked twelve hours a day, standing. It was extremely exhausting. Among the German foremen were Communists who were well-disposed towards us. Whenever possible we made the machine “break down” and wasted materials. There was even a German foreman who encouraged us to spoil as much as we could. He even gave me bread for it.
Apart from that we received very little to eat. It happened that we got nothing at all for an entire day. Beatings were all the more frequent. The distribution of food was always especially tense. There was always a great crush, fights over seconds; and in the end they beat everyone. It also happened that they poured the food away in front of our eyes when we could hardly see any more from hunger.
After three weeks of factory work, I was assigned to the kitchen and remained there until the end. There things were completely different: I could eat my fill and could even pass on a little bread or potatoes to others.
On 13 April the entire camp was evacuated because the Americans were already very close. We marched all night. They drove us on, and the march was horrific. There were also air raids in between. All at once I noticed that there were fewer and fewer SS women around us. I discussed it with a friend, and before it got light, we stayed behind.
The next morning, when the column had long since moved on, fifty of us gathered who had fallen behind during the night. We went to the nearest village and waited there for the Americans.
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The Jewish laws did not affect me; I worked the whole time, even in the star house I took on work. My husband was continually in forced labour service; he is still there even now; he has not yet returned.
On 29 November 1944 (the record says “1945,” apparently a clerical error) we were taken to a protected house in Szent István Park. There the Arrow Cross came with the pretext of “revising” the protective passes, separated us from one another, and then a commission arrived: anyone who had no pass was to be taken away. So they took us to the brick factory on Vörösvári Street, where we remained until 2 December. On 2 December we were loaded - sixty people together - into a cattle car and sent off. Within a week we reached Hegyeshalom. We received nothing to eat at all; in Zurndorf they transferred us into Pullman coaches, and there we received food for the first time again.
We arrived in Ravensbrück. They crammed 2,700 people into a tent. Within a few days all 2,700 were bathed; they took our clothes, jewellery, papers – everything – and we literally did not have even a meter of cloth on us. Every day in the mornings we had to shovel sand, then we went back to work; one afternoon a factory owner came and selected us. In Ravensbrück we received no water for six weeks; we could not wash. Anyone who “slipped out” to wash and was seen was beaten. Unfortunately, we were in a bad place, and so we had to shovel sand every day until it was our turn. There were many deaths. There were roll calls, during which we froze terribly. We were desperately hungry. At 4 a.m. we received a slice of bread, and at 4 p.m. we were given turnip soup as food.
After six weeks a factory owner selected 700 of us; after a week’s journey the wagon stood at the station for three days. The food ran out, and we were very hungry. In the factory the situation was already better; after one and a half weeks we were put to work.
I worked there for three weeks, then I fell ill and remained in the block. My leg became sore, and because of vitamin deficiency it could not heal. Until 13 April I remained there continuously as a sick person. Then we set off, and it suddenly became dark; together with 35 women we were left behind from the transport. In one day, we covered 60 km on foot - without food and without water. When we reached the Oder River (the original gives the place name as “Oderába”), we were loaded there back into wagons together with the Polish women, and the journey by wagon lasted one week. They transported us in open wagons; sometimes we received a quarter of a kohlrabi or a small piece of bread, but it also happened that we received nothing all day. By that time, I already weighed 20 kilos less.
After a week’s journey we arrived in Theresienstadt. There the SS men handed us over, and we were registered/assigned accommodation there. Later we learned that the SS had to leave Theresienstadt. We were there for three weeks until the Russians liberated us. Afterwards things improved: I regained the kilos I had lost.
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I lived in Budapest and, due to an official decree, had to move into the “star house” at 47 Rákóczi Street. One day the Arrow Cross appeared in the building, accompanied by a member of the National Guard. They rounded up the Jews between the ages of 16 and 45 and took us to the Óbuda brickworks. This happened on 27 November 1944.
We remained there until 2 December under the most dreadful conditions. We received no food, we lay on bare ground, and the Arrow Cross shot throughout the night. We were seized by mortal fear; we thought they would shoot us as well.
On 2 December we were taken to Józsefváros railway station and loaded into freight cars. There were 80 people in one wagon. We received nothing to eat on the way. After five days we arrived in Zurndorf. There they handed us over to the Germans. There we were given, per person, 10 decagrams of bread, a little salami, and 1 decilitre of soup. The SS counted us, then transferred us to another train and sent us on.
On 15 December we arrived in Ravensbrück. On the way we were given 1 kilogram of bread twice more, 10 decagrams of cheese, and two hot meals. We stayed there for five weeks, and then we were taken on to Penig.
In Penig I was put to work in an aircraft factory, under the supervision of SS guards. The treatment, and the food as well, were fairly good. We worked there until 13 April; by then the front was already very close, and one morning they called us to roll call and sent us off on foot. They drove us on day and night, without food and without water. When we reached the area near Chemnitz, three of us fell behind and hid in a forest.
For a month we wandered around Germany. Twice we were picked up and taken to the police. During that time there were heavy air raids; we suffered greatly – an entire month. After we were released by the police the second time, we gave false names and claimed to be Christians, and in this way, we managed to obtain ration cards in Karlsbad (Karlovy Vary).
About 7 kilometres from Karlsbad, we were liberated by the Russians on 9 May 1945. By then we were so exhausted from all we had endured that we were taken to a hospital and cared for there for six weeks. In mid-June, having recovered, I set out on the journey back to Budapest.
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On 26 November 1944 I was seized from my flat by the Arrow Cross and taken to the Tattersaal (riding hall), then from there to the Óbuda brickyard. It was a large transport; I cannot give the number. On 2 December 1944 we were loaded into railway wagons. We were given no food at all for the journey; on the way they gave us tinned tomatoes once. At Hegyeshalom we were taken over by the Germans, an SS unit; there they gave us bread and cheese. On 9 December we arrived in Ravensbrück.
We lived in a large tent camp, 2,500 of us together. In the mornings and afternoons, we had to stand at roll call for hours – with no regard for whether someone was ill or not. They regularly beat and thrashed us.
Our rations were as follows: in the morning a bitter black “coffee”, at midday a few decilitres of swede soup, in the evening a little bread. I was in Ravensbrück for a month; during that time, I shovelled sand – that was my work.
After a month they selected us for a work transport; 700 were sent to Penig. For a four-day journey we were given food supplies, namely: ½ kg of bread, 50 g of margarine, 20 g of salami. In an armaments factory I worked twelve hours a day. When we came back exhausted after the day’s work, we still had to stand at roll call for hours; only afterwards did we receive the soup. A few pearl-barley grains floated in water.
The factory was quite a long way from the camp; they took us there by lorry, because owing to our inadequate clothing everyone’s feet had become frostbitten. I lay ill in the infirmary for a month; when I had recovered, I did not return to the factory but worked in the camp. Despite my badly frostbitten feet, I still had to stand outside at roll call in the bitterest cold.
On 13 April 1945 the camp was sent off on foot. On the first day we marched for twenty-four hours without stopping. In the area around Leipzig (probably meaning Chemnitz), I – together with twenty-four other companions – fell behind; we escaped. We were utterly exhausted and lay down in a field. It turned out we had lain down almost in the middle of the front area. A German soldier took us away from there and put us into an empty tram carriage. We spent the night there, then went on.
We turned our clothes inside out so that the red stripe on our backs and the numbers would not give away that we were prisoners. We went on as Hungarian women workers. In Chemnitz-Borna we stayed for two weeks; in exchange for a little food, we did various jobs for some local families there. Then we went on.
On 5 May we reached the Czech border, but by then there were only eleven of us left together. Some of us also died on the way, because during our travelling one of our companions somehow revealed that we were Jews. They shot her. We fled, but they fired at us. A thirteen-year-old girl beside me was hit and shot dead.
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On 2 December 1944 they took me from the protected house to the ghetto at Klauzál tér. There they selected those under forty – the older people remained in the ghetto – and took us directly to Józsefváros railway station, where we were loaded into freight cars. The journey lasted eight days; food was issued only in the last two days: 200 grams of bread and a little fat. About seventy people were literally crammed into one car, so that one could only take turns standing or sitting on the bare floor. We received no water during the entire journey; using the toilet was also extremely difficult.
The Hungarian gendarmerie escorted us as far as Zurndorf; there German SS units took over. To my knowledge, some people managed to escape on that occasion. After eight days of agonizing travel, we arrived in Ravensbrück. At the station there was a line of SS men with fixed bayonets. We were housed in tents in which there were no places to lie down at all – only enough space for everyone to sit on their luggage. The provisions were somewhat bearable. Only after a few days did our turn for disinfection come. There we had to line up in rows of five and stand outside all night in the winter cold until, toward morning, we were finally processed. In the bath they took away our clothes and coats; we received only dresses back. Most of us also had our hair cut off.
After the bath they took us back to the tent; by then it was no longer even possible to sit, so we lay on the bare, cold ground. At 4 a.m. they lined us up for roll call in rows of five; for hours we had to stand motionless in the cold, with shaved heads and wearing only a single garment, until around 8 a.m. breakfast was distributed, consisting of half a decilitre of bitter “black” coffee. There was no possibility to wash at all; for about three weeks, we could not wash ourselves in any way. We managed by washing our faces with the black coffee we received for breakfast. As a result of these impossible conditions, many of us developed scabies and became infested with lice.
Most tragic, however, was that people died every day as a result of diarrhoea. There was an infirmary, but it was very difficult to get admitted. The work consisted of shovelling sand from one place to another for no purpose whatsoever. The treatment was extremely harsh; SS women and work overseers beat us constantly.
I was in that place for about four weeks, then they selected 700 people, mainly the stronger ones, and we travelled three days in a railway car. There too we suffered greatly from the cold. In that car there were no more than about fifty people; precisely for that reason we froze so badly. After three days we arrived in Penig.
In Penig I worked in a munitions factory that was about an hour’s walk from the camp, so we had to walk two hours every day. Work was carried out in three shifts. We were woken at 3:30 a.m., and at 6 a.m. we went to work until 2 p.m.; the second group worked from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., and the third from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
The worst was the night shift, because it was always 9 a.m. before we could get into bed; and at 10:30 a.m. we already had to report again for roll call and queue for food – so that usually at most two to three hours of sleep remained. The rations were very small: about 150 grams of bread and very little soup, perhaps half a litre at midday. The work was very hard, because most of it was standing work, and if anyone in the night shift worked a little more slowly or nodded off, the SS women beat them while they were working. Very many died of typhus and of total exhaustion, especially toward spring.
When the American troops approached, they drove us on foot to another camp. Where the others went, I do not know, because I fell behind my comrades on the way. We received no food for the march; as a result, many were no longer able to continue from weakness. After about 22 km on foot, my comrades and I reached Borna (near Chemnitz), where we posed as German refugees. We begged for food, and we spent the nights in bombed-out places. Perhaps we stayed there for two weeks, then we set off again; after about 20 km on foot we reached Herrenhaide, where American troops were already waiting for us. They accommodated us in villas and provided the best and most nourishing food.
In the meantime, the American troops withdrew from there, so we set off again in order to finally get home. We covered about 5 km and reached Burgstädt. However, there was no rail connection from there, so we had to stay there for a week. From there we reached Lunzenau by car, from where, with the help of the Russian troops, I finally managed to return home via Czechoslovakia.
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I was working as a labourer in an armaments factory; on 1 December the Arrow Cross came and took me from there. That day they rounded up a great many women and immediately loaded us into railway wagons. We were on the journey for eight days. At Hegyeshalom they opened the wagon and we were transferred onto a passenger train. The Germans gave us some kind of vegetable dish and butter. Up to that point, altogether, we had been given only a single small piece of bread once. By then there were already air raids; during the day the train was usually stationary and it travelled only at night.
We arrived in Ravensbrück in the evening; we were greeted by machine-gun fire. SS women shouted at us. We were terribly afraid. As we went into the camp, women looked out of the barrack windows and asked where we had come from. They were girls from Slovakia and from Carpatho-Ukraine. We could smell burning and believed they were going to burn us alive. They took us into a barrack; for twelve days we slept without beds on the bare ground. At night we were not allowed to go outside to the toilet; there were buckets indoors. They soon filled up and overflowed – across the whole floor – and we had to lie in that dreadful filth.
The next day we stood for hours at roll call, in mud up to our knees. Later we learned that there really was a crematorium there, but that only those who had already died a natural death were burned. In the camp there were three thousand women. We had to shovel sand, nine hours a day. We got up at 3 a.m.; then we were given a bitter, watery “black” (coffee). At about 5 p.m. we were given food: turnip soup and 150 g of bread. In the evening, we were given something like soup as well, or a piece of cheese. It was far too little; we were desperately hungry.
Later we were given beds: three or four people slept in one bed, and there were three-tier bunks. Often the top one collapsed, and then those it fell on died. There was also an infirmary, but there was very little space there; so, typhus patients lay in the barrack together with us.
One day a factory owner came looking for female workers. All the women had to line up at roll call; he selected 500, including me. Then we were taken to the baths and our heads were shaved bald. The bathing and waiting lasted until the next morning; until then we had to stand in the bathhouse – lying down or sitting was not allowed.
We travelled for three days. The food they had given us for the journey we ate on the first day; after that we went hungry for two days.
In Penig we were housed in barracks which were already dirty and crawling with lice from the previous inmates. We had to lie on worn-out, lice-infested straw; within moments we were covered with thousands of lice. We worked in an aircraft-parts factory, eight hours a day. But the factory was 4 km from the camp; we had to cover that distance at a run, because the SS drove us on and beat us.
In the factory the foremen were well-disposed; when they could, they brought us something to eat. They were Communists. Because of the inadequate diet many people developed abscesses and skin diseases. I had a carbuncle on my head; they cut it open without anaesthetic. I was in constant pain; my heart, too, grew weaker. I was very weak, short of breath, feverish – but they still chased me to work. When, from weakness, I fell against a wall, an SS man struck my freshly shaven, sore head with full force.
On 13 April we received no bread at all any more, only a quarter of a litre of beet juice. We were in a dreadful state. My foot had been frostbitten in winter and had by then become badly infected. They wanted to take me along on foot, but I said that I could not walk; I did not care if they might shoot me. After that the SS men went on with those who were marching.
Some of the sick from the infirmary were taken away on a cart, but I no longer climbed onto the cart. With a friend I stayed there for two days – without food and without water. On the third day I hauled myself up and crawled down into the yard on all fours. At that very moment American tanks drove in. When I said that I had not eaten for three days, they threw rusks/biscuits, chocolate, and all sorts of food to me.
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On 23 October 1944 I reported, in response to the call-up notice, at the KISOK sports ground. From there they marched us on foot to Ferihegy the very same day. For three weeks we did earthworks – digging trenches/defences – and as the Russians drew nearer we were driven on. We marched without a break for 28 hours, as far as Albertfalva. We stayed there for four days, and during that time we received no provisions at all.
Our next stop was the brickworks in Óbuda. We were told that we would be given discharge papers there; that was why we did not flee. They drove us on foot to Hegyeshalom; the whole way we hoped they would not take us out of the country. From Hegyeshalom we were transported in wagons almost as far as Berlin. From the edge of Berlin, they then sent us back again at express-train speed to Zurndorf.
What we saw there looked like a leper colony. It was the most dreadful experience of our deportation; I can scarcely speak about it. The dead lay in heaps, and there, apparently, no one needed gold: watches and wedding rings were still on the bodies. The corpses were thrown into the pit in bundles. The cause of the high death rate was, to a large extent, typhoid fever. Most of the dead were older people – everyone was already over forty.
In Zurndorf we were loaded into wagons again and taken straight to Ravensbrück. We women from Budapest – 3,600 of us – lived in a large tent. Sadly, it was there that most of us died. We received no provisions, suffered from the bad treatment and from the cold. We were beaten and kicked constantly. We were crawling with clothes-lice, and typhus raged. The death rate rose without pause. One after another, our comrades died beside us. In the crematorium there they burned only corpses – and there were an enormous number of them.
Our clothing consisted of light summer clothes; they did not even give us a headscarf. And so, even in the bitterest cold, we had to work outside: we shovelled sand.
On 9 January they loaded us up again, and after three days’ travel, we arrived in Penig. There were 800 Hungarian Jewish women there, and we worked in an aircraft factory. The already dreadful, inadequate rations were cut further and further. We had no water; we washed ourselves with black coffee. Any other personal hygiene was impossible. Many of us had sores and spots all over our bodies from vitamin deficiency. We developed infections.
We had to walk 8 kilometres to our workplace every day – uphill and downhill – at a forced marching pace. Our work supervisor was an ethnic German (a Danube Swabian) from Hungary who spoke Hungarian well; he treated us very badly. This man, Adolf, often beat us with a strap/belt so severely that the next day we could hardly get up.
At the beginning of April, when the trees in the camp began to bud, we ate the leaves. All the trees were stripped bare. Later we were moved up onto the mountain; that is where we lived, and often we did not even have the strength to walk down for our midday meal. If, in such cases, we did go down, we were given three days’ rations at once. We ate it all immediately – and then we went hungry again for three days.
The Americans liberated us on 13 April. At that time, 72 of us were in hospital, emaciated to skin and bone. Our liberators said they had never seen anything like what they saw with us in any other camp. If they had arrived a week later, we would all have died. The Americans took us to a sanatorium, where we recovered.
We owe our lives to Lieutenant George Friedmann, who served in the 6th Division. Through his selfless kindness he saved us; we shall remember his name for ever.
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I worked as a seamstress in a house protected by the International Red Cross. In the building at Sütő utca 2 we sewed military uniforms. The Arrow Cross harassed us constantly, and in the end they took us on 29 November to the brickworks in Óbuda. On 1 December we were then loaded into railway wagons at Józsefváros station. Seventy-five people were crammed into one wagon. There was no shortage of food on the way, because we were allowed to take some with us; only the lack of water caused us unspeakable suffering.
We were on the journey for a week and travelled only at night. During the day the wagons were shunted onto sidings; I believe this was done so that the civilian population would not see us. In Ravensbrück, after our arrival, everything we had was taken away from us. In the bitterest cold we had to freeze in summer clothing in open tents. The groundwater rose high, and we lay in water and in mud. The food was inedible.
After a week they put up beds along one side of the tent; now we suffered not only from the groundwater but – when there was a thaw – also from rain and snow pouring in from above. Very many fell ill; diarrhoea in particular was common. We were not allowed to go to the lavatory; we had to relieve ourselves inside. There were no washing facilities and no drinking water at all. We spent six weeks there in dreadful conditions.
At dawn we stood at roll call for three to four hours. Afterwards we were driven out to forced labour that had no purpose – except to torment us. For example, we carried sand back and forth; we were not allowed to stop, because they constantly beat and kicked us. There was also an SS man there who continually set his dog on us.
At the beginning of January, I was sent with a transport to Penig. The journey was terrible: we were transported in completely open wagons filled with snow and ice. Many fell ill before we arrived after four days of travel. In Penig we were received fairly well at first. Later, however, it became clear that this was only hypocrisy, for a week later everything changed completely: both the rations and the treatment became as bad as they could possibly be.
Every day we had to walk 8 km to our workplace. One can imagine what a women’s labour camp looked like when there was no water and no water pipes at all. In winter we warmed snow and washed with it. We could heat the barracks only if we stole wood and coal. Of course, very many became infested with lice. We often had to report for roll call. If we had the night shift, we stood at roll call all day, so that we could not sleep, and everyone nearly collapsed from exhaustion.
As the Americans drew nearer, 600 of us set off under SS escort, without any destination. We marched from half past three in the afternoon until three o’clock at night. We were not allowed to sit down even for a minute. I was with my sister, and we could scarcely go on. At three o’clock in the morning, we decided to escape. Completely exhausted, we sat down by the roadside, and in the morning, when it became light, we looked for a bombed-out house. We hid there.
We lived like this for three weeks, moving from one bombed-out house to the next. Everywhere we were afraid of being discovered. We ate potatoes raw, because there was no possibility of cooking. Naturally we wasted away. Finally, we fled through the front line to the Americans.
We lived in Zwickau for five weeks. Afterwards we went to the American Jewish camp in Waldenburg. There we were provided with everything that could be imagined, and we were fully clothed.
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I had been living in Budapest as a piano teacher, with a livelihood of my own. From 1 July 1944 my husband and I worked in an armaments factory in Prátergasse. On 1 December the Arrow Cross took us away together with the entire workforce and marched us to Teleki Square, where we were made to clean and tidy Jewish flats.
That same evening, we were loaded into wagons at Józsefváros station – 60 to 70 people per wagon, with no drinking water and no food. Hungarian guards gave us a little bread on the way. Only after Hegyeshalom, in Zurndorf, did we receive bread, margarine and a little cheese. With these provisions we travelled for eight days to Ravensbrück.
There we were treated very badly. With our transport more than 2,000 Hungarian women arrived. After the bath they took everything from us and put us into little summer knickers. We all slept in a tent on wet stones – without latrines. We spent five weeks like that.
We were beaten severely – an SS woman had a leather strap with which she struck us. Blood often flowed. Those of us over forty were not sent out to work, but later received three-tier wooden bunks. Later Polish women and others from Auschwitz were brought in. Three or four of us lay on one straw mattress and had to stay in bed all day. In the darkness of the tent that was a punishment. Anyone who wanted to go outside was beaten at once. The younger women had to shovel sand in the bitterest cold.
We received 330 grams of bread, turnip soup at midday and watery soup in the evening – often unsalted and inedible. During four-hour roll calls many people’s feet froze; I am missing half a toe on each foot.
From Ravensbrück we were transported to Penig – a journey of four days, 50 people per wagon, in summer dresses on ice, with hardly any room to sit or any blankets. The travel ration consisted of 100 grams of margarine, 100 grams of spreadable sausage and three-quarters of a kilo of bread.
In Penig I lay in the sickbay the whole time because of my frostbitten feet – severe pain, no medicines. Bandages could not be changed in time for lack of supplies, so my feet worsened. Many died of typhus, diarrhoea, and diphtheria. We were all lousy, with suppurating wounds on our bodies, the young women disfigured. Pus seeped through the dressing paper. A dentist looked after us with the best of intentions, but without medical equipment or specialist knowledge.
The others worked in a munitions factory. The six-kilometre route to work had to be covered even in the deepest snow. The camp shoes rubbed their feet raw – many developed thromboses. In the factory they worked with harmful dyes that led to blood poisoning, often fatal. Because of bromide in the food our monthly bleeding stopped; tumours and water retention developed – some died of it.
Roll call here lasted at most an hour. Once our clothes were disinfected. The light and water supply often failed. Work was carried out in three shifts. Even in heavy rain the night shift had to march out – anyone who did not walk fast enough was beaten.
On 15 April SS women suddenly appeared in civilian clothes and took the healthy away. Some of the sick were loaded onto carts used to transport food. The seriously ill – we were forty people, including me – were left behind. Thirty did not want to face the march and hid for fear of being shot. Twenty-four Italian prisoners of war also remained in the camp – they were very good to us. We were left entirely without food.
The Italians gathered edible plants and cooked them for us. Thirty healthy girls who had been left behind went into the village and bartered food for blankets – but they gave us none of it. We sick had no doctor, no medicine. One dead woman lay among us for two days.
During air raids the ground shook and window panes shattered – but nothing happened to us. On 15 April we suddenly heard tanks – they were the Americans! Such clean, friendly people! They threw us tins, chocolate and cigarettes from their vehicles, photographed the camp and me as well – my dead toes and everyone’s symptoms were documented. In the evening a vehicle arrived with tins of milk.
On 17 April, at the initiative of the Italian prisoners of war, Red Cross vehicles arrived and took us – seventy people – to a sanatorium in the forest, originally intended for German air-force officers. There we had an excellent chief physician and fairy-tale nourishment. Breakfast: two eggs, bread, butter, semolina or rice gruel, half to three-quarters of a litre of coffee or cocoa, and for two weeks daily fresh oranges or grapefruit and blackcurrant juice. Three times a day we were given vitamins and ‘mountain sun’ therapy. We lay outside in the forest on freshly made beds, had deckchairs, could bathe daily – always warm water – and were cared for in every way. Two doctors, a dentist and nine nurses looked after us. A captain was in charge, who supplied us every day with cigarettes, chocolate, sugar, pastries, and biscuits.
At first many of us became ill from the good food and vomited. Despite the care, five could not be saved; four gravely ill women ultimately had to be left behind. Those with lung disease were treated with oxygen. At midday there was tinned meat, stewed fruit, raspberry or lemon juice, mild wine (‘children’s wine’), Russian tea, milk, or cocoa – and bread and butter three times a day. Later we were given strawberry ice cream with milk. For supper, for example: a quarter of a kilo of tinned meat, 250 grams of Emmentaler cheese, butter, bread, stewed fruit. Before going to sleep another half-litre of milk or cocoa.
On Friday evenings candles were lit, a minyan formed and we prayed together. Each person received a soldiers’ prayer book (English-Hebrew) and a Jewish calendar. To give me pleasure, they brought me a piano from the neighbourhood – there was dancing, singing, and playing. One day, at our request, a military band even played the Blue Danube Waltz – I was born in Vienna.
I was X-rayed three times; blood tests and cardiograms were done. Despite all the nursing care I was very weakened by the long exhaustion. But I was discharged in improved condition. The diagnosis was pleurisy and pneumonia with effusion. For neuritis in my hand, I was given vitamin B and nicotine injections.
I am now alone and waiting for my husband, who was also taken away.
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I was working in Budapest in an armaments plant when one day - around the beginning of December of the previous year (probably 1944) - early in the morning officials called us into the courtyard and took us directly to the brick factory in Buda. We were allowed to take clothing and food with us. In the brick factory we did not have to work; we received no food there, only what we had brought ourselves.
The ghetto was sealed off by the police; very many people were crammed together; no one had space - people took turns sitting and standing. Some managed to escape. We were in the ghetto for three days. One day we were suddenly loaded into railway cars; we were allowed to take our luggage with us.
About 80 people were packed into one car. We suffered terribly from thirst, because we could not obtain water. There was also no toilet facility. Sadly there were many deaths as well, especially among the elderly and the weakest.
At Hegyeshalom German SS units took charge of us; there we received a little soup. We had to get out of the cars and were counted; during this the SS soldiers treated us very roughly. It happened that someone could get out because they could not go on - but if they were not fast enough, they were beaten. During the day the train stood still; the journey continued only at night.
After eight days of travel we arrived in Ravensbrück. At night, when we got out, a German SS unit stood as a cordon with fixed bayonets. When disembarking we had to carry the corpses lying in the car into the camp ourselves. At the same time, people who were completely exhausted collapsed; they were left where they fell.
In front of the camp gate the SS counted us again and took us into muddy tents. In one such tent about 2,800 people were accommodated in an unimaginable manner. We could not sit, only stand - and we remained in that dreadful situation for five days. Divided into groups, delousing/disinfection was carried out; during it they took away our clothing and all valuables we had with us. For everything they issued a receipt/inventory. Some also had their hair cut off, though not all. Instead of our own things we were given rags described as “clothing”; they let us keep our shoes.
One night SS women guards suddenly appeared and began to beat us one after another, claiming we had hidden underwear. I remember that on that occasion one of my companions went out of her mind from fright; she was shot on the spot.
The food was very poor and little: in the morning half a deciliter of “black” coffee, at midday some greenish watery broth, in the evening about 100 grams of bread and some fat with it. The work consisted of shovelling sand or pushing a wheelbarrow from one place to another - a completely pointless job. The treatment was very brutal; partly because of that, and partly because of total exhaustion, within three weeks about 700 people perished. Roll call began at 3 a.m., and for hours we were counted - standing motionless. Work lasted from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m.
I was in Ravensbrück for three weeks; from there I was sent with a transport - about 700 of us - to Penig. In the railway car the snow lay knee-deep; about 140 people were packed together in an unimaginable way, and in our thin clothing and short little coats we froze terribly. Some had no coat at all, only a single thin dress. For the journey we received a little bread and some fat. After four days of travel, we arrived in Penig, where I worked in a munitions factory; there were about 300 of us. Work was in three shifts: 6 a.m.–2 p.m., 2 p.m.–10 p.m., and 10 p.m.–6 a.m. The work was under the supervision of SS women guards and soldiers; we were treated very strictly. The walk to the factory was 7 km, and because the rations were so poor, many collapsed from exhaustion even during work. Such people were beaten or had their hair cut off.
Around 13 April, when the Russian troops were approaching, we were set marching on foot. Before we set off, we still had to bury the dead ourselves, level the graves, and cover them with straw. I remember that about 40 people remained behind, sick in the infirmary; what happened to them, I do not know.
We suffered greatly on the march as well. They constantly drove us on, especially because the American troops were also approaching and pursued us with aircraft. When the SS men and women saw that, they sought cover among our ranks; the soldiers hid their weapons under their coats. We covered about 25 km when 70 of us fell behind because we were too weak to continue. We reached a field where we lay down. The next day we were given shelter in private houses and barns. That same evening a German policeman appeared who wanted to take us to a camp in Chemnitz. When he saw how exhausted we were - many were already collapsing from hunger and exhaustion - he left us behind in the forest.
For about ten days we hid in houses, forests, barns, and in the open air until we heard that nearby, in a village called Borna, there was a camp. We went there; we were put into barracks, where most of the prisoners were “Aryan”. After about eight days there, one night a German policeman appeared and we had to walk on again, about 4–5 km. In this way we reached Chemnitz again. We spent one night there, and then they wanted to move us onward again. With difficulty, however, we managed to escape from the camp - we were perhaps 20. We walked about 30 km and reached Herrenhaide, where American troops were already present; they took us over - this was on 30 April.
The Americans brought us to Cossen, where the Russian military took over. With their help we reached Pest again - via Pilsen, Prague, and Pressburg (Bratislava).
I have no plans for the future yet; everything depends on whom I will still find at home among my relatives.
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I lived with my parents; we had to struggle quite hard to make a living. On 10 November 1944 I was taken, together with my parents, into the ghetto. We were dragged out of our flat; when we were brought back, we found it already completely plundered and empty.
A few days later we were taken out of the ghetto again, on foot. On the way we were given nothing to eat; we were terribly hungry. Without any equipment we were marched to the brickworks. As far as Hegyeshalom we marched on foot, about 35-40 kilometres a day. Our provisions: twice a day we received soup and a little bread. We could not endure the marching; we collapsed along the way, but the Arrow Cross beat us until we either went on or were left lying there. Very many of my fellow sufferers died on the way, including many people I knew. They fell by the roadside; the Arrow Cross still beat them indiscriminately to make them continue walking. And as if that were not enough, an epidemic of dysentery and typhus broke out along the way.
At Hegyeshalom SS units took over; there they crammed us into goods wagons. Seventy-five of us were squeezed into one wagon, and we remained like that for two weeks, until we were finally set in motion. We lay on top of one another in the wagon; there were many sick, and the typhus epidemic accompanied us here as well. We had no water, and during the entire journey we were given food only twice. The journey to Ravensbrück took two weeks until we finally arrived; there we were placed in quarantine.
We were taken to the baths, our heads were shaved, and we were given a summer dress and only a single piece of underwear. For two weeks we slept on the floor; only after that did we receive beds. We did not have to work; instead, we were constantly made to stand at roll call – often this standing about lasted as long as five hours. Here too we were constantly beaten. The rations were very poor: soup, a bread ration of 10 decagrams, black coffee, and in addition 2 decagrams of margarine or sausage. Often, we witnessed people being taken to the crematorium – living people.
My suffering in Ravensbrück lasted two months, until the beginning of February. From there, after a selection, 700 people were sent to Penig. We were loaded into goods wagons, 65 to a wagon. The journey was, in the circumstances, fairly decent; the provisions during the week-long journey were also satisfactory.
When we arrived in Penig we were housed in a factory; there we experienced a pleasant surprise: we could finally sit at a table, and we were also given food. Three kilometres from Penig there was a camp; from there we later went to the factory to work. The camp was fairly orderly: we slept in separate beds, and we even had blankets. From the camp we went to the factory; we worked twelve hours a day, alternating day and night shifts. The SS women treated us very badly; they beat us for no reason at all. Each day we walked six kilometres there and back. Towards the end we were already so hungry that we picked potato peelings out of the rubbish.
From Penig we were driven away in front of the American troops – one hour before their arrival. Day and night we marched ahead of the Americans. I could no longer bear the march; on the way I became ill; they simply threw me onto the roadside and left me there. When I came to myself again it was already completely dark, and I lay there alone, helpless.
Near Chemnitz I was found by a kind-hearted Austrian family; they took me in and gave me food and shelter. When a German soldier appeared, they told him I would be dead within an hour anyway, so it was no longer worth the trouble. They kept me with them for a time, and afterwards handed me over to the French camp. There I was given a bath, clothed, and served the finest foods; but after the long starvation my stomach could not tolerate the food, and I became very ill. Between life and death, I was taken to the hospital in Zwickau.
The doctors had already given up on me, but God was with me and helped me home. When I had regained enough strength to be able to walk a little, I set off for home with a Czech transport: by coach as far as Karlovy Vary (Karlsbad), then by train via Prague and Pressburg (Bratislava). Along the way the Czech people provided me with all manner of good things; I can remember them only with gratitude.
Plans for the future: when I came home, I found no one here anymore; my parents were taken away from the ghetto, and I also know nothing about my brother. Now I am trying to work; perhaps it will succeed.
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We lived in the protected house at Tátra Street 14. One day the Arrow Cross came in and took us to the brickworks in Óbuda. From there we were taken to Józsefváros station, where we were loaded into railway wagons.
We arrived in Ravensbrück, where SS female guards were waiting for us. Our clothes were taken away and we were given rags; I, for example, received a little pyjama jacket. I was wearing this jacket in December. We lived in open tents. My work was very hard: shovelling, pushing tip-wagons and using a wheelbarrow. We were terribly hungry. There were very many deaths; most died of diarrhoea.
From Ravensbrück I was sent with a work transport to Penig. It was the worst labour camp. Every day we had to walk 8 km on foot to the workplace, where we did eight hours of hard labour. Night shifts and day shifts alternated. I worked at a turret lathe.
Our daily food consisted of 10 decagrams of bread, one spoonful of beet syrup, and 1 decagram of margarine.
Immediately before liberation I was so hungry that, wearing the clothing marked with a cross, I went out into the village and obtained food from the villagers. That would have brought a severe punishment, but it did not come to that, because the next day the Americans arrived and liberated us.
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I was working in an armaments factory; from there I was taken away by the Arrow Cross on 1 December 1944. At Józsefváros station we were loaded into wagons and taken to Zurndorf. There the Germans took charge of us, counted us, and made us change into passenger trains. In this way we were brought to Ravensbrück.
In Ravensbrück we spent six weeks. We had to shovel sand and lived in tents. It was freezing cold and we had no warm clothing at all, as everything had been taken from us. The food was comparatively sufficient. There was no possibility of washing, no water – in the mornings we washed ourselves with the black coffee.
After six weeks I was sent with a transport to Penig. It was a labour camp. The rations there were already worse. I worked in an aircraft factory and had to stand at the machine all day. We walked a total of six kilometres each day to and from the workplace. The overseers were SS women and men who beat us for no apparent reason – simply on a whim, for their own amusement.
Washing facilities were only set up in the last two weeks; by then we were all infested with lice. Many fell ill; typhus broke out. In the sickbay the patients were treated by a Jewish doctor, and they were relatively well cared for there.
On 13 April the camp fled before the advancing Americans. On the way I fell behind and reached a small village, where I was liberated by the Americans.
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On 2 December 1944 we were taken by the Arrow Cross from the protected house in Pápa and brought to Klauzál Square. There we were handed over to the police, who took us to the building at 10 Teleki Square. The women were separated from the men and driven straight to Józsefváros railway station. There were 70 of us in one railway wagon. While we were still in Pest, we were given, for the entire wagon, three loaves of bread and one tin of vitamin preserves. We stopped in Győr and, under gendarmerie supervision, were allowed to relieve ourselves. The next stop was Hegyeshalom, where we were given pea soup. They took us out of the wagons, counted us, and we got back in.
At the border in Zurndorf we were taken over by the Germans, who made us change into ordinary passenger carriages. Each person received one kilogram of bread and five decagrams of margarine. Via Prague, Vienna and Berlin we reached Ravensbrück. There, 2,000 women were housed. We lived in large tents that were full of filth and mud – even the lavatory was inside the tent. The most dreadful thing was that there was no water. Within ten days, thirty women went mad. We could not even sit down, but had to stand all day. The only food we were given was refuse.
After ten days the tents were cleaned and beds were set up. Then a kind of rationing began: black coffee in the morning, some watery vegetable dish at midday, and soup in the evening – all inedible. There was no possibility of personal hygiene, not even drinking water. For no reason at all we were beaten by the women police. The SS drove us to work – it was typical forced labour. On one side of the hill we pulled things down; on the other we built them up – and the next day the whole thing was reversed. We were woken at 3.30 a.m. Even in the bitterest cold we stood for three to four hours at roll call, in light summer clothing.
In mid-January we were loaded into wagons again. For the journey we were given 75 decagrams of bread and 10 decagrams of liver sausage. We travelled for three days in wagons with icicles hanging inside. Many fell ill with colds, pneumonia, bladder and kidney infections, and especially with diarrhoea.
In Penig the reception was, at first, quite orderly. We hoped that, comparatively speaking, we would be better off there. We received soup in a tin bowl, and even spoons were issued – for us that meant great good fortune. Every day we had to walk 8 kilometres between the camp and the workplace. Although we were utterly exhausted, we still had to attend roll call here as well. We were given wooden-soled shoes, which were worn out after a fortnight on everyone.
There were many cases of frostbite on our feet. On the way to work we were beaten. After the first week the rations became catastrophic: at midday, two decilitres of watery beet soup. The SS women and German foremen drove us on relentlessly.
On 13 April, 65 seriously ill women and five who were still more or less fit for work – including us – were left behind in the camp on our own, without any provisions whatsoever. It was planned to shoot us all. But the Oberscharführer refused and disappeared with the others. We were left entirely to ourselves. We found potato peelings, from which we cooked soup. Until the Americans arrived, we managed to obtain some food from the potato fields.
On 15 April we were finally liberated by American troops. We were taken to a sanatorium in Altenburg. The commandant, Lieutenant George Friedman, was so kind to the seventy women that we shall never forget him. Day and night he fought for us, and it is thanks to his selfless efforts that most of us survived.
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My mother and I went to a house of the Swedish Red Cross to escape the atrocities of the Arrow Cross. Unfortunately, however, it was impossible to escape them. They came into the protected house, selected people as they pleased, and took them away. There were people like me who were taken to Germany; there were those who were brought into the ghetto; and there were also those from whom no news ever arrived again. These people were taken at night by the Arrow Cross to the bank of the Danube, shot, and thrown into the Danube.
I and those who were assigned to a group together with me were taken to the brickyard, and from there the next day to Józsefváros railway station. We travelled for ten days in a locked railcar. Along the way they did not give us food even once. Above all we begged for water, because we still had some food from home. When the train stood somewhere for a long time, peasants came up and -against payment - gave us a glass of water each.
We arrived in Ravensbrück. It is an enormous camp; there were at least 3,000 people there. As soon as we arrived, they stripped us, bathed us, took away our clothing and all our belongings, and gave us striped prisoner clothing. The camp was so overcrowded that for eight days we lay on the floor in the barracks. Every day we were awakened at 4 o’clock, and then we stood for roll call. The SS beat us.
Our food was as follows: in the morning and in the evening half a litre of “black” (a coffee substitute); at midday, turnip soup, and a small piece of bread. I was starving there and was glad when I was assigned to a transport and, after six weeks, taken to Penig. After a three-day journey we arrived in Penig. It was a smaller labour camp. I worked in an ammunition factory. The factory was 4 km from the camp. We had to walk this distance twice every day. We worked eight hours daily, standing at the machines. The female guards beat us.
Our food consisted once a day of half a litre of turnip soup and 12 dkg of bread (about 120 g). I was already very weak and ill. When I reported to the guard that I was sick, she said - because there were too few workers - that I was not sick, and she lashed me with her whip. She did this repeatedly, and to others.
Because of the wounds and the lack of vitamins, my injuries became infected and oozed pus, and yet I still had to lie there. Meanwhile the front drew nearer, and the entire camp was evacuated. Only 70 bedridden sick people were left behind there, and an order was issued to shoot us with a machine gun. The SS did not carry out this order, however; they fled as well - and they took all the food with them too, so that for three days we ate leaves. When the Americans entered, we could hardly walk from weakness.
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