Dezso Schonberger

Name at birth

Dezso David Schonberger

Date of birth

01/28/1910

Where were you born?

Tartoskedd, Nyitra, Czechoslovakia

Where did you grow up?

Budapest, Hungary

Name of father, occupation

Ignacz, Shoe repair shop

Maiden name of mother, occupation

Janke Laufer, Homemaker

Immediate family (names, birth order)

Parents, Tibor, Teresa, Irene and me

Who survived the Holocaust?

Teresa, Irene and me

I was in a forced labor camp and was able to escape. I went home and alerted my wife to flee from the central gathering place. I arranged to have my daughter placed in a safe house in Budapest. I returned to the labor camp to alert fellow Jews to try to escape as I had learned that deportations were coming. I was trapped when I returned to the labor camp as deportations had begun.

I worked at the infamous stone quarry at Mauthausen. I kept with me the key to my home. I told myself, I locked the door with this key and I shall open it. This helped keep me going. Indeed, after the war, I came home and opened the front door with the key.

Teresa survived in England and Irene went to Palestine in 1939.

Name of Concentration / Labor Camp(s)

Gunskirchen / Mauthausen

When and where were you married?

1935 in Budapest

Spouse

Irma Mici Singer

Children

Erika Schonberger Rovinsky