Elizabeth came from a very close and happy family.  She did not notice antisemitism before war started.  In 1941, the family business was confiscated by the Hungarian gendarmarie.  Parents were devastated, they did not believe this was happening.  Curfews were put into place, Jews had to wear yellow stars, non-Jewish friends started treating them poorly.  The young men in the town were taken away to labor camp. Elizabeth's 85-year-old uncle was picked up trying to get food for his grandchildren and taken away to death camp.  On April 18, 1944, the Jews in the town were all taken to the synagogue and all the women were searched for hidden jewels.  They were held there overnight and then taken to the trains and transported to a brick factory where there was no shelter, just a covered enclosure where they were kept.  Her brother was at University in Budapest and went into the underground, one brother was already taken to Theresienstadt.  They were held at the brick factory for a few weeks.  From the brick factory, they were taken in over-crowded cattle cars to Auschwitz and when they arrived, Mengele along with soldiers and dogs were standing there telling them which way to go.  That was the last time Elizabeth and Olga saw their parents who were killed on that first night there.  This was May 21, 1944.  Elizabeth and Olga were petrified realizing this was a death camp.  They were taken to a large room and told to undress and they were shaved and showered.  They could not recognize each other because their heads were all shaved.  They were all made to sit naked in a big room overnight until given uniforms the next day and taken to barracks.  They saw transports coming into the camp and taken right to the crematoria.  

On January 18, 1945 they could hear gunfire and all the prisoners were taken on a death march from Auschwitz.  The SS had guns and dogs.  They could not even stop to relieve themselves.  They were marched into Berlin to the train, cattle cars with no roof, and taken to Ravensbruck.  From there they marched to Malchow.  While marching, German children stoned them as they were walking by.  The trains were being bombed and the Germans left the trains.  Part of the train was hit but was able to make it into Leipzig.  From there, they were marched to a munitions factory where they were put to work.  The factory was bombed and the prisoners were hiding in a bunker in the basement.  Once again, they were marched but when they stopped overnight the Germans left them in a field.  They woke up and realized there were no Germans there but were afraid to move.  They finally started walking and Russian soldiers approached them and told them wait there until they came back.  They were afraid to continue so they waited.  Another Russian happened on them and told them to get to the nearby village that if the other Russian soldiers came back they would rape all the women.  They met an older Czech couple in the village who took Elizabeth and Olga in, fed them, bathed them and let them stay there.  Finally, the Czech government sent buses to pick up survivors and take them to Prague.  Walking down the street they found their Uncle and stayed with the Uncle.  Their brother eventually found them in Prague also.  

Elizabeth had distant relatives in the States and she wrote to them and they brought Elizabeth over.  Elizabeth arrived in the United States on June 24, 1946.  Ed was one of the relatives.  He and Elizabeth fell in love and eventually married.  Olga met an American soldier and married him in Germany and came over as a war bride.  She arrived in the United States in May 1946.  Louis came July 1, 1946.  Elizabeth's uncle married in Germany before he came to the United States.  

Elizabeth never spoke to her husband or children about her experience during the war.  Her children and nieces and nephews asked her to do this interview with the Shoah Foundation.  Olga has spoken to groups about their experiences during the war. 

Keep family together, accept each other.