Ilona Havas
"I hope that it never, never happens again. It’s a shame for the whole wide world that it happened. I also blame the American government because they closed their eyes. They let us go to Auschwitz and go to the gas chamber. They did not come to help us Two books have been written about many of the experiences Ilona went through, published in Hungarian: “Es nem verik felre a harangot” (They Did Not Ring the Bell) by Rab Erzseber and “Nincs Irgalon” (No Mercy) about her father’s life"
Name at birth
Ilona Fischer
Date of birth
01/01/1927
Where were you born?
Name of father, occupation
Jozsef Fischer,
Hardware store owner
Maiden name of mother, occupation
Borbalo (Esther) Szasz,
Homemaker
Immediate family (names, birth order)
Parents and three daughters: Piroska, me and Magda
How many in entire extended family?
49
Who survived the Holocaust?
Me, my father and two uncles
In April 1944, I heard on radio that all Jews were to report to the ghetto. We were surrounded by German and Hungarian Nazis. Two Hungarian Nazis came to our house to take us away to the ghetto.
While in the ghetto, they did horrible things. They rounded up women including my mother and took them to a building to look for jewelry. They took the women into rooms where with a gynecologist they would inspect the women. My sister and I went with our mother. We could hear the women screaming in pain. Afterwards, my mother said she was all right but we saw that she was not.
I was in Auschwitz from June 13, 1944 until the first day of Rosh Hashanah (Jewish new year), September 18, 1944. I remember my grandmother trying to help my great-grandmother onto the boxcar, a Nazi said this old lady’s not worth it. He took her off and shot her. Her son right away said Kaddish (memorial prayer) for her
At a stop on the way to Auschwitz, my aunt called out to civilians for water for her two small children who were crying for water. I heard the civilians say, “She has the nerve to ask for water, give her poison not water”
My older sister Piroska and I were together for two months after surviving the first Selection. Mengele separated us; I ran after Piroska and was severely beaten. I woke up the next day in my barracks with black and blue stripes from the whip and blood all over my body.
I was at Bergen-Belsen from September 1944 to December 1944, Markleberg for six or seven weeks during the winter with no coats. We dug ditches and they would hit us if we stopped for even a second. I was at an airplane factory and then was marched for sixteen days, starving and freezing and then was at Theresienstadt for two months till Liberation.
I came back to my home, no one was there. Three weeks later, my father came home.
I came back to my home, no one was there. Three weeks later, my father came home.
Name of Ghetto(s)
Name of Concentration / Labor Camp(s)
When did you come to the United States?
January 15, 1957 after the Hungarian Revolution
Spouse
Barna Groszman Havas,
A Holocaust survivor. We met in 1949 in Miskolc, Hungary. Later he was a Chrysler auto worker.
Children
Edith Rome, office worker
Grandchildren
Two: Rozzie who is an engineer and Erica who is a buyer One great-grandchild
What do you think helped you to survive?
Just to see my parents. I knew deep inside it was not going to happen, but I was hoping. How could I hope when I heard Mengele say, pointing to the crematorium, “see that door, people go in there and go out through the chimney.” To this day, I have difficulties taking showers
What message would you like to leave for future generations?
I hope that it never, never happens again. It’s a shame for the whole wide world that it happened. I also blame the American government because they closed their eyes. They let us go to Auschwitz and go to the gas chamber. They did not come to help us
Two books have been written about many of the experiences Ilona went through, published in Hungarian: “Es nem verik felre a harangot” (They Did Not Ring the Bell) by Rab Erzseber and “Nincs Irgalon” (No Mercy) about her father’s life
Experiences
Survivor's map
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