Livia Katan

"I pray to G-d that they should never know about what we went through and that they should always live in peace. They never should forget the Holocaust, the six million people who perished. I was in Auschwitz for three years. The number on my arm was 119887."

Name at birth

Livia (Lilly) Lustig, in Yiddish, Liebe Rochel (Dearest Rachel)

Date of birth

09/02/1923

Where were you born?

Mukacevo, Czechoslovakia

Where did you grow up?

Nyirbator, Hungary

Name of father, occupation

Shimon Lustig, Yarn and millinery store.

Maiden name of mother, occupation

Malka Fried Lustig, Worked in store, Homemaker.

Immediate family (names, birth order)

Parents and two daughter: sister Hinda Hermine Gruber and me

How many in entire extended family?

In the 80’s. My father had four sisters and seven brothers. My mother had one brother and one sister.

Who survived the Holocaust?

Ten cousins, my sister, and I. I am now the only one alive.

Katan was born in Mukachevo, Hungary, in 1923. Although she had only one sister, Katan’s extended family totalled more than ninety-two members. Only nine survived the Holocaust.

Her father owned a store that sold yarn. The family had a German maid who became a trusted member of the community. When Katan’s family was first confined to the town ghetto, the maid brought them food. The Katan family, as well as several other members of the community, signed their property over to the maid for safe keeping. After they returned, however, to collect this property she pretended not to know them.

After sleeping on the floor in a ghetto for six weeks, she and her family were deported to Auschwitz. In the cattle car that took the family to Auschwitz, Katan’s parents died.

Katan cries while telling many heart-wrenching stories about her experiences in the camps. She was selected for work camps. Her work often consisted of cutting down trees and piling bags of cement onto railroad cars. The work was too difficult and when she collapsed from fatigue, the SS guards would kick her. She recalls getting up at 3:00 a.m and taking part in roll call with 30,000 other prisoners. After roll call (at about 5:30 a.m.) Katan was forced to walk one and a half hours to work.

Katan tried several times to throw herself on the electrified fences, but each time was stopped. Her sister’s persistence kept Katan alive. On the death march back to Germany, after walking for two days, Katan attempted to lie down but her sister forced her to continue. Suddenly, the German soldiers disappeared and they were liberated by the Russians. At the time of liberation, Katan weighed fifty pounds. She met her future husband, another survivor, in a displaced persons camp.

In May 1944, I was in the ghetto in Simapusta. When the Germans came to Nyirbator on the last day of Passover, I remembered that my father had his talis (prayer shawl) in one hand and with his other hand, he squeezed my hand and said, “Don’t worry, G-d will be with us.”

I met my husband in Slutsk labor camp. He was from Salonika, Greece and was in Auschwitz for three years.

Name of Ghetto(s)

Simapusta

Name of Concentration / Labor Camp(s)

Auschwitz Birkenau / Chernowitz / Czestochowa / Slutsk

Where did you settle?

Indianapolis, Indiana and then Detroit, Michigan

When and where were you married?

Budapest, Hungary

Spouse

Yeshua Katan., Worked as a distributor for Handleman Music in Detroit.

Children

Twins, Albert (Avraham) and Sandor (Shimon).

Grandchildren

Four: one set of twins, Brian and Kevin; Daniel; and Tracy.

What do you think helped you to survive?

I didn’t want to survive, my sister encouraged me. My husband would tell me that he loved me and would sing beautiful Spanish songs.

What message would you like to leave for future generations?

I pray to G-d that they should never know about what we went through and that they should always live in peace. They never should forget the Holocaust, the six million people who perished. I was in Auschwitz for three years. The number on my arm was 119887.