I was born in 1929 in a secular Jewish Hungarian family in Rakospalota, a suburb of Budapest, Hungary. I came from a wealthy family, I was able to study after the Numerus Clausus, Jewish quota system was passed. Following the outbreak of World War II, my family and I came under increasing persecution by the pro-Nazi Hungarian government.
In 1944, my father was sent to a labor camp while my family was forced to move into a designated Jewish area. We were deported to Auschwitz on July 7, 1944. We were put onto cattle cars, 100 in a car. We were in the train for 2 ½ days. A lot of people died.
Auschwitz was a crazy place. People were running around in funny striped uniforms. The German officers wore fancy uniforms. They had the Selection when we arrived. My mother and I went to the right; my little brother and my grandmother were sent to the left. My mother joined my little brother and grandmother where they were all immediately gassed. My brother was 11 years old, my mother was 39, and my grandmother was 67.
My uncle, cousin and I were sent to Buchenwald, then to Magdeburg where we worked in an I.G. Farben factory. There I accidently dropped a bag of concrete and as a result I was attacked by German guards and their dog.
I was transferred to Krankenstube, a camp area for the sick. I was then sent back to Buchenwald, taken to the Bergen-Belsen camp. In April 1945, I was evacuated from Bergen-Belsen, and while marching to an unknown destination, I escaped and was liberated.
I returned home and was reunited with my father, who had survived forced labor camps. Later, my father and I immigrated to the United States.
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The Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive, University of Michigan-Dearborn