Protocol Nr. 3593

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Name: G. E.
Gender: female
Place of birth: Bögöte
Date of birth: 1921
Place of residence: Kispest
Occupation: angora breeder
Concentration: yellow star house, 26 Szigliget Street, Kispest
Camps: Auschwitz, Stutthof, Argenau, Thorne, Krone


The person in question has given us the following information: Antisemitism was intense in Kispest already before the German occupation. Jews were rejected in all areas of life; they could get no jobs. People boycotted Jewish shops, whereas Christian shops hung outside a note: "Christian Hungarian shop.” "The Jews are the slayers of the Hungarian race!" People were incited against Jews all the time. Germans entered the country in March, 1944, and the Christian community of Kispest was very glad. Later, they better understood what it was about. Our family had no personal enemies among Christians. We had to put on the yellow star the 5th of April. Now, they spit in front of us in the street and cried: "Shame on the Jews!" We had to tolerate everything as we saw no chance for a positive turn in our fate. I also expected deportation, having drawn the conclusions from the Polish case. But I did not even dare to carry our belongings to some place as I was so worried to unsettle my sick parents. Police superintendent Berti was the greatest antisemite. He did damage to Jews whatever way he could. The 30th of May, we moved into starred houses. These buildings did not form a unit but were spread around town. Several Jewish families were moved together into Jewish flats. We could take anything that had fitted into the new flat. The ghetto belonged to the authority of the Council of Five. We lived with two Jewish families in a flat. Life was tolerable till the time we could go out to do shopping. Housekeeping was not common; each family cooked on its own account. The most terrible was to listen to rumours. Everyday there was a new one: we were going to be taken away, we were going to be fetched by night, etc. Police rang the bell every minute; we had to list the inhabitants of the building always in 3-4-5 copies. This was a nerve-wracking situation, we could not tell what the day after would bring. By June the 29th, I was summoned to do labour service in the Weiss Manfréd factory. I stayed here only five days. We lived in a cheap temporary air raid shelter with damp walls and we believed it could not be worse than that. In the morning we went to work by machines but stayed more in the cellar as the English frequently bombed the plant. We Jews did not have a proper air raid shelter, we could not enter the bunkers built for the rest of the workers, we were treated separately. Later, we cleared ruins. None of the Jews died during air attacks. We did well at our job, we went to the top of the factory (half of which was already burnt down) to bring down burnt beams. Tuesday afternoon we got an order. Gendarmes invaded the plant that was loud from people’s agitation: they did not let us move. We gave our money and gold to the remaining labour servicemen, I gave them my ring; then we packed. We wanted that at least them to own something. They took us into the school of Csepel where midwives searched us and took whatever they liked. What hurt me the most was when they took my silver Star of David. This was the worst minute of my life when a Hungarian soldier seized my prayer book that contained the photos of my dear parents and of my fiancé and it fell into thousands of pieces after a kick. They took everything that was dear to me. It was of course his personal initiative. After a long walk – every second person was escorted by a gendarme – we arrived to the port. It was freezing cold, everyone put on 2-3 layers of clothes. The gossip spread on the ship that we could only keep what we had on our bodies. They transported us to Budakalász. We passed one and a half days here lying on piles of coal in the open. We cut our hair not to have lice. There was a communal kitchen, bad and dirty, but I avoided it as I still had some food taken from home. Deportation is the worst thing ever. We were transported on an extremely long train, 70 of us in a car. When we got to Kassa, Hungarian soldiers jumped in and told us that the SS was going to take charge of us. We were to give them our valuables if we did not want to get a bullet in the head. Many gave what they could, but I had a friend who had a gold watch and a diamond in the heel of her shoes and she preferred to walk barefoot not to wear off the sole but brought back home the valuables she had. We arrived in Auschwitz Sunday morning. I ended up in the 25th block of Camp C. There were 1,200 of us in a space that was not enough for the quarter of us. We hardly had any food, only some tea or coffee. We lined up for roll call at 2 am or whenever they liked. If someone was missing the whole camp had to stay on their knees. We had to stay there in rain, in wind; there was no mercy. We stayed here around five weeks when I came to Stutthof with a transport of labourers. This was a place for selection. We were taken to Argenau from here. We lived in the middle of a forest, in a circular tent made of plywood; the whole building was like a box of matches. We lived here in freezing cold in the worst part of snowy winter. We had no beds; we slept on rotten straw. We had little food, some coffee in the morning and a potato soup made without fat and salt in the afternoon. We divided a loaf of bread between 3 or 4 of us, once a week we got some cheese, and 15 grams of margarine five times a week. We did not eat it but prepared candles of it not to go to bed in the dark as we had no lamps either. We went to work from here, and often walked so far that by the time we got to the workplace we were already tired. We came back in the evening in darkness so deep that we could not see each other. We dug ditches for cables and anti-tank ditches and carried cables. It was awfully hard work. We worked like galley slaves. I wore all the winter boots with wooden soles, my toes were out as the boots were small and narrow and I cut their toes with the spade. This was how I walked in the snow all winter. They took us from here to Thorn, where the situation was the same as in Argenau. They transported the same tents and we went on staying in them. The work was similar and the same SS tortured us. If someone stole a piece of potato or a carrot they were ready to beat her half dead. On the approach of the Russians they took us away from Thorn. Before we set off they asked who could not walk. Many stepped forward because they promised to carry these people on cars. We had to walk, while they closed those who remained in the tent and shot them. I know it from two girls who were not hit by the bullets (although one of them lost an eye) and managed to run away in the last seconds. We had already started our way across the forest. The Oberscharführer suggested to the other SS man to shoot us all so that the Russians would not capture us. Those who could not keep pace were shot. We crossed Bromberg where the SS shot us in the street one after the other. Every day we had accommodation in some place. We got one and a half loaves of bread for 5 days. At the end they lodged us in a palace from where the SS slipped away. Later, Polish civilian police took us to Crone, where we were liberated by the Russians. I came home on foot, on train, crossing ice-floes, without a coat. On the way we stole, we entered into a German house and ate everything, had a rest for a week and then we continued. When I arrived home in March I weighed 39 kilos but I had already put on some weight beforehand, now I weigh 70 kilos. My parents and my elder sister with her little child were put into the gas chambers of Auschwitz. As an old member of the Zionist Betár movement my plan is to go to Palestine. I am going to get married soon and we will go together.
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