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The person in question has given us the following information: I lived in Kökényes, where Zionism was strong, and this concerned also me and others. One day, our leader, a Polish engineer told us the following: "Guys, we cannot passively ignore that the Jews of the country are being extinguished. We have to start defending ourselves, and we don’t lack the money to do so. I will provide the money and the arms.” In Budapest, trough the Swiss Embassy we managed to get hold of 50,000 pengős, which was still a great amount of money, and we did the first steps on the 25th of November, 1943. We chose an adequate site to construct bunkers, and started working on them during the nights. We carried the soil we had dug out two kilometres away and threw it into the river not to leave signs of our work. We did everything in the greatest secret, not even my mother was let know about it. The bunker got ready, we put together food supplies for 7 months, and the weapons and grenades arrived. We could not get hold of the secret broadcasting station because of the rapid retreat of the Germans. At the end of April, 1944, unexpectedly we got the order: all Jews were to move into the ghetto in 2-3 days. Our project ran into difficulties. We, boys did not go into the ghetto, but were lurking in different places. I hid in a cellar together with a 20-year-old guy, and another one called Einhorn. Unknown people denounced us to the military command, claiming that Jews started to organise their resistance. We were taken by a gendarme sergeant, my partners escaped on the way to the station, where later 12 of my other companions were taken. We were trussed up for four times, and were terribly beaten either with the butt of a riffle or with other means. They kept asking us what we had done but we did not say a word. We claimed we had done nothing and we had nothing to tell, even if they were to kill us. Thence we were put into the ghetto. Tortures killed one of us, the rest of us got sick. A few of us managed to escape from the ghetto. Having a fever of 40 degrees I ran away to another village called Ubján, which lays 25 kilometres away, but the Ruthenians noticed us and reported to the gendarmes. We were captured again, searched, and they took whatever valuables they found, and put us into the ghetto of Huszt. Three days later we left for Kassa in the last transport. It took us three days to get to Auschwitz, after the usual selection I got into the group deemed for work, then was carried to Mauthausen. The next day I found myself in Gusen II. This was the worst place during all my stay in Germany. They started to build this camp not much before we got there, and only 4 blocks were ready. 3 blocks were reserved for the Jews. We got there in 3,000, therefore there were 1,000 of us in each block. The place to work was 3 kilometres away, every morning we travelled there by train, Jews in separate cars. In each car there were 200 of us, and we could occupy only half of the car, the other half was for the SS guards. When getting on we were severely beaten, dogs were stirred against us and these were biting our flesh. Each day this resulted in the death of 40-50 people. During work we could not stop for even a minute. At noon we had half an hour for lunch, while we were jostling for the food we were continuously beaten, and when finally we could start eating the break was finished and we had to start working again, most of us still hungry. When we got home in the evening, we could not enter the block unless we had washed ourselves, but there was only one bath for 4,000 people. We had to stay in queue for hours, it was already midnight when we could lie down. We were suffering and starving. All the time a lot of us died. One day, the Oberscharführer entered, who was a very nice chap, and saw how many of us were sick and in a bad condition, one had the hand broken the other the leg, and we looked terrible. He called the Lagerführer, and asked why it happened so, but he said nothing. Then he turned to us and told us that we would not be hurt any longer, and we should tell him what had happened. So we talked about the ruthless tortures. He called the Lagerführer and told him not to continue this way as Jews have the same value as workers as others. He got the people from Mauthausen, and he had to give an account of these people, and if he went on asking always for new people he would be turned down. As a result we were treated better for two weeks, but afterwards everything went the same way. I had some luck because I did not starve so much as the others, since I had a 15-year-old nephew who was the servant of the Lagerältester, and sometimes he could help me out secretly with some bread. At the end of January, we were already full of lice, civil masters were complaining that they could not go on working with us like that and that we needed to be disinfected. They started our disinfection the 25th of January, 1945. In the first block we left our cloths, and walked to the bath naked in the freezing cold of January, then we walked back to the first block for roll call. It took us an hour, in the evening we got our cloths, we had dinner and lay down. Around midnight the SS Capo came in, he inspected each of us and took out to the yard those who did not feel well after these tortures. These people had to put their head in cold water. This way we got to know a new system of dying, since this procedure had 400 victims. We left this place for Mauthausen, we stayed there for 3 days, and left for Günskirchen. Starving, we had to go on foot, those who could not keep the pace were shot. A friend of mine, who was taken from Kökényes into Poland in 1941, where he managed to stay alive, now, in the last minutes before the liberation was also shot. I felt especially sorry for him as he fought for his life so hard. One day we woke up and saw that there were no guards. A few of us went to the next village where an Austrian lady let us have a bath, gave us clean dresses, underwear, food, then we returned to the camp. Meanwhile the Americans arrived who opened the stores and provided us with everything. Next day we wanted to go to the town but the Americans did not let us because we were full of lice and sick. However I managed to get away with two of my friends and went to Hirsching. Because of eating abundantly and abruptly I lay there sick for a few weeks and even had typhus. As soon as I got better I started my way home not waiting for the transport. This travel was difficult, it led through Linz, Melk, and Wiener-Neustadt, partly on the roads, partly on foot, finishing my trip to Budapest by train. As I have no hope to find my mother and my little brothers all what I desire is to move to Palestine.

Labour Service