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The person in question has given us the following information: I worked for the labour service company no. 101/603 in the temple of Bethlen Square but escaped because we had received the order to leave for Germany. I went into hiding in Buda in flats of people I knew using Christian documents but they were denounced for hiding Jews and detectives took away everyone they found there. I was taken into the Arrow Cross headquarters in Horthy Miklós Road, I had to answer questions, got two slaps but I insisted I was a Christian. They had a closer look at me but I lied I was half Christian, half Jew. They took me into Garrison Hadik and went on interrogating me, then they transferred me into Garrison Albrecht and took me to the Józsefváros railway station together with the others, and we set off. During this time we got food only once, then another time before departure: before they put us in freight cars they gave us a loaf of bread. We travelled for 12 days. There were 80 of us in a freight car. We arrived in Sachsenhausen the 14th of December. They seized all our belongings, disinfected us and the day after we left for Oranienburg, to the Henkel air plane factory. We had to go scurrying on the road, we ran barefoot in snow as we could not run in the wooden shoes we had received so we preferred to take them off and carry them in the hand. The first day we did not have anything to eat in Oranienburg, only the second day. Four days later, we had to carry on. We got to Ohrdruf where I could stay in the camp because of my young age. Later, I became the servant of the Lagerführer and of a Capo. My life became better. I lived in a separate block and could not complain. Around the 20th of March, I was taken to Karwinkel, where I stayed for a week. This was a bunker camp. As a camp cleaner I could stay in, which was a great luck as Kommandos had a bad reputation there. Our march started here. We walked to Buchenwald at a terrible speed. Many people died on the way as they shot those who could not walk. We stayed there for 4 days. I lived in a joiner’s workshop and again I presented myself as a Christian because I heard the cry coming from the speakers: "Sämtliche Juden antreten!" As I thought that nothing good could follow from that I joined the Christians. Four days later, we left for Flossenburg. For a day we went by train but the engine was bombed so we had to continue on foot. We stayed for a week in Flossenburg. Liberating troops were quite close. The SS ran away and we happily put on the white flag and were waiting, but the SS returned the same day and forced us to move on. We left for Dachau. The road was 320 kilometres long and we did it in 8 days. Out of 13,000 people 1,800 arrived. The people who could not walk on, who took water, who stooped down for a potato peel were shot. All the time we heard shootings behind our backs and walked trembling with terror. Many went mad; they were of course executed. The owner of a construction firm, a person called Markovits was shot for the same reason. I saw when an SS soldier shot with a pistol a boy in the eye because the poor boy jumped out of line to get to a turnip clamp. An SS soldier went to give him a blow but in the meantime another SS soldier shot at him. The shot killed the SS soldier who was rushing to the boy by accident. In revenge they poked his eye. These were not German but Hungarian or more precisely ethnic German SS men, who were always more cruel than Germans. There were young kids, Polish Gypsies one the road. They asked the Transportführer for permission to bring turnips so that they could distribute them among children. He agreed but by the time they returned another SS soldier grabbed the turnips and shot the children. We Hungarians remained always together. When we departed there were 2000 of us, and I know about 12 people who arrived. Finally, we arrived in Dachau. Directly before we arrived they gave us two kilos of bread each. We immediately started to eat it but of course no one could eat more than half a kilo. What remained was seized at the gate of the camp in Dachau. It happened in Dachau that we were not given anything to eat for three days, and when finally we received something, we got potato peels. When I entered the camp they gave me a blow with the butt on the head, and I collapsed. I was already sick and weak, and had paid great attention to behave in a way that I got no beating, because I knew that this would mean the end. They carried me into the infirmary, and it turned out that I had a temperature of 40.8 C degrees. I was still sick when Americans entered the camp. I had typhus, had pus in both legs and had diarrhoea. I weighed 29 kilos. Americans transported me into a hospital and cured me. They were very good to me. There were many Jewish and black people among them and these were the nicest to us. Later, we were transferred into St. Ottilien, into an SS hospital. Young German doctors kept treating us. They were very nice, I think they were scared of Americans and did everything they could do for us. They gave me injections and medicine as my pulse was still as high as 120-130/minute. When I recovered I returned individually. I found my older sister home. My grandmother was killed by the Arrow Cross in the hospital of Maros Street. We want to follow our mother who is in South-America.

Labour Service