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The person in question has given us the following information: I started my labour service in the middle of April 1942 in Szepsi, in labour service company no. 108/20. On May 7 we were shifted to Ukraine. Lieutenant Barna Almásy was the commander of the company. He treated us very badly. He had 15-20 men trussed up every Sunday without any reason. He was lashing us with his own hands. When we were in Nezim, he sent the intellectuals into the minefields. Thus he managed to kill all the intellectuals. He delivered speeches to us about the rising star of the Hungarian nation and the falling star of the Jews. He planed to kill all Jews and he did everything is his capacity to achieve this goal. He ordered us to bathe in the Dnester five times a day. Of course, many comrades got pneumonia and some of them died. He made us sing antisemitic songs and if our singing did not please him, he threw us off the Dnester bridge. We were not even allowed to look up for a minute during work. He tied a brick on the shovel of many boys to make work even harder. While on the way from work to home he made us do push-ups all the time. The food was distributed at the hottest spot of the camp and we had to gulp it at five draughts while he was counting to five. Water was distributed the same way. Later we got a new commander, who brought the company home. Thirty-three comrades died due to Almásy’s bad treatment. On March 19 the Germans occupied Hungary. Soon we were taken to the ghetto. It was awfully crowded. Food was tolerable here, since we ate what we had brought from home. We were deported with the first transport. It consisted of 3000-3500 people. Eighty-five to ninety-five persons were crammed into a cattle car. All of our things were confiscated: food, clothing, not even a slip of paper could remain. It was impossible to escape from the cattle cars: they were sealed and the guarded very strictly. Arriving in Auschwitz, I was separated from family: my wife and my three children. I never saw my wife again. In Auschwitz our transport was the first to be taken to a work camp. We were taken to Erlenbusch by train. Six hundred Hungarian Jews were working here. The work was very hard. We built railway lines and fortifications for 14-16 hours a day, often at nights too; e. g., when trainloads of cement came, we had to unload it immediately. After our arrival we stayed in tents and in the winter we were accommodated in barracks. Our food supply was bad and scarce. Mainly soup made out of dried vegetables was distributed. The treatment was cruel. Due to starvation and hard work many people died. The sick were taken to other camps; we do not know what happened to them. Our group had decreased to 250 men by February 15. We were marched off to Flossenbürg. Our death march commenced: everybody got one loaf of bread. At some places we got potatoes or a cup of black coffee. In Trattenau we were entrained together with other transports. Ninety-five to one hundred twenty persons were crammed into a freight car. By the time we arrived in Flossenbürg many people had died; we had to load the corpses off the car. Thirty percent of them died of hunger on the way. In Flossenbürg we were accommodated in a barrack where the Blockältester killed more than one man a day with his whip. We did not work, but we were tortured. The whole day we stood in the cold; people collapsed from exhaustion and they were terribly beaten up. Many died. Fifty of us slept on each bunk. When food was distributed, we were so much beaten that we could not swallow a bite. From here we had to go through another death march to Krahwinkel. We performed hard labour: we built railway lines. In the evening some soup was distributed. The treatment was cruel; many people died due to hunger and exhaustion. When the Americans approached, we left for Buchenwald. We got a loaf of bread for the march. We were driven on night and day. Those incapable of keeping up with the pace were shot down. In Buchenwald we did not get food three days. We were forced to march again without food. We had many casualties. We were taken to Flossenbürg where we spent one and a half days. We were entrained and taken to Zeiss. On the way we were hit by heavy shellfire; many died again. In Schwarzenfeld we were attacked again. We were assigned to groups of 200. We spent two days in open freight cars. The weak were singled out; we do not know what happened to them. We carried on night and day. All we got were a few pieces of potatoes. We spent the night in the woods. By the time we were liberated on April 23 in a barn in Wetterfeld, we were completely exhausted and weary. We have been well off ever since. I came home. I could not find my family and I do not know what I will do.

Labour Service