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The person in question has given us the following information: I joined the labour service company 109/20 in Esztergom on 5th April 1942. Out of the whole period of labour service I spent two years in Esztergom. Our commander and our guards were really excellent. They did not press for the work. We did earthwork. Our accommodation was all right and the provisions were sufficient. We were allowed to receive parcels from home. We could receive visitors and later we were even allowed to go home sometimes. The company got a new commander after two years. He was even better than the first one, and with him we went to Borszék. We spent six months there, while we were building a resort for officers. Unfortunately our commander was dismissed soon and new guards came together with the new commander. He was the most sadistic and cruel man in the world. He had partners like himself, namely Lance Sergeant Halász and Lance Corporal Pákay, whom we called “Chirping” between us. These were continuously heaping insults on us and threatening us. After six months we came to Budapest fleeing from the Russians. Then we went to Pesthidegkút where we built artillery observation posts. The Arrow Cross regime was already impending, which the above mentioned labour service guards felt in advance: they became more and more abusive and they also dared to apply violence. In the afternoon of 15th October Halász and Pákay appeared in front of us equipped with armbands with skull and crossbones on them and other symbols of the Arrow Cross and held a speech in which they threatened and terrorized us. After 10 weeks of stay they made us pack and, at the end of a fourteen-day long march, they handed us over to the Germans in Hegyeshalom, on the main road leading to Vienna. We drew rations normally on the way. Halász rounded up those men who fell behind from the preceding group and beat them up with a butt, he broke the arms and legs of one of them. We left the poor man in the hospital of Magyaróvár. At Hegyeshalom the Germans took us over according to number, from that moment we ceased to be human beings, we only appeared as numbers. From Hegyeshalom we marched lead by the Germans to Zurndorf, where we got in cattle cars. For provisions we got some bread and a little cheese for the journey. There were 80 of us in a cattle car. After two and a half days we arrived in Dachau. SS men, equipped with machine guns and weapons, had been waiting for us and they took us in the camp. The camp was enclosed by a 5-meter-high wire fence with electric cables. Inside, there were blocks. 20,000 people had lived in the camp when we arrived. There were political prisoners, convicts, immigrants from abroad and Jews. Our group consisted of 1,500 people. A ten-hour long Appell started right after our arrival, then we had to carry our luggage to the courtyard. These we never saw again. Finally we went to the baths, then we were housed in the appointed blocks. I was placed in block 3. So many people were crammed in there that three of us were thronging on one person’s place. In exchange for our equipment that they had taken away from us they gave us a shabby coat and a shabby pair of trousers. The provisions were tolerable. We had been there for five days when they announced that they would take us to a Jewish camp but they told that only those should register who felt strong enough and thought that they would survive the march, since they wanted to take us on foot. From among the 1,500 people 1,400 of us registered. We thought that we would go to a better camp, as we knew about Dachau that it had been the cemetery of 40,000 people already. We took a train to Mühldorf Waldlager, because we got the cattle cars only in the last minutes. The camp lay 6 kilometres away from the train station. This distance we had to cover in a heavy snowfall, wearing the wooden shoes we had received in Dachau. If somebody fell down, our SS friends kicked him in the stomach. In the camp they put us up in tents: with a flap of tent above us and below us the bare ground. After our arrival they took away those few and shabby pieces of clothing that we had got in Dachau. We were horrified to see the first man infested with lice. We thought, these people might not wash themselves, as this could not happen otherwise. The next day, however, we saw that there was not even drinking water available, so we could not count on bathing. Thus we slowly resigned ourselves to the inevitable, as we were not able to change our fate. Within 4-5 days we also became infested with lice, which caused the death of many of our comrades. The Hungarian soldiers who escorted us to Germany and even the Germans on the border made us believe that they were taking us to the other side of the border to dig trenches only, and we did believe them. Here we were disappointed to see that those encouragements were lies and the aim was our total annihilation. We became absolutely lethargic, we had nothing to hope for any more, so we awaited death. They took us to work right after our arrival. We worked at night; we were building an underground aeroplane factory with a roof made of concrete, which was 16 centimetres thick. We carried the cement up there in bags weighing 30 kilos each, without food or water, being cruelly chased and beaten. The work was so urgent that later we started to work 22 hours a day. A large number of my fellows collapsed dead while working, I myself lost weight until I was 45 kilos. I was not strong enough to walk when a committee appeared and formed a transport from those who were not able to work any longer. They declared candidly that the fate of these people was sealed and the unserviceable people, whom they did not need any more, they were going to execute. I already wished for death so I volunteered to this group. However, when the Lageraltester called Alfons Bauer, who was a very tender-hearted # years old Jewish prisoner got to know that I was a sportsman, what is more, a boxer, holder of the European title, he had my name deleted from the registered ones and took me to his block. He too, was a boxer, and he hoped that the war would to be over soon. He thought, on the basis of the news he read in newspapers that were smuggled in the camp sometimes, that we would pursue the sport again after the war; then we would work together and he would be my manager. From this time on, I received better provisions and I did not have to work. I lived like that for 8-10 weeks and we already relied on the forthcoming liberation when an order was delivered that the whole camp had to be packed up. There could be about 2000 people, they put us on a train and took us to Tirol, with the intention of executing us. Alfons Bauer escorted the train. He stopped the train wherever he could, and finally the train stopped at Tutzing on 3rd May. On the following day we were already in American captivity. The relief troops took us to Feldafing, from where I got home with a transport after four months. As soon as I find my family I will head back for Germany, where I have already agreed with an American man to go with him as a sportsman.

Labour Service