Protocol Nr. 2920
Name: M. D.
Gender: male
Place of birth: Budapest
Date of birth: 1896
Place of residence: Budapest
Occupation: mechanic
Ghetto: munkaszolgálat
Camps: Buchenwald, Tarthum, Schönebeck
Gender: male
Place of birth: Budapest
Date of birth: 1896
Place of residence: Budapest
Occupation: mechanic
Ghetto: munkaszolgálat
Camps: Buchenwald, Tarthum, Schönebeck
The person in question has given us the following information: On December 8 of last year the so-called civil company accommodated in a school building on Abonyi Street in Budapest was surrounded by the Arrow Cross. We were driven out to the street and taken to 10 Teleki Square. They had started to plunder us before our departure and finished it upon our arrival. While beating us, they took away everything, even our underwear and coats. We spent three days there before we were entrained at the Józsefváros railway station. Eighty-four of us were crammed into one freight car and four of us were women. The journey lasted for 18 days, but we got only 1.7 kilograms of bread and a few dekagrams of cold cuts as provisions. In some places along the way Czech civilians threw some food into the car for us. It is indescribable how much we suffered from starvation and thirst. My nerves broke down and I unconsciously rolled about in agony. I did not even have a place to sit, so we were standing all the way in the crowded car. We arrived in Buchenwald on Christmas Eve. The dead bodies were taken off the car one by one. Following the routine procedure of having a bath and being disinfected and shaved we were deprived of our last belongings we had preserved. We got nothing but a set of clothes, more precisely rags and then finally we got into a tent at 4 in the morning. Meanwhile they were beating us with clubs. We were lying in there like herrings in a barrel. Our work was carrying timber, shovelling snow, carrying dead bodies and so on. We were cold, starving and being beaten all the time. At the beginning of February I was sent with a bigger transport to the salt mines in Tarthum. We were working there 12-14 hours a day in a mine. Before and after work they tortured us with roll calls that lasted for hours. On a Sunday morning after arriving back from work, they ordered us to line up for roll call and we had to stand there until 4 pm. Afterwards we did not have time to rest and we had to go back to work in the mine. Around the end of March they took us to Schönebeck with another transport. The American offensive started soon and we were evacuated. Our group of 1700 people was set off and we were marching for 25 days, day and night, without any food supply provided. We were living on grass and snails. When passing potato fields, we could not resist the temptation and tried to pick some potatoes. They shot amongst us and executed people in large numbers. Whoever got broken by the inhuman sufferings was shot dead. Many died of heart failure as well. The number of the group was diminishing dramatically: when we reached the town Parchim only 630 of us were dragging ourselves along. From there I could not go on and collapsed. The SS men did not even waste a bullet for me; they thought I was finished off anyway. When I regained consciousness, the group had passed long ago. A German peasant took me to his place and took care of me until May 2, when the Russians marched in. After that I was sent in the hospital of Hagenow, where after medical treatment for six weeks I was restored to health and could join a transport leaving for home.
