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The person in question has given us the following information: We left Ungvár with the last transport; there were not so many people there any more, so only 40 people were travelling in a cattle car. Hungarian gendarmes escorted us to Kassa; there they handed us over to the Germans. They were robbing us continuously on the way; they searched us for valuables five times. They stripped the women naked and they searched for gold like that. If I only think of that, it makes my blood boil. We were only watching it helplessly, since we could not defend ourselves. Later that night the SS men threatened us and demanded gold; that is how they replaced the Hungarian gendarmes. We could take anything with us from home, but the Hungarian gendarmes stole all our better belongings. When, at the end of a three-day-long journey we arrived in Auschwitz, we had to leave all our belongings on the train. I started from home with my parents and my sister. When we arrived, everybody had to get off. As soon as we got off I was separated from my family. I was taken quite far from the labourers, we could not even say goodbye. They took me along right away, and they took away even the clothes I was wearing. They bathed me and stripped me, then after the disinfection they took me to a block. During my 16-day stay in Auschwitz I suffered more than during the whole period altogether. We got food twice a day, but that consisted of some inedible soup and one tenth of a loaf of bread. The SS men tortured us so much that I had not been able to imagine such a treatment earlier; their evilness exceeded the wildest fantasy. After 16 days, as I have mentioned, 200 of us were put on a transport. We were entrained and we were travelling for two weeks until we arrived in Buchenwald. 78 of us arrived there in a cattle car, which was opened only twice during the whole journey. They gave us food on the way. We had already been dressed in striped prisoner’s clothes. We stayed in Buchenwald only for seven days, because it was a collection camp. We received a number then they took us directly to Magdeburg, partly on foot, partly by train. That journey was tolerable. When we arrived they assigned us to work in a petrol factory immediately. The work was very hard; the workday was 12 hours long. There we also got little to eat and we slept in barracks. Our camp was clean and if we worked hard enough there was no problem. The civilians in the factory helped us a lot. I worked there only for some weeks, because I fell ill. I had ceaseless diarrhoea, I was so weak that I could not even stand anymore, so they took me back to the Buchenwald hospital. They tended to me quite correctly and I recovered. I was then assigned to do easy work. I helped at the construction works. The provisions were relatively good in Buchenwald. When the frontline moved closer, the camp was evacuated and we set off with a transport on foot. We marched to Theresienstadt. That march was really terrible. People were shot down like dogs on the way; a large number of people were killed. We stayed in Theresien for ten days, then the Russians came in. Unfortunately the Germans managed to escape earlier, but I hope they have met their fate since then. We had already been full of lice, we were ill, so after the liberation I was taken to hospital. I stayed here till June and the Russians were unspeakably good to us. They gave us food five or six times a day, so I managed to recover completely. My plans for the future: I would like to emigrate to Palestine, but beforehand I hope to find my mother and my sister and go together with them. I have such a good profession that I am sure we would be able to live on that. I will work at a place where they appreciate my work and if we have to suffer there too, we will all have an equal share of it and I will know why.

Labour Service