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The persons in question have given us the following information: The 8 Jewish families of Ulicskriva and the 7 Jewish families of Kolbaszova lived on a middle level. The Witzlers: We had a shop and a pub, which secured our living. The Jakobovicses: We had a house and land, and lived well, but in 1941 they deported us to Ukraine to the other bank of the Dnester. We stayed there for around three months wandering from one village to another. At the river Dnester we had to undress completely, and that was how they left us on the other side of the border. We returned to our village where we were interned. In the middle of April, they took us to the ghetto of Ungvár. Close to Ungvár we spent a night in a stable. They took us to the brick factory, where we were lodged in the drying oven. We slept on the floor in water. The ghetto was enclosed and guarded by Hungarian policemen and the SS, while Jewish policemen kept order inside. There were around 20,000 people crammed into the ghetto, which was horribly overcrowded. Members of the Jewish Council were Jakobovics, Schönberger, and there were no complaints about their activity. There was also a soup kitchen. Although we could bring 30-kilo packs to the ghetto, the police seized our food already at the gate. Some people tried to run away but they failed. Richer people were collected and gendarmes trod on them, danced on them until they confessed where they hid their valuables. As a result, a few of them also died. We heard that they were going to take us away for work but we were not going to leave the borders of the country but would stay in Western Hungary. Once, an SS-man came and ordered people to come out in front of the barrack. Women and men and children had to line up separately, and in order to frighten us he set up an automatic weapon. They close-cropped the children’s and women’s hair. In the evenings the names of those who had to depart the day after were read on loudspeakers. Having packed the most indispensable stuff we left the day after, and walked two kilometres. Those who could not walk would get a beating with the club. Before entrainment there was another thorough search. Gendarmes searched us in the rudest possible way, tearing off our clothes and using even a mirror. We left on the 17th of May, 75 of us in a freight car. We got a bucket of water but no bucket for the toilet. We had no idea where we were heading but at Kassa we already saw that we were going towards Poland. Gendarmes escorted us till Kassa, where Germans took charge of the train. In Kassa they even played us the Rákóczi march. Germans told us several times to hand over our remaining valuables, and threatened the leader of the freight car to shoot him if jewellery was not handed over. No one died in our car, whereas in other cars some people died. We do not know of anyone trying to escape. On the 20th of May, Friday evening, we arrived in Auschwitz. At the station Polish prisoners in striped clothes received us and told us to leave the luggage on the train, they would carry it to our place later. When we got off men and women had to stand separately, while the old went by car. Later, we heard that the whole group went to the crematorium still the same evening. We saw a great fire, we heard cries and squeals and saw from the distance that men were working around the fire, and we could even feel the smell of burnt flesh and bones. They took us into the baths, and cut our hair off, gave us a ragged garment in place of our good clothes that they had seized, wooden shoes in place of our shoes. Every morning we stood wet during roll call, many felt sick. The climate in Auschwitz is changing from one extreme to the other: daily heat is followed by the cold of the nights. We were lodged in block 7. 14 of us lay on a bunk; sleeping was naturally out of the question. We stayed in extermination camp C, 1,000-1,500 people slept in a block. Rations: for three days we did not even get bread, and then we got mouldy bread. We were very hungry but we could not swallow that mouldy bread. The soup was a mixture of grass, sand and barley gruel. It was tasteless, without salt or grease. We got a little Zulag only three weeks later. There was no work but Appell. Often, when the number they counted was still not ok, we had to kneel in the mud all day long. After disinfections, we came home always without any clothes, stark naked, because by the time we returned they had run out of clothes. Once, the aforementioned Eszter Jakobovics could not get a hold of clothes and was stark naked in the barrack for two weeks but one morning she had to line up for roll call also naked. If somebody went from one block to another, as a punishment they had to kneel with two bricks in their hands till they fainted. To wake them up they gave a great blow on the head. Block curfews also lasted for hours and we heard that these were the occasions when people were sent to the crematoria. Selections were frequent, and everybody wanted to appear fit for work. When they selected us for work we were very happy. The aforementioned Sári Jakobovics was not selected for the group of labourers so she sneaked out of line and disappeared, and her elder sister went to look for her. She was beaten up hard with a club, nevertheless, later she managed to get into the group of people fit for work. After selections, we went to the baths, afterwards, we stood in the open all night long. The day after, they moved us to Camp D, where an SS-woman reassured us that we were not going to get into a transport but to the crematorium. We had to take off the clothes of the transported but luckily they received a new command and found out that there was need for labourers, so finally they took us away. At the end of August, we got on a train, 50 of us in a car. We received half a loaf of bread, sausage, and a little margarine for a three-day journey. In the end, we arrived in Salzwedel (close to Hamburg). We had to work here in a factory, 12 hours a day, swapping day and night shifts. It was quite hard work; we had to work standing. At the beginning, rations were still satisfactory but later they became worse and worse. Once, someone stole a piece of potato so they hung a plate on her chest that read: “she stole a piece of potato.” She got then beaten up so much that her eyes were full of blood because of a blow. Around 220 of us lived here in a block, two of us in a bed. We stayed here till April. The 14th of April, Americans liberated us, but we stayed here another two weeks. The French gave us food because the Germans stopped giving us food already a week before the Americans arrived; they gave us only a little bran soup. The Americans moved into the barracks of the airport, where we had a good life. The camp was burnt up the same day, immediately after we left it. We came home with a Czech transport till Prague, from where we continued by train. Our future plans: Now, we travel home. Unfortunately, we feel completely at a loss without our relatives.

Labour Service