[Page 71]

“The things I saw beggar description… The visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty and bestiality were… overpowering… I made the visit deliberately in order to be in a position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to 'propaganda'.” Source[1]: General Dwight D. Eisenhower, in a cable message to General George C. Marshall on April 15, 1945

A few of those who were deported to Auschwitz from Monor survived, to tell of the horrors. Many were killed, even from those who had originally been selected to be labourers. No elderly ever returned from Auschwitz. From the younger generation, three boys, Miklós Bokor, Miklós Guszman and László Vermes survived the death camp. The Germans were sending Jewish groups from Auschwitz to forced labour, mainly to Poland and Germany until the end of 1944. The number of captive Jews alive was drastically reduced by January, 1945.

In the middle of winter, on January 16, 1945, the Jewish captives were driven towards the west by SS soldiers in a forced march. This and the following marches caused the deaths of thousands. Even these frequent, organized marches were not sufficient to evacuate the death camps completely. The last group of Jews was marched out on January 21, when the Soviet army was probably not farther than just 10-20 km away. The sound of cannons was heard at the camps. More than 10,000 Jewish women were driven on foot, tattooed with a number on their arms. In the bitter cold, all they were wearing was the prisoners' uniform: a pair of striped summer pants, a striped robe, a striped cap and a pair of clogs. They were forced to march for days without food and all they could eat was nothing but snow. Many turned black from frostbites.

Those who could not keep up with the march and had to step out or simply collapsed, became the victims of German bullets. The road ended at Breslau about two weeks later, where the survivors were forced and locked into open cattle cars and were transported to death camps in Germany. (Max Eisen told the tale of the journey of this last group. He lived in a village near Kassa till 1944 and has been living abroad since 1995.)

[Page 72]

The Germans abandoned the death camp of Auschwitz in haste on January 21. They left the barbed wire fences with the gates locked. Tragically, the Soviet troops reached the worst mass murder site in history only a week later. The death camp of Auschwitz was liberated on January 27, 1945. The Soviet troops found only a few starving survivors in Auschwitz and Birkenau, who resembled skeletons covered with loosely hanging skin.

The Germans did their best to clear any traces of their deeds by demolishing the buildings with explosives before they left, but not all of their attempts were successful. A part of the gas chambers, the barracks, the administrative centre of the Germans, and a few other buildings among them the infamous railway terminal, survived as a testimony and reminder of the darkest days in human history.

Rudolf Höss was among the German Nazi defendants at the Nuremberg trials in 1946. He had been the commandant of Auschwitz and he confessed to the supervising of the organized murders of 2.5 million Jews in the gas chambers and the subsequent burning of corpses.

[Page 73]

Remembrances of Mrs. Sik (née Judit Bokor)

“I travelled to Pest to the funeral of one of my aunts with a train that departed at noon on March 19, 1944, the same day when the occupying German troops entered Hungary. My father had provided me with a proof of citizenship and a document that proved that I was a resident of Monor. When I arrived at Nyugati Railway Terminal, Hungarian policemen blocked the path of the arriving passengers. It was requested to show identification, and all those who were Jews were escorted to an adjoining hallway. There I met Piri, the wife of Zoli Fleischer from Monor and we tried to stick together as much as possible during the hardships that were to follow. We were transported from the Terminal in police cars to the internment camp of Kistarcsa. Simultaneously, Jews were rounded up and were taken to the detention camp on Mosonyi Street in Budapest.

We did not see a single gendarme during our captivity in Hungary nor while we were transported from place to place. Hungarian policemen and German soldiers were in charge. There weren't any gendarme guards in Kistarcsa either. Once at Kistarcsa, the men and women were separated, even married couples. There weren't any Jewish children in Kistarcsa. I sent a postcard to my parents. This was how they found out where I was but there was nothing they could do to help me. I was taken to a camp in Auschwitz, not Birkenau. I did not meet anyone from Monor there.

All men and women who were held captives in the internment camp of Kistarcsa were loaded into cattle cars in one large mixed-gender group on the last day of April, 1944. We arrived in Auschwitz on May 1. I do not wish to write about the dire and horrific experiences that I lived through there, since many others have written about those. At the time when the Auschwitz camp was evacuated, I was taken with 15 other women, I had been together with since Kistarcsa to Parschnitz in Germany. This was an extermination camp where they had arsenic chambers instead of gas.

The war ended officially on May 9, 1945. That night all the German guards escaped but they left the gates locked. The Soviet soldiers reached the camp the following day, May 10, and they opened the gates. With 10 of my women companions we started off to Hungary on foot. On occasions, we were travelling on the top of cargo trains which were carrying Soviet soldiers and tanks, and then we would continue on foot again. We arrived at the ruined Keleti Railway Terminal on Sunday, May 20, the day of Pentecost.

[Page 74]

My grandmother and two aunts survived the ghettos in Pest so I went to stay with them. Later I went to Monor. I found employment in Pest and that is where I currently live.

My younger brother Miklós is an artist and lives in Paris. He received the “Knight of Arts” award. He was deported to Auschwitz from Monor with my parents on July 8, 1944. He survived 12 concentration camps fighting for his life desperately and he finally arrived home ill on June 11, 1945, with the last transport carrying the sick. He was hospitalized for years after. He received the prestigious Munkácsy award twice in Hungary. Later some representatives in the Ministry of Culture, deemed him “undesirable” for political reasons so, his only reasonable choice was to leave. He settled in France in 1960, and he still works there. He married a French woman and they have a son, Michel.

Our parents became the martyrs of the “Shoah.”

[Page 75]

Remembrances of Mrs. Székely (née Zsuzsa Fleischmann)

“Time goes by so fast and life is so short. Since I turned 71, I seem to get bouts of nostalgia more frequently. The painful events of 1944 often flash before my eyes, events that are difficult if not impossible to write about. One has to live through them to fully comprehend them. I will never be able to forget the loss of my loved ones. My brother was drafted into a forced labour battalion half a year before my turn arrived, and at that time we bid farewell to each other saying “Farewell, see you soon… au revoir…” He said “Don't worry, I'll be back” and he ran away crying… I have been waiting for him ever since…

I do not wish to say too much about the years preceding the camp. There were just a few events that I'd like to talk about. The Germans had already occupied Hungary in March 1944, when I decided to go home from Pest to Monor. I had to leave from Nyugati Railway Terminal. I was surprised to find that I had to stand in line because a gendarme was requesting the people to present their identification for checking who was Jewish. When it was my turn I quickly blurted out before he could even address me “I hope you don't think I'm Jewish because by the time you review my documents I'll miss my train.” To this, he simply said “OK, my dear, just hurry.” And so I ran to the train as fast as I could. I saw that all the Jews were asked to step aside and they could not get on the train. Thus, God helped me again, as he had done so many other times. I was already on the train when I broke out crying. Next day I had to return to Pest. I was just standing in the train's hallway not wanting to sit. There were soldiers sitting in one of the cabins and one came out and turned to me saying “Why don't you come in, one of us will offer you a seat.” To this I responded “Thank you, I am fine standing here.” A few minutes later another one came out and said the same thing. I got angry and said “I am a Jew, don't you understand? I heard a Jewish woman had to give up her seat on the bus yesterday because she had no right to sit being a Jew.” To this, the offi er said “We don't care about religion, please have a seat.” To this, I said nothing.

Then the time came when we were forced to wear the yellow stars and then all Jews from Monor were confined to ghettos. I lived in Pest as a dental assistant and I was constantly worried about my family but by then it was impossible to travel between cities. One day a gendarme from Monor came to see me with a letter that his supervisor had sent to me. I opened the envelope cautiously fearing what it might contain and was surprised to find a letter granting me permission to go to Monor. A short note was attached to the permission which said that the Germans were now in Monor and taking the Jews away. If I wanted to say goodbye to my parents I should go. This was too much for me and I will never

[Page 76]

forget this day. It was June, the name day of Péter and Pál as well as my father's birthday. I got on the next train I could catch and I had a smooth journey. There were no identity checks although by then I was wearing the star. I first headed to the gendarmerie and submitted my papers. I thanked János Nagy gendarme master sergeant for his kindness and said I would be forever grateful. He told me that I could only stay for a few days. I, however, asked that I might stay for good because I wished to stay with my parents. He begged me to change my mind because there was no way I could help them. I told him that I could not live without them. By then my parents were confined to the Antal Beck ghetto on Deák Ferenc Street. I went to the ghetto and my parents were very surprised that I had the courage to go there. I did not want to tell them that we would soon be taken away; I said I just came for Father's birthday and I would stay with them. Many families were crowded into that house but at that time families were given a room each. Kati Steinberger was in that ghetto as well.

On June 30, the German SS soldiers occupied the ghetto and chose the home of the Becks' to be one of their residences. They drove us first to the middle school “Polgári Iskola.” János Nagy gendarme master sergeant of Monor was very humane with the captives under the circumstances. Everyone was driven one night from the “Polgári” to the brickyard. Unfortunately, Kati Steinberger and I were chosen to clean the residences of the Germans and take care of their shopping needs. This is how Kati and I did not end up in the brickyard but got back to the Becks' home to work. My dear mother was so worried about me. She told me to wear a kerchief at all times so that they might think that I was just a little girl, because my hair reached to my waist. Indeed, they thought I was a kid and called me Kinder, although I was in my 20th year. We could go over to the brickyard with a guard each day but we were not allowed to stay there. The German soldier said he would shoot us to death if we stayed behind. We were also guarded by SS soldiers when we went shopping for groceries (for them) and since we had a candy, coffee, spice and exotic produce wholesale store, our old customers provided us with anything we needed just so that they could protect us as much as possible.

One early afternoon a German soldier came over from the nearby Sebők ghetto where the SS officers were lodged. He said that the senior officer was requesting to see the “Kinder.” I was scared to death and told Kati to try to come over with some kind of excuse if I should be delayed returning. That was when I encountered the biggest surprise ever. Just as I arrived the officer told me with teary eyes, “You resemble my daughter so much that I would do anything to make sure no harm comes to you. Unfortunately, this is not in my power so I will pray for you. I hope you will be taken to a place where your strength will

[Page 77]

allow you to survive.” He said that the first group of captives was already taken to be loaded on to trains and actually they were just passing in front of the building. We could see them from the window on Deák Ferenc Street, towards Pesti Road (currently Ady Endre Street). I thanked him for his goodness, and I was very anxious hoping I would get into the same wagon as my parents. This did not happen, unfortunately. I didn't even have a chance to meet them. More than likely it was due to the SS officer's orders, Kati and I were not squeezed into the wagons with the other Jews from Monor but we were put in the last empty one. First we thought it would be just the two of us there locked up. While we were waiting in Monor the gendarmes brought a 30-year-old Catholic man in. The reason for bringing him here was that when he saw the Jews being marched away he was so distressed that he cried out to the gendarmes: “Aren't you ashamed of doing this?”

The holocaust train departed. First, we headed in the direction of Cegléd. Later, still in Hungary, as we were proceeding northbound, the train stopped a few times to take water for the engine, and on these occasions one person from each wagon was allowed to climb down for water. When the train was stationary, I could not see any SS soldiers, just gendarmes accompanying the captives. We did not get food anywhere. I had a diamond ring and a necklace that I had been hiding for a long time and I decided to throw them out onto the railway tracks while we were still in Hungary. Once we passed Kassa, the gendarme in charge got the Catholic man off the train before we reached the border. To my regret, I do not remember his name.

We finally arrived at Auschwitz. We were requested to get off but all of our belongings had to be left in the wagons. In one of the nearby wagons an elderly lady was paralysed and she could not stand up. She was Mrs. Steiner's mother. The SS guard howled at her that she would be thrown out if she did not get up. I took every opportunity to look for my parents, shouting “Fleischmans where are you?”, so that's what I did, next to the wagons. I did the same when I got down getting water or at any other chance I had. I never heard any answer. As I found out later, my mother did not believe it could have been me. She was convinced I had returned to Pest.

After this, we were lined up and directed right or left. We did not know what this meant, but I remember that Klárika, the daughter of a good friend of my parents, the Beck family, had to proceed to the left. She was limping. Naturally, her mother joined her and following this, my mother stepped over to that line also. Both mothers were only 45. The men were sorted separately in two lines as well. I heard from survivors that my father was taken further away. Those who

[Page 78]

had been waiting around for a long time shouted from beyond a barbed electric fence, asking us to take some stuff over for them. They were chased away but there wasn't anything we could have done for them anyway. We ourselves only had the clothes we were wearing as the rest of our belongings were left in the wagons. We were finally taken in to the camp.

Our group ended up in the neighbouring Birkenau instead of Auschwitz. Then we were lined up again and we had to take off our clothes, underwear and shoes and we were given some rags and wooden shoes to wear. Then came the cutting and shaving of our hair. Mine was so long that they had to cut it twice before they were able to shave it bald. It always felt like I was among men because everyone was bald. The first night we were crammed into a washroom building that had only one tap. We slept standing, leaning next to each other. We didn't have to be afraid of falling because there were so many of us. We could hardly breathe. Next day we were herded out and if I remember correctly I ended up in camp “C” at Birkenau. There were fences everywhere. 50 of us were lying on the floor in a very small space. We could manage this by pulling our knees up to our noses and lying on one another's feet. This way we occupied a small space and we could lie in 5 rows, 10 of us in a row, in a tiny confined area. If anyone moved it caused grumbling because everyone woke up. They conducted a so called “Zählappell” or head count, every night from 1 am, outside our barracks. The Germans counted us all, and unfortunately, we had to stay outside until each and every one of us was counted, from all the barracks, the whole camp. This took quite a while because there were many of us. Oftentimes we were out there almost until dawn. The weather was very hot there during the daytime in summer but the nights were extremely chilly. We were not made to work but we suffered physically and emotionally as well.

There was a woman among us who was pregnant but they did not notice this when we were selected. She would have clearly been ordered to the left line. Those in the left line were taken to the gas chambers immediately as we later found out. Poor soul gave birth one night. There were doctors and nurses among those who were deported, so she received help for the delivery. The tiny baby had to be placed onto the stove in the middle of our hall. That stove was not intended for heating. They stuffed a rag into the mother's mouth so that her cry could not be heard in the morning when as we knew, the German woman with a leather belt in her hand would come. The woman strung the belt around the newborn's neck and suffocated him, expecting that the mother would scream out and thus she could be taken to the gas chamber. Since no sound could be heard, the mother was saved. There was no possibility to save the baby. The grief-stricken mother just kept repeating that she did not want to live any longer.

[Page 79]

I don't want to go into further details about the horrors I lived through in Auschwitz. After a few months, there was another selection process. A group was herded into the yard and the other group including me, was transported to Stutthof. We found out only later that those who stayed behind were sent to the gas chambers. We only spent a very short time in Stutthof but it was with great suffering. We were given a tiny plate of food and could only eat or drink three gulps of the slop. Miserable souls, people were counting each gulp and even fights broke out sometimes if one got a gulp more.

I met some of my relatives from Székesfehérvár at the electric barbed wire fence at another camp in Stutthof but all we could do was to wave across the fence. I was then taken to Argenau where we had to work although all of us were in a very bad shape by then and we had to dig anti-tank ditches. The ground was frozen so we had to work using pickaxes. I figured out that after digging a bit, if I broke up the side of the ditch, it would soon cave in. If it caved in, we were not allowed to continue digging. As one can imagine it was very hard to remove the soil in such a weak condition and throw it out of the ditch to the ground surface. We were told how much we had to complete before we could return to the camp. This way I would help the elderly a little.

From there we were transported to Thorn which was the German name of the Polish town Toruñ. What awaited us there was beyond what words can describe. Under these circumstances, I could never be preoccupied with my own plight. It was overwhelming, to see the suffering of others and all the deaths that surrounded us. One day Bözsike Friedlander was taken to the “revir,” which was a prison hospital because she became so weak that she could no longer work. We smuggled her out in secret and took her to work each day and we were doing her share. I don't even know how we were able to manage this. Unfortunately, she was not able to take it any longer and had to be returned to the “revir” again where she passed away. A few of us from Monor dug a hole next to a tree and we buried her there. We trimmed the tree trunk, so if she has any survivors they could visit her. They were experimenting on twins in the “revir” and they both died half an hour apart. I had severe frostbites on both of my big toes and my feet were frozen but this was nothing compared to all the sufferings that I had witnessed.

We were taken to a few more places and as far as I can recall, it was next to Slutsk in Kron where we were liberated on January 29, 1945. It was to my great grief that Rózsi Guszman, who kept the spirit in all of us all along and kept saying “Don't worry, we will return home!” died on the day of liberation in final exhaustion.

[Page 80]

I could have written about countless other horrors but even this is just too much. We were liberated and returned home, in one special train. However, we were less that one eighth of those who had been taken away with us. I was home again, all by myself without my family. If I heard someone saying “mother” on the streetcar, I had to get off because it made me sob uncontrollably.”

[Page 81]

Remembrances of Mrs. Neményi (née Irma Schönwald)

“My parents were farmers. We lived on a farm south of the highway of Monor, close to the #48 milestone that marked the distance from Budapest.

Imre, my older brother was drafted into forced labour earlier, in 1942. At that time, I was learning dressmaking in the salon of the Grosinger girls, where I got a job later. My father was taken to an internment camp in Kistarcsa in the spring of 1944. The gendarmes took him, and from Kistarcsa he was taken to either Dachau or Auschwitz during the summer, where he was killed.

My mother and I had to move to a ghetto in June 1944. We moved into the only classroom of the Jewish School of Monor. We took our bed to the school. A farmer helped us move there with our wagon. Every Jew in that ghetto was from Monor. The teacher, Henrik Friedlander, originally from Sárospatak, was there too with his wife and two children.

On the last day of June, gendarmes drove us from the school to the brickyard on foot. By that time, all we had was a suitcase. Those from Monor were not taken to the clay mine pit but to a brick drying shed. All the others from the countryside who were not from Monor were driven to the pit. On the way they could buy some groceries which supplemented the little food that others had with them. It was enough to cook one meal for everyone. We slept in the shed on the bare floor which was not even covered with hay. On July 8, we were driven from the brickyard to the railway station. The people of Monor were standing on the streets and many were just laughing at us. A few of them were crying. When we were loaded onto trains, a good neighbour from the farm threw a piece of sausage and bacon into the wagon after us. This was the first time that my mother had anything that was not kosher. We have always tried to eat only kosher food until then. The train departed during daylight from Monor. It stopped at a few stations in Slovakia but they did not open the wagon doors. At one railway stop there was desperate crying for “Water, water!” and someone handed in a bottle of water through the window grill. The wagon doors were opened only twice outside of the stations, on the open track. At the first stop, there was no death in our wagon. There were armed SS soldiers standing next to the wagon and they allowed two of us to empty the waste bucket and to bring some drinking water.

We arrived in Auschwitz in broad daylight. By then, many people died in our wagon. The SS soldiers were standing, awaiting the arrival of the trains with their dogs. Inside of the camp they seldom walked about with their dogs.

[Page 82]

Mengele asked my mother how old she was. She replied taking a few years off her actual age, to which he just laughed and let her go. He knew sooner or later she would not escape her fate. My mother and I were imprisoned in the “C” camp of Auschwitz together with many women from Monor who were selected for hard labour. Soon our clothes were taken from us and then came the hair shavings but just on our heads. Each of us was given a grey burlap sack and a sweater upon our arrival to Auschwitz. Some were given wooden clogs and others shoes which had been taken from other prisoners but they did not fit them. There were no bunk beds in the barracks; we slept on the bare floor with no hay. We were not made to work but they counted us several times during the day and we had to stand for the headcount in the yard in rows of five for hours.

In mid-July my mother came down with high fever. She was taken to quarters of the camp reserved for the sick called the “revir.” There was a Hungarian Jewish woman doctor there from Kisvárda who determined that she had pneumonia but was not able to help her, due to the lack of any medication. I was able to visit my mother on an occasion, and we both were beaten up by the capos for this. They killed my mother at the beginning of August.

Everyone was given some sort of winter coat in mid-August. These coats were confiscated from other Jews that were deported so the sizes were not right. The problem was that the overcoats of men did not fit the women. I was given a suit jacket that was quite warm and this helped me to survive the winter.

We were taken for forced labour from Auschwitz the second half of August. We were wearing the prisoner's clothes we had received in Auschwitz during this period. These clothes were very loose, so most of the women cut off a strip from the bottom and used it as a belt. The tightened belts made the clothes somewhat warmer. Some of us had a small knife that we managed to obtain in Auschwitz in exchange for our daily bread from forced labourers who were handling the confiscated items of the new arrivals. The few who had possession of these small knives had them hidden on themselves all the time. Before we departed from Auschwitz, driven one by one into the cattle cars, each of us was given a piece of black bread for the journey with a painted metal bowl with two loops on it and a spoon with a hole in its handle. We were carrying these utensils by hanging them from the belt. The cattle cars were smaller than the ones in which we were transported from Hungary, and there was a metal grid instead of a roof above us, so we could actually see the scenery when we passed higher mountains.

We were taken to the transit camp of Stutthof in Poland first and from there, we were transported in cattle cars to Thorn in Poland at around the beginning of

[Page 83]

September. Thorn was the German name of the Polish city of Toruñ. There were a few short stops during the journey and these provided the only opportunity for getting fresh water and for attending our needs.

Once in Thorn, we were driven out of the city on foot to a camp which was in the middle of nowhere. Almost 1500 women in the camp spoke Hungarian. Most of them were from Transylvania, mostly from Nagyvárad. The capos were Jewish women from Lithuania. The camp was situated in a cleared part of a forest. The cylinder shaped structures with cupolas were made of wood and were referred to as the “Zelle” or cells. There were at least 40–50 of them. None of them had windows, just a wooden door with no window. The cells were numbered, and everyone was assigned to a cell. There were about 50 of us in each cell. The group from Monor was assigned to cell number 36. Cenci Bergmann, Zsuzsi Fleischmann, Bözsi Friedlander, the four Grosinger girls: Lili, Rózsi, Manci, Éva, Mimi Widder, Dusi Widder and I were there together.

The Germans knew that the Soviet armies were approaching soon. For us this camp, just like the others, was a test of daily survival. Upon arrival to the camp, each of us was given a blanket. We lay down in the unheated cell on the floor that was covered by a thin layer of hay. There was no furniture and no stove in the cell. The single blanket we received was enough in September but—as the colder months approached—we had to devise ways of surviving the cold, since our physical health had also seriously deteriorated by then. We cuddled up on the floor in groups of four-five and covered ourselves with four-five blankets. There was a petroleum lantern in the middle of the cell hanging from the high roof, which was lit by a capo every night only to be put out a short while later. Anyone who had to go out at night had to feel the way to the door in pitch dark. The door was never locked but there was an SS guard outside pacing up and down during all night. The latrines had no seats and no sidewalls, and there was no paper provided. We had to take care of our needs as if we had not been human beings. The armed SS guard would watch us, and the situation was the same during daylight, except with more SS guards around.

The camp commandant was an SS Oberscharführer. We were guarded and pushed around by SS soldiers. There was only one Wehrmacht officer there, an Oberscharführer who was responsible for the work which was to be carried out. He was the one who gave the orders for the daily work. We were woken early every morning by the guards. Everyone was driven out of the cells and lined up in rows of fives. Then it was followed by the “Zählappell” or counting us one by one. We were given only a cup of coffee every morning and then we were driven out to faraway fields with a spade in our hands. The ground was

[Page 84]

not rocky but it was frozen in the winter. Under these conditions it was almost impossible to work without a pick. We had to dig moats most of the time. Sometimes, we had to dig out the soil and then we were ordered to throw it all back. The digging, which became increasingly more and more difficult, went on from dawn to dusk. We did not get anything to eat for lunch while we were forced to carry out our work. Guards and weather permitting, we occasionally got a potato or a carrot from the local Polish peasants as they were gathering their crop nearby. We could also gather mushrooms in the forest. We only dared to eat white mushrooms because all we could do was to guess which mushrooms were edible. At night we were counted again before we were given our daily slop-soup that consisted of watered-up potatoes and carrots. We did not get any meat the entire week but got some meat thrown into our soups on Sundays. We were not driven out to work on Sundays, and instead of lunch we were given a full week's supply of the following: a rectangle shaped black sawdust tasting bread that was about a kilogram per person, a spoonful of sugar, a spoonful of jam from a big can and a piece of ripe cheese called “kvargli” (Quargel) which was shaped like a small wheel with a diameter of about 4-5 cm and was about 1.5 cm high. There were no holes in this cheese and it might have been sheep cheese. We were also given about 50 grams of margarine, as well as a spoonful of detergent per person for the whole week.

Within a few months, the women became weak beyond description due to the minimal amount of food provided that was not even sufficient for survival let alone the strenuous labour they were forced to perform. We were not driven out to work on Sundays but this made little difference. Our weakened state was further exacerbated by the lice sucking our blood. We had neither the opportunity nor water to keep ourselves clean. Occasionally, the rain would dampen our clothes and very rarely we were allowed by the guards to heat water in the jam cans so we could wash our clothes during work. During the four months we spent at this forced labour camp we were transported only twice to another prison camp by trucks for disinfections. Although the lice on our bodies were washed off, once we returned there was plenty of replenishment in the cells. There were increasingly more outbreaks of illnesses due to the unsanitary latrines, bugs and the extreme lack of hygiene.

With the onset of freezing temperatures and because of the hard labour with minimal nutrition more and more women became weaker and weaker. There was a cell set aside for the sick but there was no medical attention and it was lacking of the minimal hygiene standards. With the onset of the freezing weather many died on the job or froze to death. In the evening those who survived carried the bodies and buried them outside of the camp. We did not have the strength to

[Page 85]

dig deep graves for the dead. There was no fence around the camp because we were far off from any settlement.

Around November, a young woman from Nagyvárad escaped to a Polish farm. They reported her to the Germans and she was taken back to the camp. She was stripped naked and everyone was made to watch as she was shot dead by an SS soldier. There was a typhoid fever outbreak in January 1945, but the first one to die was an SS soldier. By then there was a second cell assigned for the sick. One morning during the second half of January all of us who were not sick were given a piece of black bread. At that time we had no idea for how long this piece of bread would have to last.

They ordered all of us who were able to move to leave the camp and we were given directions to march on foot towards an unknown destination. We were only accompanied by some of the SS officers because the rest stayed behind with the sick in the designated cells. The SS officers shot all the sick women, one by one, after we were beyond hearing distance. We learned this much later from the mother of a healthy daughter who lay next to her mother for being able to stay with her. They were from the Pest area, likely from Kispest. The daughter was shot dead but her mother survived the shot aimed at her.

The SS soldiers who shot the sick, joined the others that had left on foot. When the Soviet soldiers arrived to the camp, they were able to save the life of the mother who was shot. Later in the autumn of 1945, Cenci Bergmann met the woman in Budapest who had a nervous breakdown due to the loss of her daughter. She told Cenci all about what happened in the camp to the sick who were not able to move.

Our march on foot was westbound. We advanced slowly in the bitter cold with scarce clothing and we were starving. Those of us who were lagging behind and fell were shot. Éva Grosinger tripped and fell. She had lost her glasses a long time ago and she had problems with her shoes. Her sisters Mancika and Rózsika went to help her to get up and the SS soldier shot all three of them one by one. We were driven towards the west for more than a week. We spent the night before the last night of our journey in the attic of a stable where there was hay. The SS soldiers wanted to set the stable on fire in the middle of the night while we were sleeping but the Wehrmacht commander did not let them do it. He told this to the Lithuanian capo women next dawn, I asked them to testify about his humanitarian deed when the Soviets arrived.

[Page 86]

By the following morning all the SS soldiers as well as the Wehrmacht officer had disappeared. A few Wehrmacht soldiers came who drove us further to Bromberg as it was known to the Germans or Bydgoszcz by its Polish name. We arrived there by the evening. During our journey to Bromberg we had only the piece of bread we were given before we left the camp. All we could have was snow to go along with it. We were taken to the city prison of Bromberg where we got the first bowl of warm soup in that bitter winter after the camp in Thorn. We were awakened by the Wehrmacht soldiers in our cells the following morning who told us that “The Soviets have arrived and you are free!” That was when they told us that they were Polish partisans disguised in Wehrmacht soldiers' clothes. We were released together with the Polish prisoners.

We were liberated in January 1945! There were people who died after the liberation of typhoid fever or simply from the greasy food that the Soviet soldiers handed out, after months of starvation. Only 500 to 600 survived from the original 1500 captive women in the Thorn camp.

I arrived back to Hungary by train. I heard in Munkács that my uncle was living in Kisvárda, so I went there. For a year, I was trying to recover my health and spirit there. My older brother who was hiding in Budapest managed to survive. Our dear parents never returned. I escaped to Vienna with my fiancé László Neményi in 1949. He was from Miskolc. We got married and then went to Australia. Our daughter was born there and now we have two grandchildren and live in Sydney. I never returned to Monor after my deportation.”

[Page 87]

Remembrances of Mrs. Rothauser (née Dusi Widder)

“My parents, my younger brother Laci and I lived in a house with a garden that we owned at 20 Virág Street in Monor. My father, Miklós Widder was from Salgótarján. He served in World War I and he was discharged from the military as a corporal. When the war ended, he married my mother Emma Szemes in Monor. My father had a haberdasher and fabrics store on Kossuth Lajos Street, the main street of Monor. We were renting the business premises from the Balla Szigeti families. Next-door to our store was István Szántó's haberdasher store and the Popper Printing House. My father was drafted into forced labour in the autumn of 1941, when he was 45. He worked as a delivery man in the neighbourhood of Debrecen but he was not used to strenuous physical labour so he was discharged after 3 months. He returned home weak and worn down and he spent 5 months being sick. He had a heart attack in a short time, and died at a young age in March, 1942. My mother was running our store and took care of us from 1941. We had to sew a yellow star on our outer clothes shortly after March 19, 1944. We had to turn in our bicycles and radios soon and shortly after our jewellery and other valuables as well. A week later seven gendarmes showed up at our house searching for jewellery but we had already handed them in by then. They confiscated the keys of our store by May, closed the blinds and locked the door. They have thus deprived us of all sources of income. Next came the confinement to ghettoes, which began in the middle of May by ordering the Grosinger family to move over to our home from theirs in Fő Street where their four daughters had a well established dressmaker's shop. The only furniture they were allowed to bring with them was that could fit into one room and they had to pay for the moving themselves. The pace of forcing Jews into ghettoes increased from the end of May.

A law was passed that all Jews had to move into designated homes where each family was allowed one room only. The Grosinger girls, Rózsika Friedmann and her family together with others including us, moved to the Rosinger residence at 14 Gőzmalom Street. We were allowed to take with us only a few essentials for our bedroom. We all went resigned to our fate without protesting like law abiding citizens, without any gendarme escort. Then on the morning of June 30, 1944, gendarmes appeared and they gave us one hour for packing our essential belongings that we could fit into a backpack or a small suitcase and a blanket. We departed at 10 in the morning on foot, escorted by gendarmes, headed towards the brickyard that was down at the northeast side of Gőzmalom Street. All Jews who were destined to deportation, were driven into the brickyard and locked up there by noon. The Jews from Monor were put up in a shed with a roof that had no walls. Everyone sat on the floor on their blankets. We were kept there

[Page 88]

for three days without any food. The only food we had was what we brought with us. There were only elderly or crippled men and those who were under 18 years of age in this group. A few elderly men were escorted by the gendarmes to a well to fetch water.

The Lőwy family, whose members had converted to Christianity, was also there. Mrs. Lőwy, widow of lawyer Dr. Sándor Lőwy, committed suicide in her despair by drinking her eye drops medication on July 3.

The clergy of the Christian churches of Monor did not stand up, even for those Jews who converted to Christianity prior to World War II.

The Jews from Monor were among the first ones driven to the brickyard and they were not locked up in the clay mine pit. The pit was destined for those who arrived later, on July 1st, 2nd and 3rd from neighbouring villages and towns such as Pestszentlőrinc, Pesterzsébet and Kispest and from some places that were even farther away such as Dunaharaszti. All were herded and crammed into the pit. Miklós Román, retired railway officer from Dunaharaszti, who was the uncle of Mrs. Rosinger from Monor, was looking for his relatives in the brickyard. Unknown to him, they escaped during the night of June 29, before they would have been captured and forced to the brickyard.

The latrines in the brickyard were all in public view without any privacy whatsoever, so when nature called, people had to relieve themselves in the wide open, like animals.

We were ordered to leave the brickyard on foot on July 8, around noon, guarded by Hungarian gendarmes. We were marched through the streets of Monor all the way to the railway station, which was a good 2 km stretch. We were forced to march all along Gőzmalom Street, currently Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Street, and then continued on the central Kossuth Lajos Street in front of the City Hall, and finally all along Petőfi Street until we reached Andrássy Street, currently Zsigmond Street near the railway station. The forced march was one continuous line. By this time everyone was starving and fatigued especially the old and the children because we had not received any food from our captors for 8 days in the brickyard. We proceeded slowly, carrying our small baggage and assisting and supporting the exhausted elderly and the children. Mothers were carrying their infants and young children. The physically challenged limped along the long way. As we passed the houses of Monor, no one greeted us and no one said a word, no one offered us a piece of bread. Many were staring from their windows or the sidewalks at the Jews as they were driven past.

[Page 89]

The presence of German SS soldiers was visible at the railway station of Monor but it was the gendarmes who forced us into the cattle cars. By the afternoon that day everyone was jammed into the small cattle cars used in World War II. Eighty people were put into each wagon. We could only squat or sit down with our legs crossed but there was no space to lie down.

The train left the railway station of Monor late afternoon on July 8. We did not get any food or water before we departed. They distributed a bucket for each wagon for human waste but we could not empty it for a day and a half because the doors were kept shut. In the midst of the stench and wailing, people were in a state of despair.

When they opened the wagon doors on July 11th, we were already in Auschwitz. The SS soldiers ordered everyone who was alive and able to move out of the wagons. We had to pass in front of Mengele who determined, who was fit to work and who wasn't by looking at each of us. Most families were torn apart. My mother, younger brother and I were deemed fit for work but we were separated from my brother Laci because males and females were separated. That was the last time we saw little Laci. Then we had to strip naked. Our hair and all body hair were completely shaved off and then we had to take a shower. After the shower, all women were given a burlap robe. The men who were assigned to work, received striped prisoner's clothes after the shower. Everyone was given wooden clogs, regardless of sex. By this time, no one had any personal belongings left. People didn't even recognize each other, everyone being completely bald. We were put up in barracks with bunk beds. Supervision and order was taken care of by “capos.” The capos were Jews from the Baltic States or Poland who were taken to force labour earlier. They tried to save their lives by volunteering to supervise the other Jews. No one became a capo from Monor.

We were ordered out of barracks every dawn into a huge yard where we were forced to stand for hours until the SS soldiers counted everyone several times. Those who weren't standing straight were hit by the SS soldiers standing by. The capos stood aside and did not participate in the headcount. There was no place to clean ourselves but there was a public tap from where we could drink occasionally. We were in Auschwitz for about six weeks and during this time we were not tattooed with a number like cattle because those performing this work had not yet reached our group.

We were taken to another camp around the middle of August. No one told us the reason for our relocation or our destination although we heard the name Stutthof mentioned. We were put into cattle cars and the journey took about an

[Page 90]

hour. We believed we were relocated because there was a shortage of space in Auschwitz. We were in Stutthof in barracks for about a week and then we were taken again by train for a longer trip this time, to the north. We got off in the middle of a forest and we believed we were still in Poland. They said the closest city was Toruñ or Thorn by its German name.

The camp was on a deforestation site and there were 50 round-shaped cells made of plywood. The cells were numbered and about 50 women were put up in each. Altogether there were about 2500 women forced labourers there. All the women from Monor were in one cell and there were two women from Üllő also, Ilonka Strasser and Rózsi Böhm and a few women from Újpest, Mrs. Iczkovics and her daughter and their sister-in-law Vica. Mrs. Iczkovics and Vica died there in the cell. This place was so far from any kind of settlement that fences were not even needed.

Soon we learned, that we were taken there from Auschwitz for digging defensive ditches and lines and building ramparts under the military direction of the German Wehrmacht.”

[Page 91]

Remembrances of Mrs. Breier (née Révész Márta)

“My father Izidor Révész was drafted into forced labour and taken together with rabbi Dr. Izsák Pfeiffer to Garany on the first day of Rosh Hashanah in September 1942. Rabbi Pfeiffer was released a few days later. My father returned home after three months on December 24.

The last day when we were together in our home was the name day of Péter-Pál, Thursday, June 29, 1944. Our house on 34 Gőzmalom Street was a “starred” or ghetto house. There was one family crammed in each room.

Room 1	Révész family and my grandmother, widow Mrs. Kugel	6 persons
Room 2	Hermann Roth, his wife and daughter	3
Room 3	József Steiner and his wife	2
Room 4	Mrs. Sebő and her daughter Lilike	2

The family of Dr. Miklós committed suicide in the dawn of July 1. Dr. József Vidra medical officer could find only the two dead family members and the dying Dr. Miklós. He asked him not to attempt to save his life but rather let him die. The doctor complied with his wish; he passed away.

We were driven to the brickyard by the gendarmes from the “Polgári” school the very same day, Saturday morning. No one gave us food but we still had our bags or backpacks. We were the first to arrive to the brickyard, on Saturday, July 1. Izsák Pfeiffer and his wife were in the “Polgári” and they were among the last ones to be driven to the brickyard. Dr. Béla Burján (otherwise known as Dodi) wanted to save his in-laws by getting them out of the “Polgári” saying they had a highly contagious disease but they were taken to the brickyard none the less and later to Auschwitz in a designated wagon.

We were liberated on January 29, 1945, from the political prison in Krone, which is located near Bromberg or by its Polish name: Bydgoszcz. Lili Grosinger, Dusi Widder and Auntie Mimi went home together and they were at home in Monor by the beginning of March. Rózsi Böhm, Zsuzsi Fleischmann and I, from Monor as well as a young Slovak girl called Gréti from Üllő were not as lucky although we wanted to get home really badly. Soviet soldiers took us by train

[Page 92]

from Bromberg; the travel lasted for weeks. We met Hungarian soldiers in Lublin and the Soviets said that they were prisoners of war and therefore the women were also that. We were first taken to barracks in Czernowitz (Chernivtsi). We spent a few weeks there. Then we were taken to Belarus to a place called Slutsk close to Minsk. We were there from Passover to August 20. Gréti was freed first because Slovakia signed the peace treaty with the Soviet Union earlier. Finally, we were allowed to leave and we headed home through Romania. We reached Monor on September 5, 1945, just in time for Erev Rosh Hashanah.”

[Page 93]

Remembrances of Aviva Shiloah (née Irén Róth)

“I was a grade 4 student in the middle school “Polgári” of Monor in March 1944. There were five Jewish girls in the class including me. The other four were: Kati Guszman, Magda Szántó, Vali Vizsolyi and Zsuzsi Goldman. Gyuri Révész was two years older than us and attended the boys' class.

A few days after March 19, all the Jewish children were sent home from school and we could not complete that school year. We were confined in a ghetto around the middle of May. We were assigned to the house that used to belong to Izidor Révész on Gőzmalom Street. We were allowed to go back to our house that was on Liliom Street at set hours when we all could go to get the necessary items and food. The fact that my Christian grandmother still lived in our home on Liliom Street certainly helped us under these circumstances. We were driven by gendarmes to the middle school “Polgári” of Monor on June 30, along with many other Jews. A midwife searched all the women to check if they had any jewellery hidden on their bodies but I was told to leave without being examined because I was still a young girl at the time.

We slept at the “Polgári” school that night, at least those who could. The next day the gendarmes drove us into the brickyard of Monor. We could only lie on the bare ground of the brick dryer that had no walls. We could not sit anywhere else.

We were driven to the railway station on July 8. I saw my grandmother crying on the corner of Liliom Street, but we did not react in order to protect her. Nobody we knew said a word to us or gave us anything, as we were passing by. We were driven by the gendarmes down Gőzmalom Street, then along Kossuth Lajos Street followed by Pesti Road. We were loaded on to a train at a railway crossing barrier at Pesti Road. A gendarme was counting us and 90 of us were crammed into a single wagon. Families tried to stick together. The train stopped here and there but the wagons were not opened. We sat on the floor, like sardines under a narrow ventilation opening and there was not a chance to lie down. There was an elderly man in the middle of the wagon who passed away during the transport.

We got out three days later in Auschwitz. We had to leave everything behind in the wagon.

I was separated from my father immediately upon arrival but I was able to stay with my mother. My mother was 44, but someone said it was possible to take up labour till the age of 30, so I encouraged her that we choose labour. We were

[Page 94]

able to stay together this way. After getting undressed, the wash up followed. I was already 160 cm tall and 60 kilos, and looked more like a 16-year-old rather than my actual age of 14. They shaved off my long blonde hair with manual hair clippers. Then we had to take a shower and we were given clothes which had been confiscated from Jews and left behind in the wagons; the clothes did not fit us. We were allowed to keep our own shoes. My shoes became torn later on but I was able to fix them with a piece of cloth. We were in the Birkenau C camp. I slept next to my mother on a narrow pallet bed. We were languishing there the following three months. Mengele came by several times to select women who were to be taken to the gas chambers. My mother was selected on October 1, 1944. I never saw her again… Auntie Ilonka, Schwarcz Weisz took me under her wings from then on. She was a hairdresser in Monor and was over 45 years of age, older than my mother, however, she was very thin, looked great and appeared a lot younger than her actual age.

There was another line-up for selections on October 4, but this time they were selecting those who could go to do forced labour. Auntie Ilonka and I were selected and we were given somewhat better used clothes as well as a coat and wooden-sole shoes. We were taken in covered cattle cars to a city called Kratzau (Chrastava) situated near a small stream. We had to work in a factory which was manufacturing cannon shells. The first group of approximately 200 women, I amongst them, arrived without tattooed numbers from Auschwitz. We received a number that we were wearing on our coats in Kratzau. The women who arrived later from Auschwitz had numbers tattooed on them. I can't recall anyone being from Monor other than Auntie Ilonka. We were put up in a three story high water mill. We were given a piece of bread and black coffee for breakfast. For dinner we were given some sort of soup and some bread. We were not given anything for lunch while on the job. We walked six kilometres every morning to get to the factory and then again the same distance to get back to our lodging in the evening, rain or shine, hail or snow. Sometimes the snow was so deep that we could hardly walk. It was always dark by the time we got back from work. We slept in three-level, narrow bunk beds. I slept next to Auntie Ilonka. During the frigid winter months with no heat, the forced labourers were stealing the blankets from one another. We would keep our blankets folded up under our coats when we went to work to keep them safe. When the Germans realized this, they would start looking for the blankets and those who were found wearing them would be beaten to death. We had to wake up at dawn when the skies were still lit by the stars.

One day it was almost daylight already and we were wondering how everyone could have woken up without alarms. During that night the German guards

[Page 95]

escaped and the Soviet tanks came to liberate us. It was May 7, 1945. For a few days we hardly had anything to eat. Auntie Ilonka said it would be easy for us to catch typhoid. There were some who did get ill. After three days Auntie Ilonka and I set out for home on foot. At the end of our journey we got on a freight train that took us to Hungary through Slovakia.

I reached Monor by the end of May 1945, and my older brother Feri was at home. No one else from my immediate family returned. After staying in Monor for three to four months I went to Budapest.

I boarded the ship “Knesset Israel” in the Yugoslavian port of Bugi with a group of Hashomer Hatzair youth on December 1, 1946. We were intercepted by the British on December 27, and then detained in Cyprus for ten months, after which I was set free as an orphan from Cyprus. I arrived in Israel with British documents. I live in Arad, in Israel, with my husband, our twin children and eight grandchildren.”

Footnote

1. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum return

  Monor, Hungary     Yizkor Book Project     JewishGen Home Page

Copyright © 1999-2024 by JewishGen, Inc.
Updated 7 Sep 2018 by LA