Testimony of Survival at Munkacz Ghetto and Auschwitz-Birkenau Study Notes
Pre-Ghetto Conditions and Information Regarding Deportation
Awareness and Belief of Impending Danger: People were forced to believe the rumors of Nazi atrocities because some of the non-citizens in the area were taken away toward Poland and the Russian borders and killed.
Escapees: Some individuals managed to escape and return, hiding with citizens. These individuals shared stories of what was happening, which compelled the local population to believe the reports.
Support System: Local people provided food and assistance to those in hiding, despite the difficulties caused by constant Nazi surveillance.
Hungarian Police: The speaker describes the Hungarian police as "mean people" who wore distinctive hats with feathers and appeared "terrible scary."
Chain of Command: While the Nazis gave the orders, it was the Hungarian police in the speaker's area (Holubino) who carried out the tasks, such as informing people of their impending deportation and telling them to prepare.
Transport to Svalava and the Munkacz Ghetto
The Journey to the Ghetto: The speaker had to walk from the town of Holubino to Svalava.
Conditions of Transport: From Svalava, people were loaded into extremely crowded cattle cars for transport.
Speaker's Age and Actions: At age , the speaker once brought milk to a family from Svalava who was already on the train. She noted that she was not supposed to do this and could have been taken away immediately if caught by the police, but she was a "little girl," and they did not pay attention.
Life Within the Munkacz Ghetto
Ghetto Security: The ghetto was enclosed by a fence. Interestingly, the guards at the gates were often Jewish prisoners themselves.
Internal Duties: Because there were not enough police, some prisoners were elected as watchmen. Their duties included ensuring people did not escape, while others transported food or performed various manual labor jobs.
Age Requirements for Labor: Labor and guard duties were typically assigned to those aged , , or older; the speaker, being younger, did not have a specific assigned job in the ghetto.
Duration: The speaker remained in the Munkacz ghetto for exactly month.
Last Transport: She was part of the very last transport out of the ghetto. She notes that if she had stayed in her country for just more months, she would have been liberated and not taken to concentration camps.
The Journey to Auschwitz
Duration and Scenery: The train journey from the Munkacz Ghetto to Auschwitz lasted days. Through small windows in the cattle cars, the prisoners saw towns and cities where Christian spectators watched the trains pass in silence.
Severe Scarcity: There was very little food or water. The speaker recalls being "terribly hungry."
Family Conflict: Her brother refused to give her bread because he wanted to save it for her young nephew.
Arrival and Bread: Upon arrival at Auschwitz, she searched through bundles and found bread and pictures. She ate the bread quickly before it could be taken away.
Arrival, Selection, and Dr. Mengele
First Impressions: The speaker saw barracks and prisoners wearing white kerchiefs on their shaved heads.
The Selection Process: People were immediately lined up. Mothers with young children were told to stay together, while others were designated for work.
Dr. Josef Mengele: The speaker explicitly identifies "Nazi Mengele," who used a stick to point and sort people into different lines.
Evasive Action: People already in the camp advised the speaker not to go with her mother and children, but to join the work line. Following this advice, she hid and crawled under the feet of the crowd to reach the work line.
Family Separation: This was the last time she saw her mother and her nephew. Her brothers were also separated from her as men and women were sorted into different groups. She remained with her sister, Leah.
The "Shower" Room and Near-Death Experience
Initial Processing: After selection, the women were taken to large rooms where their heads and bodies were shaved before being given a shower.
Second Selection: The speaker was chosen a second time by Mengele.
Gas Chamber Incident: She describes being sent into a room she believed to be a gas chamber (though the transcript notes the Nazis told them they were showers). She found a door, opened it, and walked out alone. She realized later that she would have been taken to the crematorium otherwise.
Protectors ("Angels"): The speaker credits her survival to "angels"—other Jewish prisoners who protected the younger people and hid her from excessive work.
Survival and Living Conditions in Birkenau-Auschwitz
Food Rations:
Coffee: Provided once a day in the morning.
Bread: Described as similar to a "piece of cement."
Soup: Often terrible tasting; however, her "angels" would give her thick soup from the bottom of the barrel, which sometimes contained meat.
Dinner: Occasionally consisted of cooked potatoes and soup.
Sleeping Arrangements: Prisoners slept in wooden boxes arranged in rows (bottom, middle, top). Six people slept in a single "box" on bare wood with no straw. The barracks were intensely cold.
Sister Leah's Smuggling: Leah worked among the group that sorted the belongings of incoming prisoners (the "white kerchiefs"). She smuggled food to her sister by digging a hole under the electric fence, as handling items through the gate was impossible due to the electricity.
Labor and camp Logistics
Arbitrary Labor: Prisoners were forced to carry gigantic rocks and pile them from one point to another and back again for the entire day.
Camp Organization: The camps were named alphabetically (, , ). One specific area was the "Segaineerlager" (the Gypsy camp).
Extermination Routine: The speaker witnessed sick people being wheeled to the gas chambers daily. She notes that the Sonderkommando (prisoners forced to work in the gas chambers and crematoriums) were killed and replaced after each transport to prevent them from sharing secrets.
The Smell of Death: She recalls a persistent, "stinky smell" from the burning of bodies in the crematoriums.
The Incident of "Anne Frank"
Execution: The speaker recalls a young girl named Anne Frank who attempted to escape the camp. She was caught and hanged in front of all the prisoners at AM.
Identity: The speaker is unsure if this was the same Anne Frank from Holland who wrote the famous diary, but she remembers her as a brave child who was hanged for her attempted escape.
Medical Experiments and Physical Hardships
Menstrual Suppression: Medication was added to the food to prevent women from having their periods, as there were no hygiene supplies available.
Human Experimentation: The speaker's sister, Leah, was a twin. Every month, the Nazis took blood from her, claiming it was for the German army to keep them healthy.
Tattooing: Every prisoner who stayed in Auschwitz was tattooed. The speaker's number is . She recalls the process as very painful, like a needle point creating each part of the letter/number.
Winter and the Final Months of Internment
Premature Winter: Snow began falling in Auschwitz/Birkenau as early as September.
The Walk to Work: Prisoners walked approximately kilometers back and forth to work in deep snow.
Enforcement: Nazis used dogs to chase those who did not walk fast enough; those who still could not keep up were shot immediately.
Physical Ailments: The speaker suffered from frozen feet and diarrhea. Her sister would often carry her on her back to conceal the fact that she could not walk, as being sent to the camp hospital typically resulted in death in the crematorium.
Conclusion of Gassing: In October, the burning in the crematoriums stopped, leading the speaker and her sister to decide it was finally safe for the speaker to go to the hospital.
Reflection and Warning
Holocaust Denial: The speaker expresses anger toward those who claim the camps and gassings did not happen, stating that she and other survivors are the living proof.
Lasting Trauma: She reports having nightmares every night and states that it is impossible to forget the pain and trouble they endured.
Warning for the Future: She warns that there are still Nazis living in America who entered without proper identification after the war, and she cautions that if people are not vigilant, such events could happen again.
Questions & Discussion
Interviewer Query on Belief: When asked if people believed what was going to happen before the transport, the speaker explained that the return of escapees from the Russian border made the reality undeniable.
Interviewer Query on Police: When asked if she recognized the Hungarian policemen, she stated she did not know many of them personally.
Interviewer Query on Ghetto Conditions: The interviewer asked about the physical structure of the ghetto (fences/wires) and if the speaker worked. The speaker confirmed the fences and explained that only older youth and adults were given jobs as guards or food transporters.
Interviewer Query on the "Anne Frank" Hanging: The interviewer asked for clarification on whether the speaker believed the girl she saw hanged was the famous Anne Frank. The speaker clarified she only knew her as a brave young child and could not confirm the Holland connection.