Protocol Nr. 873

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Name: K. L.
Gender: female
Place of birth: Budapest
Date of birth: 1920
Place of residence: Kalocsa
Occupation: housewife
Concentration: Szeged brick factory
Camps: Auschwitz, Fallerslebel, Slaczwedel


The person in question has given us the following information: Before Easter, Jewish Laws forced me in Kalocsa to wear a yellow star. Later, we moved together. Jewish trade licences, shops were seized. On a Saturday they instructed us to get packed in two hours. We were not allowed to pack more than two sets of clothes, shoes and food for two weeks. Everything else had to be handed over including gold. They threatened to shoot us immediately if they found gold on us. We packed and started off towards Szeged, where we were lodged in a brick factory. There was misery. Everybody lay on the floor. The 17th of June, they entrained us: they crammed 80 people in each freight car. Germans took charge of us in Kassa, where they searched us and newly declared that they would shoot anyone who hid gold. We had to hand over money. We arrived in Auschwitz, we got off but could not bring any luggage. They said they would carry them to our place. The SS singled out parents and elderly people, and sent the young to the other side. Everything happened hurriedly, there was not even time to say hello, and they shouted "Los, Los": go fast. Mothers with little children were also sent into the group of the elderly and were led to the gas chamber. When we were walking we saw that they were burning dirty quilts. But there were some who escaped and they told us that there had been people who had not been killed by the gas and they hung on to the wall, because they wanted to live so much, till the flames swallowed them. There was a continuous smell of bones and they kept telling us: “we are burning dirty Jewish rags.” They disinfected us, cut our hair, we went out and they lodged us in the camp. First, we got into a place where we lay on the floor like sardines. In the morning we got a little coffee but we got no bread. At noon they gave us some kind of food prepared of nettles, which you would not even give to geese. The bread they gave us was made of bran. Every day, we had to be lined up for roll call early in the morning. If someone did not stand properly or a person was missing from the barrack, all the people from the block had to be on their knees on pebbles and mud. There was a doctor, Dr Mengele, who came to check whether people were not too thin. They said to the thin that they would take them to a summer resort. Mengele also selected one of my sisters and they took her away. I have not heard about her ever since. There was a beautiful woman called Grese who rode a bike. Thousands and thousands of people were standing there on their knees in scorching heat, and she took delight in watching us. Selections were very frequent: every week. People hid, especially who were thin but it was difficult to hide. If you hid one day the other day they would certainly catch you. That was how we lived till August, when they took us into a war plant in Fallersleben, which was a weapons factory. ### and we made big funnels in which they put the bombs. They treated us quite nicely. People died but of natural death. There were two shifts a day and we worked 10-12 hours a day. We left this place for the camp of Salzwedel, in the direction of Hanover. We did not need to work in Salzwedel. We already staved here, we had little bread to eat. We were so hungry that we ate raw turnips. The 11th of April 1945, Americans liberated us, and later the English took their place and we had a very good life. These were my own experiences. My future plans? I will go to Palestine with my brother.
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