Oral history interview with Vera Sklan

Oral history interview with Hilda Friend

Oral History

Oral history interview with Kurt Fuchs

Oral History

Kurt Fuchs (also Fuach), born November 3, 1925 in Vienna, Austria, discusses his family life and education; the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938; how his brother fled Austria; fleeing with his family to Brussels, Belgium in June 1939; the German invasion of Belgium; leaving and then returning to Brussels; the Gestapo arresting and deporting his family to Auschwitz on October 16, 1942; being brought to Birkenau; working at a coal mine camp; being transported to Buchenwald in December 1944; being taken to Krawinkel (Crawinkel) in the Thuringia Woods and then to another camp; marching back to Buchenwald; life in Buchenwald; how camp inmates obtained weapons and then held the SS guards hostage until American soldiers liberated the camp; contracting typhoid after liberation; and returning to Brussels.

Oral history interview with Kurt Herzog

Oral History

Kurt Herzog, born April 16, 1918 in Vienna, Austria, discusses employment difficulties for Jews prior to World War II; police involvement in Nazi activities; immigrating illegally to Belgium after the Anschluss in 1938; interning in refugee camps until May 1940; being deported to the French refugee camp St. Cyprien on May 10, 1940; being transported to Gurs and then to Drancy in the summer of 1942; being sent in a rail transport to Birkenau; being among the minority selected for work rather than gassed; an incident with SS officer Allmayer; being marched to Jawischowitz camp; learning about gassing from Auschwitz inmates; an incident in Vienna with a non-Jewish friend who helped his family; being transferred to Dora, a branch camp of Buchenwald, at the end of 1944; witnessing a mass execution; being evacuated to Ravensbrück during April 1945; a second evacuation from which he escaped; meeting Russian soldiers; returning to Vienna in 1945; moving to Australia in September 1948.

Oral history interview with Lisbeth Hurst

Oral History

Lisbeth Hurst, born October 29, 1921 in Vienna, Austria, discusses her family background and childhood; moving frequently; being introduced to a Zionist organization; being sent to work on an asparagus farm in Germany; being sent to Nordhausen, where she worked in a tobacco factory; hearing news that her parents moved to Hungary; escaping from Nordhausen to join her parents in Hungary; living in Hungary for 17 months before being sent to Auschwitz; arriving at the camp; being sent to Gleiwitz 2 manufacturing labor camp; being evacuated from Auschwitz on a death march; being aware of the Russian advance; being taken to a hospital in a Czech village; being sent to Terezin in April 1945; her liberation by Russian troops and the Red Cross; being sent to an internment camp in Prague, Czech Republic; moving to Hungary after the war; immigrating to Australia to be with her family; and meeting her husband and having children.

Oral history interview with Henry Mueller

Oral History

Henry Mueller, born May 21, 1916 in Vienna, Austria, discusses his family, education, and jobs before the Anschluss in 1938; going to visit his uncle; being arrested, beaten, and taken to Dachau concentration camp while in his uncle's town on November 10, 1938; the conditions and work in Dachau; how his brother obtained a ticket for him to go to Shanghai, China in April 1939; being freed from Dachau; going from Vienna to Trieste on May 10, 1939 where he journeyed by boat to Shanghai; arriving in Shanghai on June 4, 1939; conditions in Dachau; conditions in Shanghai; finding work as an electrician in Shanghai; moving to New Zealand in September 1948; moving to Melbourne, Australia in 1950; living in United States for 20 years; moving back to Sydney, Australia.

Oral history interview with Paul Muller

Oral History

Paul Muller, born December 20, 1913 in Vienna, Austria, discusses his family; receiving a visa to go to Yugoslavia in September 1938; staying in Zagreb (Croatia) for three months before going to Antwerp, Belgium; obtaining a fake passport so his brother could flee Austria; living in a Belgian refugee camp; fleeing from the camp to France when the war began; being transported to a camp in Orleans, France; being transferred to St. Cyprien camp and escaping; getting to Toulouse, France, where he was hospitalized for five weeks with typhoid fever; meeting up with his brother in the hospital; evading a round up; getting caught working in the black market; returning to Lyon, France, and working in construction; escaping to Zurich, Switzerland after the start of the German occupation of southern France; returning to Brussels, Belgium after the end of the war; joining his mother and sister in Australia; reasons behind his survival; and why he gave an oral testimony.

Oral history interview with Marijana Munk

Oral History

Marijana Munk, born April 26, 1918 in Vienna, Austria, discusses her childhood, family, and education in Lublijana, Slovenia and Zagreb, Croatia; how she met and married her husband and moved to Belgrade, Serbia; moving into a garrison town after the bombardment began in April 1941; a German officer being billeted in her house; her husband being taken away by the Gestapo to a camp, where her brother was also in late summer 1941; efforts to help get both out of the camp; the deaths of her brother and husband; crossing the Kosovo border in December 1941-January 1942; hiding in Pristina, Kosovo; fleeing to Durazzo (Durrës), Albania in June 1942; moving to Tirana, Albania; her second husband; moving to Israel in 1948; and finally settling in Australia.

Oral history interview with Richard Roberts

Oral History

Richard Roberts, born March 31, 1913 in Vienna, Austria, discusses his family background, his friends, and antisemitism; having anecdotal knowledge of what was happening in Germany as late as 1937; misconceptions about Hitler’s plans; being in the second wave of people to be sent to a concentration camp on May 31, 1938; being sent to Dachau as part of the first major transport from his district of Mallnitz; the conditions in Dachau; being forced to kneel during the crowded train ride; being treated in the camp hospital for six weeks; pretending to work; the guards’ pastime of shooting prisoners; volunteering for food supply duty; bribing the Kapos; being sent to Buchenwald in September 1938; and his release in January 1939.

Oral history interview with Else Steiner

Oral History

Else Steiner, born August 27, 1912 in Vienna, Austria, discusses life with her grandfather in Oradea, Romania; leaving Oradea for Budapest, Hungary in 1940; the start of the German occupation in 1944; hearing about a scheme conceived by Mrs. Fleischmann of Bratislava to give the Germans money and goods in exchange for the lives of certain Jews; getting a spot on the transport; traveling in cattle cars after negotiations with German troops; stopping in Moson-Magyarovar, Linz, and Bergen-Belsen; spending six weeks in Bergen-Belsen until December 1944; travelling to the Swiss and Austrian border at St. Margarethen; stopping in Bern; staying in a deserted hotel in Caux sur Montreux, Switzerland; having to declare their financial assets; how people with money in Switzerland were allowed to leave; receiving money from her brother in the United States; how the group was almost deported to Kenya but was instead allowed to stay in Switzerland; celebrating the May 1945 armistice at a Swiss girl’s home in Zurich; how most of her family perished during the war; and returning to her hometown of Kiskunfegyhaza, Hungary.

Oral history interview with Edith Adler

Oral History

Edith Adler, born April 15, 1924 in Brno, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic), discusses the first effects of Nazism on her life; getting married in 1941 and being sent to Terezin one month later; becoming very sick and staying twice in the hospital; her father having his arm amputated due to gangrene; remaining together with her family despite living separately; being transported to Auschwitz, where she spent ten days; being sent to a labor camp in October 1944; seeing people lining up for gas chambers; being sent to the Freiberg camp; being transported through Czechoslovakia during March and April of 1945; arriving in Mauthausen in mid-April 1945; how the Germans fled the camp; the American liberation of the camp; returning to Brno; her second marriage; moving to Israel in May 1949; and moving to Australia in January 1959.

Oral history interview with David Benedikt

Oral History

Oskar David Benedikt, born July 11, 1920 in Brno, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic), discusses his family background; being transported to Terezin; getting transported to Salaspils camp in Latvia; being transported along with the remaining prisoners to the Riga ghetto; how only half of the trucks delivered people to the ghetto; the liquidation of the Riga ghetto; being transported to the Kaiserwald concentration camp just outside of Riga; being transported to Stutthof when Kaiserwald was liquidated; his experience on a death march to Putzik (Puck), Poland in March 1945; seeing the guards flee the camp; losing consciousness for three or four days and waking up to see Russian tanks; getting married; moving to Czechoslovakia; traveling to Switzerland; moving to Australia, then to South Africa, and then back to Australia again; and his feelings on resistance and survival.

Oral history interview with Ilona Blair

Oral History

Ilona Blair, born December 12, 1929 in Uzhorod, Czechoslovakia (Uzhhorod, Ukraine), discusses Hungarians taking over her town and depriving Jews of rights; how her father refused an offer to enter into hiding; being forced to move into the ghetto in her hometown; being transported to and arriving at Auschwitz on May 20, 1944; the conditions at the camp; being told about the gas chambers and not believing it at first; being moved to Hamburg, Germany; the bombing of Hamburg; having to escape the bomb shelter because of the bombing; fleeing to the nearest field; realizing the end of the war was coming; being taken to Bergen-Belsen; being told that she would not leave the camp alive; seeing the SS change into civilian clothes in order to avoid getting caught; how the guards tried to save their own lives, going to the prisoners’ quarters because they were in fear of being bombed; how half the transport died in the ten days that they were in Bergen-Belsen; contracting typhus just before liberation; being liberated; going to Sweden; being treated in a hospital in Sweden and then living there for two years; finding out that her sisters were alive; moving to Australia with her sister; having mixed reactions to the Jewish community in Australia; and meeting her husband.

Oral history interview with Gertrude Davis

Oral History

Oral history interview with Peter Engelman

Oral History

Peter Henry Engelman, born May 15, 1924 in Prague, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic), discusses his childhood; Nazism and antisemitism in Prague before the war; being in the Prague ghetto for two and a half years; being transported to Theresienstadt; the ghetto and Jewish leaders; jobs and living conditions in the ghetto; ghetto administration and law enforcement; being moved to a labor camp during the summer of 1944; being transferred to Auschwitz; the conditions at and the administrative structure of Auschwitz; Mengele and medical experiments in the camp; the camp guards; communication in the camp; escape and resistance; interpersonal relationships in the camp; being selected to work in a factory in an “Außenlager” associated with Buchenwald in Taucha, Germany; escaping and being transported to the main camp in Buchenwald; being transferred to Mauthausen; his failed escape attempt; successfully escaping from the camp; the conditions in Buchenwald; life after the war; and immigrating to Australia in 1949.

Oral history interview with Harry Farbenblum

Oral History

Harry Farbenblum, born December 30, 1925 in Munačevo, Czechoslovakia (Mukacheve, Ukraine), discusses the impacts of the 1938 Hungarian occupation of his area; working and leaving school; living in his town’s ghetto for 10 weeks; the Judenrat; the liquidation of the entire ghetto in March 1944; lack of information about where they were going to be sent; arriving in Auschwitz after a ten day cattle car ride; trying to stay together with family; identifying himself as a mechanic; being sent to Fünfteichen (Laskowitz-Meleschwitz) work camp for almost one year; how the conditions were slightly better there since there was a need for mechanics; being evacuated on foot to Gross-Rosen as the Russians were coming closer; working at the crematoria for three weeks; moving to Nordhausen by train during February and March of 1945; being sent to Dora-Mittelbau from March through April 1, 1945; proceeding on to Osterode work camp until liberation; working as a mechanic at every camp; his memories of SS troops fleeing; his memories of liberation by American troops; taking a motorbike and exploring other camps looking for his family; finding his sister and five cousins; moving to Prague, Czech Republic and living there for four years; marrying and leaving Czechoslovakia with his pregnant wife; receiving assistance from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee; travelling throughout the United States; and eventually settling in Australia.

Oral history interview with Zelda Farbenblum

Oral History

Zelda Farbenblum, born June 28, 1926 in Kosice, Czechoslovakia (Slovakia), discusses her childhood; being deported on the evening of Tisha B’av in 1941; her father failing to believe a warning he received telling him to leave; being dumped in a field by Hungarian soldiers; moving often; managing to pay for a transport across the river Dniester; wandering for almost a month; reaching the border again with her family; her father's death; the separation of her family; living on a property which had belonged to her father; being put into the Chust ghetto in 1943; life in the ghetto; being transported to Auschwitz in May 1944; arriving at Birkenau; her memories of roll-call; feeling dehumanized; being transported to Nürnberg (Nuremberg, Germany) in November 1944; staying in Nürnberg a little less than a month; being taken to Plauen, Germany, where she worked in an ammunitions factory; hearing rumors about American troops nearing the factory; being told she was free but not believing it until she saw that all the Germans and Hungarians had fled; going to a nearby village and seeing American soldiers; being rehabilitated for about three months; going to Prague, Czech Republic in hopes of finding family in 1946; working in Prague and meeting her husband and fellow survivor, Harry; and leaving for Australia in 1949.

Oral history interview with Mendel Gelberman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Olga Grunbaum

Oral History

Olga Grunbaum, born May 9, 1928 in Neresnice, Czechoslovakia (Neresnytsia, Ukraine), discusses her family; how her father was taken away; being sent to Hungary to be an apprentice; returning home when the Germans took over in 1944; being home for three days before her entire village was taken to a ghetto in Mateszalka, Hungary; being moved to Auschwitz; getting separated from her mother and sister; seeing the gas chambers and crematoria; how a woman in her barrack gave birth; suspected medical experimentation; being taken to the hospital; two encounters with Dr. Mengele; meeting a Sonderkommando member, Abraham Turofsky, who was later killed; meeting a cousin who would be her only surviving relative; leaving Auschwitz in October 1944; staying in Ravensbrück for two weeks before being sent to work in an airplane parts factory in Lippstadt, Germany; her contact with German civilians at the end of the war; escaping during the last month before liberation; seeing the first Russian soldiers; returning to Budapest, Hungary; meeting her husband; being warned that she was on a death list in 1956 and going into hiding; immigrating to Australia in 1966; and how she is still haunted by her experiences during the war.

Oral history interview with Nicholas Halmay

Oral History

Nicholas Halmay, born January 15, 1922 in Kosice, Czechoslovakia (Slovakia), discusses his family background; attending Budapest University; being sent to Siebenburgen labor camp when he was conscripted to the Hungarian labor service in October 1943; being attached to the German Organization TODT in January 1944; being sent to work in the Stuhlweissenburg camp in Székesfehérvár, Hungary; the conditions of the camp and its inmates; working in the paymaster’s office until October 1944; his childhood before the war in Kosice; the conditions in Kosice in April 1942 when he left for Budapest University; the German Army taking over Hungarian companies on March 19, 1944; escaping the camp using false papers when the Arrow Cross ordered all Germans to leave; returning to the camp, but being unable to get his job back; being taken to Schattendorf, Austria on October 18, 1944; being transported to Mauthausen; conditions in Mauthausen; the Kapo system; an incident in the sick bay in Schattendorf; being marched to Gunskirchen camp in Austria; conditions in the camp; being liberated by the American Army; walking to Wels, Austria; losing consciousness and being taken to a hospital near Linz, Austria; returning to Kosice; and finding his sister alive.

Oral history interview with John Horak

Oral History

John Horak, born December 29, 1919 in TrencTeplice, Czechoslovakia (Trenčianské Teplice, Slovakia), discusses his family background and childhood; moving to Bratislava, Slovakia; studying for three years in Brno, Czech Republic; memories of the 1939 German occupation; returning home in 1939 to help with his parents’ business; the benefits of his family’s good connections; going into hiding in 1943 after being warned about a round up; sending a letter to the minister of education, whom he knew, with a desperate plea; how the minister helped him for a year; being sent to a transit camp Zilina, where he could move around freely; joining the underground; having a fake identity; an incident in which the SS and local guards almost caught him in September or October of 1944; going into hiding with a couple until December 1944; being sent to that couple’s parents’ house in Male Bedzany in the Tatry mountains; getting sick on the way there; the couple nursing him back to health and giving him fake papers; villages being taken by the Russian army on April 2 or 3, 1945; meeting a Jewish Russian officer who hosted him and helped him get back to Bratislava; stopping at a village where he found his brother and mother who were in hiding; and living in Bratislava until 1948 when he immigrated to Australia.

Oral history interview with Olga Horak

Oral History

Olga Horak, born August 11, 1926 in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia (Slovakia), discusses her family background; experiencing little change in her situation until March 1942; fleeing with her family to Hungary; living in hiding in Budapest, Hungary for a year and a half; the lack of help from others; returning home to Bratislava as a result of a tip-off by a friend about door to door searches by Germans; being hidden by a friend of her mother; receiving papers to go to the United States; being taken to the town of Marianka, Slovakia and then to Sered camp for four or five days; being sent to Auschwitz; the selection; marching 250km from November until January to Gross-Rosen; seeing the German army retreat; going to Bergen-Belsen; being liberated by British troops on April 15; getting sick and being transferred from the camp to a German hospital; being refused care due to their antisemitic attitudes; being transferred back to the sick bay at Bergen-Belsen where she stayed until August; being taken to the hospital in Pilsen (Plzen, Czech Republic); going back to Bratislava; fleeing the impending Russian occupation in 1947; going to Zagreb, Croatia and then to Zurich, Switzerland; and arriving in Australia in 1949.

Oral history interview with Gisela Hrones

Oral History

Gisela Hrones, born June 15, 1908 in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic), discusses her childhood; how her family valued her and her three brothers' education; her parents’ disdain, which gradually eased, with her for marrying a non-Jew in 1935; the unexpected nature of the German occupation; fleeing with her brothers; how she divorced, got baptized, and then remarried her husband to avoid persecution; leaving her husband and son as she began to move frequently; obtaining someone else’s papers; staying in contact with her husband; how the Gestapo imprisoned her husband ‘because of her’ in 1943; escaping to Pancava, a small mountain village in Slovakia, once the Germans came to Slovakia in Autumn 1944; how the mayor of that town agreed to shelter her; living and working with the peasants in the village for eight months; being warned whenever a German patrol was near; the arrival of a Czech brigade from the Soviet army; moving to Košice, Slovakia; setting up services for the future Czech government; moving, along with her department to Prague, Czech Republic; meeting up with her husband and son; illegally leaving Czechoslovakia in 1948; and moving to Australia in June 1949.

Oral history interview with Barbara Hunt

Oral History

Barbara Hunt (née Wiald, married name was Hutterer before changing it to Hunt), born September 15, 1917 in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia (Slovakia), discusses her childhood, education, and family background; marrying; the birth of her first child who died during the war; life with her family in Vác, Hungary; antisemitism and restrictions she faced; her husband being sent to a work camp in Hungary in 1940; restrictions against Jewish businesses; secretly working at a bakery; her husband returning home for a short time before being rounded up and sent to work in Kiev; more restrictions against Jews; the return of her husband; the creation of a ghetto in Vác; moving into the ghetto with her two children; escaping the ghetto to Budapest, Hungary; hiding her daughter and son with gentiles; her memories of being rounded up on March 19, 1944; marching to a brick factory; marching to the Austrian border; escaping with the help of a peasant farmer; getting Aryan papers; working as a maid; being helped by a gentile friend of her mother; being captured; the Russian assault of Budapest and the end of the battle for Budapest; the return of her husband; family members who perished; leaving Hungary; and her transit through Austria to Australia.

Oral history interview with Lilly Kalina

Oral History

Lilly Kalina, born September 21, 1921 in Prague, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic), discusses her childhood and family; being relatively affluent until 1939-1940 when life changed dramatically because of antisemitic laws; relatives moving into her family’s apartment; her boyfriend working as a medical officer which gave her and her family protection; her family and friends being transported to camps; her brother committing suicide in December 1941; being among the last to be transported to Theresienstadt in 1943; being assigned to the agricultural detail in Theresienstadt, which allowed her to avoid being shipped to Auschwitz; her brother and his wife being on the Masaryk Transport to Auschwitz; her mother and father almost being sent to Auschwitz; her fiancé being sent to Auschwitz in October 1944; signs that the war was ending; seeing prisoners arrive from other camps; daily life in Theresienstadt; the death of her fiancé; marrying her next boyfriend in 1946; leaving Czechoslovakia for Denmark; and going to Sydney, Australia in 1948.

Oral history interview with Paul Kalina

Oral History

Paul Kalina, born April 29, 1910 in Beregszasz, Czechoslovakia (Berehove, Ukraine), discusses his schooling and family life; being called up to the Czech army at Košice; being mobilized in March 1938; being sent back to Beregszasz in November 1938 when it became a Hungarian territory; the imposition of antisemitic laws; being conscripted into the Hungarian army for eight months; being sent to Transylvania to a forced labor camp in 1940; returning home; being sent to a different camp in 1941 and then being sent home again; being transported to a labor camp on the Don River on the Russian front in June 1942; the retreat of the Hungarian and German armies in January 1943; the Jewish laborers deciding to stay behind; being taken prisoner by the Russians; being marched to Chrobonoboje prison camp; a typhus outbreak; staying in the hospital from May to December of 1943; working in the forest; being sent to Lager 101 for punishment after assaulting a Russian soldier; returning to the forest camp after four months; leaving the camp on June 4, 1944 for Satagura; fighting in the Czech army; settling in Prague in 1946; and immigrating to Australia.

Oral history interview with Eugen Klein

Oral History

Eugen Klein, born April 27, 1929 in Presov, Czechoslovakia, discusses the Jewish community in Presov; his family background; the start of deportations once the war began; being deported along with the rest of his family; how his train stopped at Auschwitz but continued on to the ghetto in Deblin, Poland; being sent to the Deblin labor camp; having to bury bodies in a mass grave during the Deblin ghetto’s liquidation; being taken to Czestochowa, Poland to work in an ammunition factory; the working conditions; being injured while working at the factory; being sent to Buchenwald with his cousin; the living conditions in the camp; his cousin getting pneumonia and recovering; the liquidation of the camp as American troops neared; the German guards fleeing the camp; seeing American tanks going towards Weimar; being too weak to move because of a lack of food or water; being liberated by American troops; how the Americans took care of them; remaining at the camp for six to eight weeks; going back to Presov with his cousin; immigrating to Australia in 1949; marrying in 1956 and having two children; and the reason for his survival.

Oral history interview with Alex Lowy

Oral History

Oral history interview with Herman Matzner

Oral History

Oral history interview with Frida Milder

Oral History

Frida Milder, born December 1, 1924 in Bunkovce, Czechoslovakia, discusses her family background; changes after the Fascist takeover; living right on the Hungarian/Slovakian border; having soldiers billeted at her house; her disbelief upon hearing about pogroms and disappearances; instability on the border; hearing about men being deported to labor camps or work projects; her brother moving to the US; the Sudetenland invasion; being sent away to school; not fitting in with other Jewish students; being forced to leave normal school; having to get identification documents in Budapest; how almost all Jews were deported by 1943; living part time with her future husband’s parents; meeting her future husband, Emil; the 1944 German invasion; the SS occupying their house and putting her under house arrest as they were the only Jewish family on the border; her family living in Sobrance, Slovakia; hearing that her family was forced to move into the Uzhorod ghetto; bringing food and other supplies to her family; being transported to Auschwitz; becoming separated from her family and future husband; realizing that her parents had been incinerated; her determination and actions taken in an effort to survive; working in the food store; contracting typhoid; marching 40km then riding in wagons to Ravensbrück, then to Taucha; being liberated by Russian troops; receiving medical care; a chance reunion with Emil; marrying in 1945; moving to Košice, Slovakia; and immigrating to Australia.

Oral history interview with Judith Nachum

Oral History

Judith Nachum, born July 7, 1928 in Teplice, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic), discusses her family’s background; her schooling; rising antisemitism and the start of the occupation of Sudetenland; moving to Prague, Czech Republic for a while, then being sent to the country to attend a Czech school; acting as an interpreter for her mother whose Czech was limited; her father losing his job and attempting to go to Palestine; her family being declared foreigners by the Germans because of their strong Jewish identity; her mother’s efforts to help her grandmother in Vienna, Austria; her view of Benjamin Murmelstein; moving back to Prague; having to give up her belongings in 1942; being forced to move into the Theresienstadt Ghetto in 1942; leaving her house without yet a sense of fear; her arrival at the ghetto; getting a job with her mother in the nursery growing vegetables for the Germans; contracting scarlet fever; stealing food; being deported to Birkenau and then to Oederan, a subcamp of Flossenbürg, in October and November 1944; how Gertrude Weniger, the SS woman in charge, tried to befriend her mother; working outdoors laying electric cables; being afraid because of the bombings; the impending German defeat; sabotaging her work in the factory; evacuating the camp in April 1945; Weniger confiding in her mother about the atrocities she committed; going back to the Theresienstadt Ghetto before going to Prague on May 4, 1945, the day before the ghetto's liberation; staying in Prague until leaving for Israel; and moving to Australia.

Oral history interview with Alex Odze

Oral History

Alex Odze, born February 21, 1921 in Krasny-Brod, Czechoslovakia (Slovakia), discusses his family and educational background; the Jewish community in his town; becoming aware of what was happening in Germany in 1936; the beginning of restrictions on the Jewish community in 1936; being taken away in a cattle car to Majdanek during April 1942; working to dig ditches; volunteering to work on a farm and being sent to work on a farm at Auschwitz; the responses of non-Jews to Jewish persecution; working in the stables with horses and becoming the private horse-hand to the SS chief; getting special treatment from the SS chief; getting punished for throwing an apple to his sister; being thrown naked in the cold after a bath; how before the crematoria existed, there were fires in big ditches and almost every alive person from transports except the young people were thrown into them; the decision to clear out Auschwitz in January 1945; being taken on horse and in a cart for one week in a death march to Czechoslovakia; being transferred via train to Prague, Czech Republic and then to Mauthausen; being taken to Gunskirche in a cattle car without being given food for about ten days; being liberated by American soldiers after ten days in Gunskirche; getting food from an Austrian farmer; going back to Czechoslovakia to look for his family; going back to his hometown; realizing there was no place for him there; moving to Israel; and later moving to Australia.

Oral history interview with Margaret Odze

Oral History

Margaret Odze, born May 10, 1924 in Czechoslovakia, discusses her family and her background; her father’s business being destroyed and many turning against her family in 1938; being sent to another family who could feed her; receiving orders to report to the synagogue the Friday before Passover 1942; getting put on a cattle car to Auschwitz; the food and sleeping conditions; doing outdoor work at Birkenau; her kind German supervisor; getting chosen to be a red scarf commando to sort out the possessions of those sent to the gas chambers in 1943; her new supervisor falling in love with a Jewish girl and saving the girl’s sister but not her children from the gas chambers; being moved to work at Brezinka, next to the crematorium where she saw everything, and where, due to the volume of people being gassed, she worked both day and night shifts; being taken away from Brezinka in December 1944 as the Russians advanced; the death march; arriving and staying at Ravensbrück for two months; marching again to Malchow and staying there for about a month; being taken on another march with two SS men, one of whom fled while the other finally let them free; being found by the Russians; going to a displaced persons camp; going to register with the Red Cross in Prague, Czech Republic, and finding her brothers; marrying; moving to Israel and then to Australia; and life in Australia.

Oral history interview with Jerry Rind

Oral History

Jerry (Jaroslav) Rind, born March 12, 1924 in Sudoměřice, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic), discusses finding out that he was Jewish at the age of ten; his parents’ background; the Munich Conference and start of the occupation; realizing that to be a Jew is to be alone, evidenced by treatment by neighbors; being transported to Theresienstadt in 1942; being put in the Ustecké Kasarny barracks; working in the crematoria; being transferred to Birkenau; the humiliation endured in the camp; his work in Gleiwitz; seeing US bombers; thinking that he would have welcomed them bombing Auschwitz; getting pneumonia and being put in the hospital; being told by patients about plans to evacuate the camp; how he was thrown on a truck to get shot but the guards suddenly left to avoid the Russians; the arrival of Russian forces; arriving in Krakow, Poland; later going to Prague, Czech Republic and finding his sister; returning to Sudoměřice; and moving to Australia.

Oral history interview with Ignaz Roth

Oral History

Oral history interview with Sami Schonberg

Oral History

Sami Schonberg, born in 1917 in Olmitz, Czechoslovakia (possibly Olomouc, Czech Republic), discusses his family background; moving to Belgium in 1919; not foreseeing the German occupation; the increasing restrictions and chaos for Jews; trying to go to southern France with his sister, but getting caught and imprisoned separately during August 1942; being moved around prisons until October 1942; someone discovering that he had false papers and sending him to deportation barracks; hearing about “what happens to Jews” and deciding to jump the train to the camp in January 1943; going to Brussels to receive help from Professor Perlman; receiving false papers; being taken into hiding with his cousin and his cousin’s girlfriend; renting a room in a pub for 3-4 months; disobeying the orders for Belgian Jews to come to the Gestapo headquarters and instead fleeing; going back to his cousin’s place to go back into hiding; being liberated by the British and American armies; having a hard time making ends meet until 1960 when he got a job near Lyon, France; and moving to Australia after being encouraged to do so by a relative.

Oral history interview with Ruzina Schwartz

Oral History

Ruzena (Rose) Schwartz, born September 6, 1924 in Stropkov, Czechoslovakia (Slovakia), discusses her background; being in the first transport of girls from her town in 1942; going in buses and then in cattle cars to Auschwitz; her work at the camp; telling people new at the camp about the gas chambers; contracting typhoid; working at the gates and seeing new transports arrive; her will to survive; the selections; being evacuated from Birkenau; marching and then being put into a wagon to Ravensbrück, then to Neustad-Glewe prison camp; the SS disappearing suddenly; being liberated; various jobs that she had in the camps; seeing Mengele in the hospital; her reasons for wanting to survive; being in the Russian zone after liberation; arriving in Prague, Czech Republic after liberation; coming back to her hometown where she had nothing left; how a family invited her to stay at their house until her papers came; marrying the son of the family; returning to Belgium and living there for six years; and immigrating to Australia in 1952.

Oral history interview with Edith Sheldon

Oral History

Edith Sheldon, born January 7, 1927 in Prague, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic), discusses her family background; being expelled from her girl guides group and from school when they were under Nazi rule; the Jewish ghetto in Prague; the first transports to Theresienstadt in November 1941; living in the young girls’ barracks; punitive measures in the camp; how the lack of sanitation caused her to contract many illnesses; learning about the Russian advance from people transported from the east; staying with friends back in Prague after the war ended for a few weeks; how her mother remained in Theresienstadt taking care of older sick people; poor conditions under the Russians; finishing school; working and going to university part-time until the 1948 communist takeover when she was expelled from university for having a bourgeois background; being deprived of Czech nationality; her mother and sister being treated like Nazis because they put German nationality on their passports; deciding to leave Prague and immigrate to Australia in July 1949 without her mother; building a life in Australia; marrying in 1952 and having children; and the reasons for her survival.

Oral history interview with Helen Shonberg

Oral History

Helen Shonberg (née Hoffman), born October 4, 1929 in Prague, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic), discusses her background; her schooling; facing restrictions after the Nazi takeover; all of her family gradually being sent to Theresienstadt; accommodations and daily life in Theresienstadt; being sent to Auschwitz in 1943 after the Red Cross left and Theresienstadt was liquidated; being sent to a family camp in Birkenau; how she and her mother were almost sent to the gas chambers; being transported to Kratzau, a women’s labor camp with an ammunitions factory in Czechoslovakia in July 1944; doing washing and cleaning but no hard labor at Kratzau; being taken on a death march; seeing bombs falling; after 12 days arriving at a train station where they were put on cattle cars; arriving at Bergen-Belsen; working as a messenger until the SS disappeared; her mother being sick when British troops liberated the camp; her mother being taken to a hospital; going to see her mother after a few days after going to an orphanage where she gained employment as a translator; going back to Prague during August 1945; leaving Czechoslovakia after the 1948 communist takeover and eventually making her way to the United States with her mother; and moving to Australia in 1951 to be with her uncle and his wife.

Oral history interview with Gertrude Skalsky

Oral History

Gertrude Skalsky, born February 22, 1915 in Teplice, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic), discusses her childhood and education; moving to Prague, Czech Republic in 1938; her father hiding with false papers until 1944 when he was taken to a camp and disappeared; getting a job in a pathology laboratory; seeing 1000 men taken to Theresienstadt and to the Łódź ghetto in November 1941; working in a nursery; being taken to the Theresienstadt ghetto in April 1942; getting a job in the ghetto hospital; the conditions in the hospital; the SS cleaning up Theresienstadt for inspection by the Red Cross; being taken to Auschwitz in October 1944 with her mother and sister; the selection on the platform by Dr. Mengele; staying at Auschwitz for a few days before being taken by train to Chemnitz, Germany and then to an ammunition factory 50 km from Dresden, Germany; being in the factory camp; being put on a train for days in April 1945; arriving at a chemical factory in Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic; going back to Theresienstadt; leaving Theresienstadt on Russian tanks and arriving in Prague, Czech Republic; going to the Red Cross and getting an empty flat until 1947 when she got into nursing; and meeting her husband.

Oral history interview with Magda Spira

Oral History

Magda Spira, born December 4, 1924, in Kosice, Czechoslovakia, discusses her family background; moving from a farm in a village to Kosice; how Hungary taking over the region in 1938 was a happy time for Jews; life going on undisturbed by the start of war in 1939; Jewish men having to wear armbands in 1943 when Milankovic was the commander of the labor camp; the Hungarians under German direction taking the Jews to the Kosice ghetto; transports beginning to leave the ghetto; her whole family being taken on the third transport on June 3, 1944; arriving in Auschwitz on June 5th; being told to stand away from her sister during selections because of their likeness; being transferred with her sisters to the Kaiserwald camp near Riga, Latvia; working sorting clothes; being transferred to Stutthof camp via Danzig by boat during the autumn of 1944; leaving after two days and going to Magdeburg by train; working in the Polte factory; having to march to Ladeburg in April 1945; the German guards fleeing; escaping into the forest with her sisters and eventually arriving in Kosice on May 7, 1945; and moving to Israel for three years and then to Australia.

Oral history interview with Gisela Stein

Oral History

Gisela Stein, born July 21, 1926, in Stropkov, Czechoslovakia (Slovakia), discusses her family; her prewar life; not being affected by the events in Germany until Polish refugees arrived in 1939; officers being billeted at her house; Jewish refugees being taken first; young singles being taken in March 1942; her mother hiding her in the hospital; being hidden with her sister in Bardejov, Slovakia for two months; her family receiving special treatment because her father owned the town’s bank; her grandfather escaping from Treblinka in July 1942 and telling her family everything, causing her mother to decide to get the four older children to Hungary; staying in Nyiregyhaza; escaping from the ghetto to Debrecen; trying to get smuggled back home but getting caught without papers on the train; getting sent to Novaky work camp; prisoners fleeing to the partisans, who battled with the Germans during September 1944 and took the prisoners to Zlate Moravce, Slovakia; being taken to Auschwitz; joining a transport to Zittau; feeling that they were lucky because they neither froze, starved, nor were evacuated from there; the guards fleeing a week before the Russians liberated the camp; the bombing raids and other events during that week; crossing the Czech border with help by the Jewish Commandant of the Russian army; wandering from place to place before settling for a while in Kosice; her reasons for giving testimony; and her thoughts on survival.

Oral history interview with Braham Stern

Oral History

Braham Stern, born October 8, 1930 in Svarlava, Czechoslovakia, discusses being sent to military quarters to receive treatment; making friends with an American soldier; taking the train back to Svarlava; moving to Frydlant v Cechach, Czech Republic; applying to the Jewish Welfare Guardian scheme to go to Australia and arriving in 1947; his life in Sydney; and reasons for giving his testimony. Note: this record is missing the first part of the recording; however, the summary for the content includes the following information: Braham Stern, born October 8, 1930 in Svarlava, Czechoslovakia, discusses traveling after the war; how his father immigrated to the United States and then returned to Czechoslovakia where he was less tolerant of Nazi discrimination; his home life; being more aware than most about the impending political situation, but choosing to stay rather than leave; his family being sent to the Mukacevo ghetto; staying in the ghetto for several months before being taken to Auschwitz; his daily routine; the camp’s demoralizing nature; being transferred to Mauthausen after about six weeks; having to work in stone mines; new arrivals being a constant feature in 1943; becoming aware that the war was going badly for the Germans in the beginning of 1945; being unable to walk and so staying in his bunk the last two or three weeks before liberation; and being liberated by US forces in May 1945.

Oral history interview with Marianna Weinberger

Oral History

Oral history interview with Jack Weiser

Oral History

Jack (Jacob) Weiser, born December 5, 1919 in Spisska Nova Ves, Czechoslovakia (Slovakia), discusses his family background and education; being sent to learn a trade at Lucenec, Slovakia from 1937 to 1940; remaining in Lucenec during the start of the Hungarian occupation in order to complete his apprenticeship; returning home illegally in 1940; returning to Trencin, Slovakia to work with a non-Jewish boss for two years; returning to Trencin from visiting his mother for Passover to find that he missed registering there; his boss getting him exemption documents; how, one year later, his boss went to Bratislava and got him exemption papers but eventually all exemptions ceased; Germans arriving and intensifying round-ups of the Jews; going to Bratislava with fake papers; being helped by a non-Jewish couple when there was a round-up on Rosh Hashanah in 1944; getting a job using his fake papers and staying in the job until the end of the war; losing his fake papers and having to get new ones; liberation by the Russians; starting a business; leaving Czechoslovakia illegally when the communist regime began tightening restrictions; staying in Vienna, Austria for a six months before getting a permit; and leaving for Australia.

Oral history interview with Irene Weiss

Oral History

Irene Weiss (née Berger), born October 31, 1914 in Ardanovce, Czechoslovakia (Slovakia), discusses her family background; her schooling and working in Trnava, Slovakia; being transported with her sister via the Patronka collection depot in Bratislava to Auschwitz in March 1942; her arrival at Auschwitz and being processed the day after they arrived; being in the second Jewish transport to Auschwitz; working conditions in the camp; working cleaning bricks and in the fields; working in the Schreibstube office working to register new arrivals; her and her sister being transferred to Birkenau in August 1942; continuing to work to register new arrivals but when fewer transports began arriving the Schreibstube closed down temporarily; getting various jobs in the Stubendienst; she and her sister getting typhus; getting an order to go to Auschwitz and changing into an Aryan prisoner uniform; being placed to live in the Polish barrack; starting work in the new Schreibstube, registering prisoners ready to be sent to the gas chambers; living in the basement of Stabsgebaude and working in the Politische Abteilung as one of 60 women prisoners on staff; how the gassing stopped during November 1944; the SS officers preparing to flee Auschwitz; prisoners starting to equip themselves with warm clothing and being told to leave the camp; going to Bielitz (Bielsko-Biala, Poland), then on to Ravensbrück, Neustadt-Glewe, Mecklenburg, and Prenzlau; and finding a Stalag prisoner-of-war camp, in which was the nephew of the Czech president (Eduard Benes), who organized a bus to bring her back to Prague and then home.

Oral history interview with Lotte Weiss

Oral History

Oral history interview with Magda Winston

Oral History

Magda Winston, born June 23, 1914 in Topolcany, Czechoslovakia (Slovakia), discusses her religious and personal background; studying languages in Vienna, Austria for two years; her reaction to the events in Germany while in Vienna; her Austrian relatives arriving in 1938 as refugees; knowing Slovakian President Tiso personally; having to wear yellow stars in 1941 under Tiso; deportations to Majdanek starting; her parents being saved from deportation because of papers given by Tiso; her husband being arrested in November 1942; incidents with the governess’s brother and with a government secretary; seeing the partisans arriving; the liberation of Slovakia in September 1944; hearing that the German Army was coming back and leaving town with her husband on false papers for Banská-Bystrica, Slovakia; staying two weeks in a peasant’s house; leaving for the forest to join partisans; being told to leave the partisans; Germans occupying her valley in November 1944; hearing that her parents and 28 others were shot in the forest by the Germans; seeing German soldiers looking for partisans in the nearby village in January 1945; running and finding her husband and staying in a different place until the end of the war; and walking back to her hometown.

Oral history interview with Heinz Bohm

Oral History

Heinz Bohm, born October 8, 1922 in Duisburg, Germany, discusses his childhood; the religious community in her town; living in Duisburg until the age of 16; not much public antisemitism until after the Nuremberg laws’ implementation in 1935; the first wave of mass arrests of Polish Jews after November 1938; being arrested on November 9th and being held in prison for one week; returning to find his home destroyed, his mother sick, and his father having been shipped to Dachau; evacuating to Utrecht, Netherlands with his parents in a children’s transport; leaving Holland in May 1943; going first to Belgium, then to Switzerland, where he was interned in a work camp; moving to a refugee camp in Switzerland; being in three refugee camps before getting a scholarship to the University of Basel; getting papers from Central America so his parents could emigrate; receiving a letter saying that his parents and brother were deported from Westerbork to Sobibor, where they died; going to university in Basel, Switzerland from 1944 until late 1948; going to Munich, Germany but feeling uncomfortable in Germany, so deciding to emigrate from Germany to Australia; and his life in Australia.

Oral history interview with Charlotte Dessen

Oral History

Charlotte Dessen, born September 18, 1925 in Gardelegen, Germany, discusses her family and educational background; her family being taken to a ghetto; arriving at Auschwitz; the selections; the conditions; no one working initially, then being placed for work in an ammunitions factory; an injury where she lost a finger; the time of recuperation in the hospital being dangerous because of selections; returning to work; undergoing full body searches; three girls being condemned to death for stealing ammunition to blow up the gas chambers; hearing the Russians were nearing in January 1945; the forced death march; arriving in Ravensbrück; having her toes amputated because of frost bite; hearing the Russians near, and staying behind when her block was cleared because she couldn’t walk; being liberated by the Russians on April 29, 1945; working as a clothes sorter in Auschwitz and finding money and a diamond in the clothing; being rescued from gassing; liberation and being moved to Berlin, Germany by train; returning with a friend from the camp to her hometown; getting her house back and being treated nicely by the townspeople; immigrating to South Africa via Paris, France; and living in South Africa for 19 years before moving to Australia in 1966.

Oral history interview with Henry Dreyer

Oral History

Oral history interview with Renate Harding

Oral History

Renate Harding, born March 21, 1930 in Recklinghausen, Germany, discusses her childhood and home life in Germany; going with her mother to South Africa in 1934; her father leaving Germany in 1933 when he was banned from practicing law; life in the small town Waschbank, South Africa; her family’s farm, Kameelkop; schooling at Dundee; going to boarding school at Moiriver (Mooirivier), where she was discriminated against as a German citizen; her Jewish home life; going to high school in Pietermaritzburg; her family moving to Johannesburg; earning a bachelor’s degree in dietetics from the University of Pretoria; going to the United States on a scholarship but coming back to Pretoria where she earned her masters degree; moving to Perth, Australia as she gained a position at the Royal Perth hospital; moving to Sydney in 1960 to work for the health department; and developing an interest in her Jewish roots.

Oral history interview with Peter Schrader

Oral History

Peter Schrader, born December 9, 1936 in Berlin, Germany, discusses his family’s background; his family being partly Jewish and partly non-Jewish; his connection to the Jewish community; his father getting killed by Nazis in 1939; his personal experience of the Nazis in 1942; receiving help from Gentiles; where his family lived during the war; his school in Berlin; being unaware of his Jewishness until later as he had Aryan papers; his awareness of the extermination of the Jews; his family members’ being exterminated; moving to Borkheide, Germany and staying there until after the war when he moved back to Berlin; the school in Borkheide; becoming aware later of the significance of his experiences; marrying; moving to Australia in 1968; and becoming an Orthodox Jew.

Oral history interview with Ludwig Shonberg

Oral History

Ludwig Shonberg, born April 8, 1924 in Dortmund, Germany, discusses his personal details; his familial, educational, and social background; the boycotting of Jewish shops; his father and himself being imprisoned and their business being taken on Kristallnacht; being released from prison after one week; unsuccessfully trying to emigrate; having to do forced labor building roads and in mines from 1939 until 1940; being transported by train to Riga, Latvia in a normal train, not a cattle car; not being mistreated until he arrived at the Riga ghetto; after two days being sent to a labor camp; being sent to work at a furniture factory after four or five months; moving to another work camp where he sorted army equipment; going back to the ghetto in 1943; going to the railway workshop camp with his parents; how one week after the assassination attempt on Hitler, there was a big roll call, and that was the last time he saw his parents; the Russians nearing; going on a boat to Danzig and to Stutthof, then Stolp until February 1945; being brought back to Stutthof and being transported near Lubeck, where they stayed for two days; losing an eye when hit across the head at the field; going on a boat, and the boat being set alight, and saving himself by jumping overboard in May 1945; being hospitalized in Lubeck for four months; deciding what to do after liberation; going back to his home village, and working as a butcher before getting a visa and moving to Australia, where family helped him; and his life in Australia.

Oral history interview with Charlotte Stern

Oral History

Charlotte Stern, born April 23, 1905 in Soest, Germany, discusses her family background; her school life; working in various jobs in different towns; marrying a lawyer in 1929; her husband being unable to practice law after 1933; antisemitism in Soest; immigrating with her daughter to Waschbank (Wasbank), South Africa in 1934; farm life at Kameelkop; going to Johannesburg in 1946; buying a delicatessen shop with a girlfriend after her husband died; and going to Sydney, Australia in 1961 to join her daughter.

Oral history interview with Nessy Allen

Oral History

Nessy Allen, born February 8, 1937 in Budapest, Hungary, discusses her extended family; her family’s lifestyle and accommodations; her family’s religious beliefs and practices; the death of her father in a work camp in Kiev, Ukraine; her father saying goodbye when she was four or five years old; the closing of her school; living with her mother; the restrictions she faced; staying with relatives outside of Budapest; a shortage of and her memories of food; sharing bath water; being taken on forced marches at night; marching on the streets of Budapest; her mother being taken away by soldiers; hiding in their flat when her mother was taken; being taken to a ghetto but being returned to her old flat with her grandparents until the end of the war; escaping bombardment during air raids; the rations; her knowledge of the camps; being told of her mother’s suicide when she made a return visit to Hungary; the Russian occupation; her fear of the Russian soldiers; the death of her grandfather; her grandmother’s immigration to Israel; her aunt and uncle going to Australia in 1939; deciding to go to Australia before she was ten years old; leaving on December 29, 1946; the voyage to Australia; and adjusting to life in Australia.

Oral history interview with Robert Barta

Oral History

Robert Barta, born October 20, 1927 in Budapest, Hungary, discusses his childhood; his Jewish and religious activities in Budapest; the Jewish high school in Pest; his father’s status of PF Lieutenant being recognized; his father being in a forced labor camp and returning home after two months in the camp; his father considering immigrating to Australia in 1938; conditions changing as German troops marched into Budapest on March 19, 1944; the Hungarian militia pulling Jewish men off public transportation; his home turning into a “Jewish house” as two more families moved in; his father being taken to jail; being ordered to assemble with valuables in the middle of the night, and their valuables being taken from them; being sent in cattle cars to a camp; him and his brother being chosen for “police work”; the SS taking over the camp, with everyone being sent off in transports after ten days; being in the last transport because of his special duties; realizing he was in real danger; deciding to escape with his mother, brother, sister, and two girls through a corn field behind the camp; his mother returning home to Budapest, since she had Catholic papers, and keeping her three children hidden in her house; the arrival of the Russians in Budapest in early 1945; graduating from university with a degree in physical education; being a prominent sports personality until 1956 when he lost his job and party membership and left Hungary for Austria; settling in Landau, Germany in 1957; returning to Vienna in 1965; moving to Australia in 1968; and his brother and mother committing suicide because they were scarred by their wartime experiences.

Oral history interview with Clare Beutum

Oral History

Oral history interview with Laura Bogdany

Oral History

Oral history interview with Robert Bogdany

Oral History

Robert Bogdany, born March 13, 1931 in Budapest, Hungary, discusses living in Budapest, Hungary, his family; at the beginning of World War II; living in a ghetto in Budapest from October 1944 until January 1945, when Hungary was liberated; staying in Hungary until December 1956; immigrating to Australia in 1957; marrying; and his family members who perished during the Holocaust.

Oral history interview with Frank Darvas

Oral History

Frank Darvas, born April 13, 1923 in Szentgal, Hungary, discusses his family and his background; antisemitism before and during the war; his employment from 1941 through 1944; being forced to work at a labor camp at Koszeg starting in March 1944; living in a ghetto starting in May 1944; being deported to Auschwitz in July; hearing about camp escapees and plans for resistance; escaping the death march to Germany; crossing to the Russian side of the front; returning to Veszprem and Szentgal at the end of the war; attending university in Budapest from September 1945-1949; being taken to a Communist labor camp for six months; illegally fleeing to Munich, Germany through Austria; immigrating to Australia in 1957; and marrying and having children.

Oral history interview with Susanna Demeny

Oral History

Susanna Demeny, born August 1, 1916 in Budapest, Hungary, discusses her childhood; going to business school and working; marrying in 1938; her husband working at a forced labor camp but being able to come home every week beginning in 1942; leaving the hospital one day after her daughter was born in June 1944 because she heard that deportations had commenced in Budapest; living in a designated Jewish house with her family until they were told to assemble; moving into a ghetto; how her baby survived the war without her; a failed escape attempt in 1948; escaping Hungary in 1956; and going to Linz and other areas of Austria before immigrating to Australia with her husband and children in 1957.

Oral history interview with Elizabeth Denny

Oral History

Elizabeth Denny, born March 14, 1910 in Budapest, Hungary, discusses her youth; marrying in 1935; her husband dying in a labor camp in 1943; working from 1939 to 1943; being sent to the Kunhegyes ghetto for six weeks; being transported to Austria, where she worked on a farm; being transported to Bergen-Belsen; being put on a train when the Americans were thought to be approaching; being liberated by the Americans on April 13, 1945; going back to her village but being unable to stay, so she returned back to Budapest; working for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee; leaving Hungary after the 1956 revolution; immigrating to Australia; marrying in 1957; and her family members who perished during the Holocaust.

Oral history interview with Miklos Denny

Oral History

Miklos Denny, born September 17, 1910 in Sarospatak, Hungary, discusses his family and childhood; marrying in 1938; being put in a labor camp twice, once in 1939 and once in 1942; being transported to Briansk, Russia and then to Seredyna-Buda, Ukraine; experiencing shooting by Russian partisans from the forest when he was in a camp; moving to Brest-Litovsk (Brzesć Litewski, Poland); going to Warsaw, Poland in 1944; taking a train back to Hungary, ending up in Kosice, Slovakia; being taken into service by an officer on fabricated orders; arriving in Budapest in a Hungarian uniform in December 1944; finding his wife and child in a safe house run by Wallenberg; the arrival of the Russians in Budapest; the fates of his family members; and antisemitism after the war, especially after the 1956 Hungarian uprising.

Oral history interview with Piroska Eckstein

Oral History

Piroska Eckstein, born November 11, 1920 in Budapest, Hungary, discusses the deaths in her family growing up; the unbelievable nature of the tales of atrocities that she heard; the start of the Nazi occupation in March 1944; leaving her home to live in a Jewish house; working in a factory; the Arrow Cross taking her to Ravensbrück; working at the camp shoveling snow; being taken to a labor camp outside Penig, where she manufactured airplane parts; the evacuation of the camp on April 13, 1945; escaping with others; reaching Czechoslovakia on May 8, 1945; returning to Hungary; reuniting with her mother; marrying in 1946; having a child in 1948; and immigrating to Australia in 1949.

Oral history interview with Jean Fabian

Oral History

Jeanne Fabian, born November 12, 1921 in Pécs, Hungary, discusses growing up in a well-established family; her whole family being transported from a ghetto to a camp where Hungarian gendarmes were in charge; being transferred to Birkenau; the selections; the survival mechanisms she employed; being transported to Lippstadt, Germany on August 1, 1944; her work welding land mines at the camp; being told news from the outside by camp guards; the bombings and air raids; being liberated by the 9th Division African-American troops on April 1, 1945; her family members who perished during the Holocaust; returning to Hungary; and immigrating to Australia in 1957.

Oral history interview with Tom Foster

Oral History

Tom Foster, born November 21, 1917 in Budapest, Hungary, discusses being in Pesterzsébet, Hungary from 1939 until May 1940; being in a Hungarian army labor brigade on the Russian front in Ukraine until November 1941; returning to Budapest from November 1941 to June 1942; working in a labor brigade on the Russian Front from June 1942 to February 1944; staying in Budapest from February 1944 to February 1947; living in France until July 1947; and arriving in Australia in September 1947.

Oral history interview with Mary Gathy

Oral History

Mary Gathy, born March 15, 1925 in Nagyecsed, Hungary, discusses her family’s background; attending boarding school; how life went on normally until late 1943 when her family was forced off their property; qualifying as an Italian, German, and French language teacher at the Sisters of Sion Catholic school; being offered a nun’s habit so she could be saved in March 1944, but refusing to take it because she felt her family needed her; moving into a small house with her family at Aba, Hungary; being taken to the Sarbogard ghetto in May 1944; being transported to Auschwitz in June 1944; the conditions in the camp; being selected for work at Lippstadt, Germany; arriving at Lippstadt in September 1944; the death march towards Bergen-Belsen; the SS disappearing into the woods; being liberated; returning to Hungary; marrying in 1946; her family members who perished during the Holocaust; and immigrating to Australia in 1957.

Oral history interview with Susan Gerofi

Oral History

Susan Gerofi, born November 11, 1916 in Debrecen, Hungary, discusses moving to Bratislava, Slovakia in 1922; her education, which she was forced to discontinue due to antisemitism despite not being from a religious family; going into hiding with her mother in Piszian when the deportations started in 1942; marrying in 1937; being deported to Ravensbrück with her mother in December 1942; volunteering to work in the camp hospital as an ex-medical student but being given the job of carrying corpses on stretchers instead; being humiliated by the German guards and prisoners; hearing airplanes and nearby gun fire at the end of April 1945 and hoping that it was the Allies advancing, but not being sure; being given a 5kg parcel the day after the Germans fled the camp; seeing a Russian soldier come to the camp on May 1, 1945; Russian soldiers arriving two days later with supplies and a doctor; identification documents being made and distributed; being taken to a hospital in Prague, Czech Republic before returning to Bratislava; reuniting with her husband who escaped deportation by jumped out of a moving train; divorcing her husband; meeting and marrying her second husband; and immigrating to Australia in 1948.

Oral history interview with Frank Gipps

Oral History

Oral history interview with Helen Glass

Oral History

Helen Glass, born June 3, 1925 in Uzhorod, Czechoslovakia (Uzhhorod, Ukraine), discusses the history of her hometown; her family’s background; her childhood and schooling; how antisemitism became prevalent as soon as the Hungarians took over her town in 1939; being sent papers to leave for England by a relative but being prevented by the start of the war; the establishment of a ghetto next to her house; being taken to a ghetto a few kilometers away as the ghetto near her house was full; being transported to Auschwitz; being saved by a German soldier during the first selection; the conditions of the camp deteriorating; her experiences with Dr. Mengele; being transferred to Guben, Germany, where she worked in an airplane factory; the death march to Bergen-Belsen in February 1945; bribing the blockältester for food; being liberated by American soldiers in April 1945; going to Sweden to be with her brother; working in Sweden for two years; going back to Czechoslovakia in 1947; marrying in 1948; moving to Paris, France to flee communism; and immigrating to Australia in 1951.

Oral history interview with Elizabeth Goldsmith

Oral History

Elizabeth Goldsmith, born July 13, 1918 in Mosonmagyarovar, Hungary, discusses growing up with Jewish parents, one of whom was baptized in 1919, but being brought up as a Presbyterian; enjoying state-sanctioned benefits as a convert to Christianity, so thought that the Holocaust would not affect them; being forced to move into a Jewish house once the Germans came; all Jewish men being called up; being called up as a Jew because she did not have at least three non-Jewish grandparents; Hungary being besieged by Germans on the West and Russians advancing in the east; the Arrow Cross taking over; being called up with her sister to be taken to a labor camp in October 1944; hoping to get exempt by her “Horthy exemption” documents, but the guards not looking at them; being marched towards the Russian border; her mother obtaining Swiss, Swedish, and Papal passports for the rest of the family, so they were able to stay in safe houses; her work digging trenches close to the Russian border; the guards hearing the approaching army; being forced to march back towards Budapest, Hungary and then towards the Austrian border; escaping when they marched through Magyarovar, Hungary, as her sister feared they were marching towards a concentration camp in Germany; receiving help and getting back to Budapest; being called up for the labor camps a second time, but being able to go when she showed her Swedish passport; moving to a Swedish safe house run by Wallenberg with her family; being rounded up and forced into the ghetto by the Arrow Cross; hearing that Eichmann planned to bomb or set fire to the ghetto but members of the Jewish community bribed the officials not to do so; life under the Russian occupation; life becoming difficult under Communism; being sent immigration documents by her brother; and immigrating to Australia.

Oral history interview with Ellen Greenfield

Oral History

Ellen Greenfield, born August 12, 1924 in Petnehaza, Hungary, discusses her childhood; antisemitism and being aware of the rise of Nazism; men being conscripted to forced labor; being forced to wear the yellow star; the German occupation of Hungary; attempting to return to Marghita, Romania from Budapest, Hungary; the round-up in Marghita; being forced into the ghetto in Nagyvarad; being transported to Auschwitz; staying in Auschwitz for six months, working at the camp in Zittau, before being liberated by the Russians; searching for her fiancé, who stayed in Budapest when she went to Marghita; marrying; moving to Vienna, Austria; immigrating to Australia in 1952; and reflections on her war experiences.

Oral history interview with Eugene Grunbaum

Oral History

Eugene Grunbaum, born May 26, 1928 in Jászalsószentgyörgy, Hungary, discusses his hometown and family; being taken to a Hungarian factory for a few weeks before being deported to Auschwitz in May 1944; being transferred to Buchenwald; the guards killing of many of the prisoners when they became aware of the Americans’ approach; being liberated on April 11, 1945; being taken to a sanitarium in Davos, Switzerland for a year; going back to Hungary to find out that only one of his cousins survived the war; going back to Switzerland to attend school and then work; and immigrating to Australia in May 1949.

Oral history interview with Ivan Halasz

Oral History

Ivan Halasz, born February 12, 1911 in Budapest, Hungary, discusses his family, childhood, and school; working at the Bayerische Holzindustrie Gesellschaft in Munich, Germany; returning to Budapest after being laid off in 1931 due to the Great Depression; marrying in 1938; being called up into the Hungarian Army in 1939; serving driving army trucks; being allowed to keep his position in 1941 when Jewish soldiers lost their rank; serving in Ukraine on the Russian front; seeing Jewish Russians walked by the SS to Podosk, where they were killed; serving in Poltava when his company was ordered back to Hungary; rejoining his family; being exempt from forced labor because of his military service; the German invasion of Hungary on March 19, 1944; moving into a Jewish house; being deported to Bergen-Belsen; being put in a special part of the camp as a hostage for exchange; seeing Allied planes fly over the camp; being taken to Lueneburg, Germany then to Berlin, Germany and finally to Theresienstadt; being liberated by the Russian army on May 8, 1945; returning to Budapest; how his wife was killed; his son immigrating to Australia in 1957; and how he and his second wife joined their son in Australia in 1976.

Oral history interview with Kathleen Hay

Oral History

Kathleen Hay, born July 1, 1933 in Budapest, Hungary, discusses her family’s background; her childhood; the early days of the war; the arrival of the Germans on March 19, 1944; being sent to the Czepel brickworks to work during the day in May 1944; being taken to a military compound in early July; being able to visit her family for a day before being deported to Auschwitz; being given food and rum by her family; drinking the rum during the transport; giving her food away to the prisoners; daily life at the camp; the advantage of being able to keep her own shoes; being transferred to Liebau camp in Germany; the liquidation of the camp; the German guards fleeing; being liberated by Russian soldiers; making the trip back to Budapest with a group of friends; reuniting with her parents; and her reflections on survival and for being interviewed.

Oral history interview with Veronica Honig

Oral History

Veronica Honig, born March 12, 1927 in Mateszalka, Hungary, discusses her childhood and hometown; antisemitism in Hungary before the war; her schooling, wanting to study medicine; the Germans marching into her hometown; the establishment of the ghetto; moving into the ghetto; her family being on the second to last transport out of the ghetto to Auschwitz; arrival at Auschwitz; Mengele; life in the barracks; being in the sick bay with pneumonia, for which her mother sold her bread rations to buy medicine; her contact with the male inmates; being selected for work in Boizenburg, a subcamp of Neuengamme in Germany; working in the Tompson aircraft factory; the death march out of the camp at the end of April 1945; being liberated by the Americans after spending two weeks at Ludwigslust, Germany; returning home via Poland; the Russian troops and the Polish people; life after the war; attending university in Budapest, Hungary; marrying; and immigrating to Australia.

Oral history interview with Nick Hunt

Oral History

Miklos “Nick” Hunt (né Hutterer), born May 14, 1913 in Vac, Hungary, discusses his childhood; his father’s death in 1938; marrying in 1936; the beginning of forced labor in 1941; the start of the German occupation in 1944; being sent with the 9th Battalion to Kiev, Ukraine; being sent to work in a factory at a work camp; the Vac ghetto; being transported to Bor in Yugoslavia; his work building a railroad line; the retreat of the German army; Jews being massacred; joining the Partisans; surviving in the mountains; crossing to Romania; being taken to Bucharest in 1945 where he was helped by the Jewish community; meeting his wife and doing business in Szeged, Hungary; returning to Budapest; opening a business in Budapest; escaping to Bratislava; working in the Rothschild Hospital in Vienna, Austria; and immigrating to Australia.

Oral history interview with George Hunter

Oral History

George Hunter, born May 7, 1922 in Budapest, Hungary, discusses his family background; attending an engineering high school; working in a German barbed wire plant and being exempt from labor camp until October 1943; being transferred to another camp where he did road work; staying in contact with his family through letters; being marched to the Carpathian mountains in Poland, and then back to Hungary after two months; being taken to Tiszalök, Hungary for a one month rest period in August 1944; not returning to the camp; walking east; going into the forest to hide; going back to a farmer who fed them before; being liberated by the Russians on the farm; going to Debrecen, Hungary, where he formed a family with other refugees; reuniting with his father in Budapest in May 1945; living in his family’s old apartment with his father until March 1947; living in Paris, France for six months; and immigrating with his father to Australia.

Oral history interview with Irwin Imhof

Oral History

Erwin Imhof, born March 11, 1930 in Budapest, Hungary, discusses his family background; attending a Lutheran high school until 1941 when he was expelled; starting to attend a Jewish high school; being unaware of serious problems for Jews in Hungary until 1944 when the German occupation began; living in a Swiss safe house for a short time; the men being rounded up and brought to camps; being separated from his mother for a short period of time; his Christian friends organizing a place for them to go into hiding; the decree instructing Jews to leave their homes; his family’s possessions and furniture being taken away; being in hiding for two weeks before another Jew turned him in and he was taken away by the Arrow Cross; realizing the terrible situation they were all in; being interrogated and beaten; being taken to the ghetto, which was closed at that time; someone sneaking into the ghetto and offering to help his family escape, but not wanting to go as the Russians were approaching and there was fighting throughout the city; returning to his home; his father returning from a concentration camp, where he was sent during the German occupation; and rebuilding his life and returning to Jewish school.

Oral history interview with John Jurman

Oral History

Oral history interview with Helen Kalina

Oral History

Helen Kalina, born January 8, 1914 in Dolina, Hungary (present-day Slovakia), discusses her childhood and family; life in Beregszasz (Berehove, Ukraine) and Prague, Czech Republic; the beginning of the Hungarian occupation; her father’s shop being confiscated; marrying in 1940; going to Budapest, Hungary to nurse her father; the start of the German occupation; returning illegally to Beregszasz; the Beregszasz ghetto; life in the ghetto; the way in which the ghetto was organized; being deported to Auschwitz; the selections; her dialogue with Mengele; living in the C. Lager; the food laced with bromide; being in contact with a neighboring camp; advice given about survival; working as a garbage supervisor; being transferred to Stutthof and then Thorn Waldlager in August 1944; digging trenches for soldiers in Thorn (Torun, Poland); the sudden dismantling of the camp in January 1945; running away from the camp; being recaptured by the SS and jailed in Koronovo (Koronowo, Poland); being liberated on January 26, 1945 by Russian soldiers; being issued a travel permit and walking home with others through Poland; returning to Beregszasz in April 1945; reuniting with her father and husband; living in Prague; planning to immigrate to Israel; and immigrating to Australia instead.

Oral history interview with Tom Keleman

Oral History

Tom Keleman, born September 7, 1929 in Budapest, Hungary, discusses his family background; being brought up as a German speaker; how anti-Jewish initiatives negatively affected his father’s career; his father being conscripted into the army as a Hungarian to lead a labor battalion, and then eventually being called up months later as a Jew; the start of the German occupation of Hungary on March 19, 1944; various family members working with the Jewish council before and during the German occupation; travelling to the Gestapo headquarters as a courier for the Jewish council; hearing hostages in the headquarters’ cellars; being aware of the deportations beginning in April 1944; carrying verbal messages to Jews in hiding throughout the city; a close call with his identification papers being checked by a policeman; the plans being formulated for Jews with foreign protection papers to be able to leave the city and be saved in early July 1944; hearing about August 28-29 as the date for the deportation of the remaining Budapest Jews; various deals being considered about the Jews; the takeover by the Arrow Cross in mid-October 1944; safe houses being set up; men between the ages of 16 and 60 being taken for "labor service", including his father; his whole family getting Swiss protection papers; how women were taken away during early November; working for the Red Cross; hearing that his house was going to be raided and upon his mother’s request, moving into a Red Cross safe house; trying to save his mother and aunt since they were under protection of the Red Cross, but being unable to find them; moving around to various safe houses; the Arrow Cross raiding their house in December 1944; the siege of Budapest; his family returning to their home; getting a job with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee; illegally crossing into Austria; and immigrating to Australia.

Oral history interview with Iby Kery

Oral History

Iby Kery, born July 11, 1925 in Hajduböszörmény, Hungary, discusses her childhood and growing up; living and working in Debrecen, Hungary; the start of the German occupation of Hungary on March 19, 1944; her parents being transported to Auschwitz; the ghetto; working in a factory; being taken to a brickyard for fifteen days, from which people were deported to different concentration camps; being deported to Auschwitz; the conditions of the camp; staying in Birkenau; the selections; being transferred to Allendorf during August 1944; the conditions at Allendorf being better than those at Birkenau; working making ammunition for the German army; bombings near the camp and factories; being evacuated to Buchenwald during March 1945; escaping from the march with two others into the forest, where she was with eleven others; the arrival of the Americans; some people dying from overeating; reuniting with her brother; travelling back to Hungary with the help of American soldiers and others; reuniting with her other brother and her uncle; her brothers moving to Israel; immigrating to Australia; and her reasons for giving testimony.

Oral history interview with Susan King

Oral History

Susan King, born March 11, 1922 in Mohacs, Hungary, discusses her childhood in Siklos, Hungary; her secondary schooling in Pecs, Hungary; learning English so she could move to the United States, but being rejected by the U.S. Embassy; being unable to find a job or to gain admission to a university; her husband being called up to a forced labor camp; the start of the German occupation of Hungary; gendarmes coming for her family on April 26, 1944 and telling them to pack; being taken to a disused mill in Siklos, which immediately came under German command; being transported to Barcs, Hungary after a week; being transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau; her mother and Susan being determined to stick together; discovering that the buttons on her dress were really diamond and gold rings; her and her mother being selected for the workers’ lager, Lager B; being transferred to Ravensbrück; being transferred again to Lippstadt in Westphalia, where they lived in proper dormitories and worked in factories making instruments for airplanes; hearing news that the Germans were losing the war; the many American air raids; being evacuated and only making it to Leipzig, Germany; escaping from the group; hiding in the woods with her mother on the Elbe River; staying for a few days in a village full of German evacuees; being liberated by two Americans; Russian troops replacing the American troops and taking her and her mother to Dreseden, then to Upper Silesia, then to Kovel, Ukraine, and then to Berdichev before arriving in Budapest in October 1945; going back to Pecs, Siklos, and then going back to Pecs again, where she saw her childhood sweetheart; marrying her childhood sweetheart; and immigrating to Australia with her husband.

Oral history interview with Mathew Kiss

Oral History

Oral history interview with Elizabeth Klein

Oral History

Elizabeth (Gitta) Klein, born August 31, 1924 in Sátoraljaújhely, Hungary, discusses her childhood; the German invasion of Hungary in March 1944; life in the ghetto; being deported to Auschwitz; being transferred to Krakow-Płaszów and the work she did there; being beaten; being sent to Dachau for 10 weeks; returning to Auschwitz in a different lager for a few days then transferred to Wiesau (Laka, Dolnoslaskie, Poland); the work and conditions in Wiesau; being in two other camps, one of which was Reichenbach; being in Langenbielau; being liberated; returning to Hungary after the end of the war in 1945; marrying in 1949; and immigrating to Australia in November 1950.

Oral history interview with Susan Kovendy

Oral History

Oral history interview with Thomas Kramer

Oral History

Thomas Kramer, born August 18, 1934 in Budapest, Hungary, discusses his family and childhood; the early part of the war before the German occupation of Hungary; his ignorance of the Holocaust; the start of the German occupation on March 19, 1944; the people brought to labor camps, including his father in August 1944; hearing that both he and his mother were to be deported to a camp; going to an orphanage which was protected by either the Swedish or the Swiss rather than be deported; the Arrow Cross arriving and bringing everyone from the house to the ghetto; being rescued by Wallenberg; going with his mother into hiding with friends; the Russians arriving and moving in; learning about the death camps and the loss of family members; and immigrating to Australia with his family.

Oral history interview with Catherine Lamb

Oral History

Catherine Lamb, born April 16, 1906 in Budapest, Hungary, discusses her childhood; marrying in 1920; learning English; her work and starting a business in 1937; trying unsuccessfully to immigrate to England; being denounced to the police; her husband being called up to labor building roads; her building becoming a Jewish house after the start of the German occupation on March 19, 1944; being called up to go to a labor camp, but escaping from the group; trying to find refuge; going to a makeshift Jewish hospital; being injured and bleeding; finding herself in Bergen-Belsen without any recollection of it; returning to Budapest after the war; trying to find her husband; making preparations in 1946 to go to Paris, France via Austria and Switzerland; working as a postage stamp dealer and collector in Paris; and immigrating to Australia in 1950.

Oral history interview with Agnes Lomb

Oral History

Agnes Lomb, born August 20, 1918 in Budapest, Hungary, discusses her schooling; her middle class family; attending Synagogue and observing the Jewish high holy days; her social life; attending university for one year before leaving in 1938 to marry; working in a factory; not wanting to leave Hungary at the start of the war despite being worried about international events; her husband being sent to a labor camp in 1942, from where he was sent to work in Russia; wearing the yellow star only once; possessing false papers; giving birth to her daughter in August 1942; her husband returning in June 1943; the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944; being hidden in a pension for two weeks by non-Jewish friends when deportations of young women began; a non-Jewish family taking care of her baby; hiding places of various family members, including at the factory where she worked; leaving her safe house after being warned by the concierge; the Russians entering Budapest; her grandmother and two others getting sick and dying while in hiding; watching her husband and others being pulled out of the deportation lines by Wallenberg and being put in a Swedish safe house; building a factory after the war ended; the Communist takeover; leaving Hungary; and immigrating to Australia.

Oral history interview with Helen Lowinger

Oral History

Helen Lowinger, born December 11, 1908, Nagyatad, Hungary, discusses growing up in Arad, which was occupied by Romania; moving to Vasvar and then to Budapest due to her father’s job issues; marrying a clerk in 1931; having a son in 1933; her husband getting called up to a labor camp in 1940 and returning; the start of the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944; the fates of her extended family; moving into her mother’s apartment at the start of the German occupation, which was declared part of the Jewish ghetto; being given food by a Christian friend; the proclamation on October 15 that the war was lost and a Hungarian Nazi taking over the Hungarian government the next day; all female Jews under 40 having to go to a stadium on October 30, from which they were marched to Isaszeg; digging trenches in Isaszeg for three weeks until the Russians started nearing; being marched to Sopron and then to Kópháza where they dug trenches; being taken to work in a factory in Lichtenwort, Austria on December 19th; a German soldier telling them that they were going to build a “bathhouse”, which she later found out was going to be a gas chamber, but it was too late to do so since it was March 1945; being liberated by the Russians on April 2, 1945; becoming sick with typhus and being hospitalized for six weeks; returning to Hungary; and moving to Australia in 1957.

Oral history interview with Susan Mahrer

Oral History

Susan Mahrer, born November 28, 1924 in Budapest, Hungary, discusses her parents’ careers as musicians; her schooling and her later job as a teacher; the start of the German occupation of Hungary; her father being sent to Austria as a forced laborer; her and her mother moving into a Jewish house in May 1944; increasingly restrictive laws regarding Jewish life and possessions; moving to work at a factory because she thought it would be safer; her mother being taken away; being taken with all the people in the factory to Ravensbrück in October 1944; having to stay in a tent just outside the camp as the camp itself was full; the registration process at the camp; her contact with French political prisoners; being transferred to Penig labor camp; bombings near the camp; evacuating the camp on foot during March of 1945; the SS disappearing on the third day of the march; reaching the town of Chemnitz, Germany, where they found a railroad wagon containing potatoes; marching east; arriving at Zwickau, Germany, where U.S. troops were stationed; working there until an incident occurred; going to live with a German couple; going back to Hungary and moving in with her aunt’s family; receiving news that her father died in a labor camp; knowing from a letter that her mother was in good condition at the end of the war in Bergen-Belsen, but never hearing from her; living and working in Budapest; marrying and having a child; escaping Hungary after the 1956 revolution; going to Austria from where she flew to Australia; and her life in Australia.

Oral history interview with Magda Malik

Oral History

Magda Malik, born May 27, 1927 in Sarvar, Hungary, discusses her large extended family and her life at home; the start of the German occupation on March 19, 1944; being taken with her family to a ghetto which was in a converted factory six weeks after the start of the occupation; being transferred to another ghetto; being taken to Auschwitz on July 7, 1944; being transferred from Auschwitz to Berlin, Germany and then to Ravensbrück in August 1944; staying in Ravensbrück for two weeks before being transferred to Altenburg, where she was forced to work in a factory; life in the camp and factory; being trapped for a day and a half after the factory was bombed until the German civilian population dug them out of the rubble in March 1945; being forced to walk to Waldenburg camp in April 1945; the camp guards disappearing, but Hitler-Jugend finding them; German aircraft shooting at them at night and wounding some women; being liberated by American troops; being taken care of by the Americans in Waldenburg until August 1945; travelling back to Hungary; reuniting with most of her family; moving with her family to Canada, then to Israel, where she met her husband; returning to Canada; and immigrating to Australia.

Oral history interview with Irma Nemenyi

Oral History

Irma Nemeny, born January 18, 1925 in Tiszakarad, Hungary, discusses her family background; the start of the German occupation of Hungary in 1944; antisemitic incidents; being forced to leave her home and move into the Monor ghetto; being deported to Auschwitz; being transferred to Stutthof, to Thorn, and then to Bromberg; working at Bromberg digging trenches; being forced to go on a death march; Polish resistance fighters dressed in German officer uniforms taking over; being liberated by Russian troops, who gave the inmates food that was too heavy and caused a lot of them to die; working for the Russians in the forest before going back to Hungary; realizing that only her brother survived; marrying and moving to Israel with her husband in 1949; having a daughter in 1951; and moving to Canada and then to Australia in 1957.

Oral history interview with Alosius Popper

Oral History

Alosius Popper, born August 3, 1912 in Budapest, Hungary, discusses his family and education; Regent Horthy killing Jews in 1923; the definition of being Jewish and Hungarian; his studies; working in the office of a flour mill 1930-1933; being called up to serve in the army in 1933; leaving the army; being called up into the Hungarian Army Labor battalion, where he was stationed first in Hungary and then in Ukraine in 1944; an incident on a train trip to Kiev where he was pretending to be an inspector; conditions in the work camp in the Ukrainian forest; being moved to Stanislawow in Poland (Ivano-Frankivs'ka, Ukraine), to Pinsk (Belarus), and then back to Stanislawow; being taken to Mohacs, Hungary, where he was demobilized and free to go home as a civilian wearing a yellow Star of David; being sent to Bor in Yugoslavia (Serbia); and going to Romania after the end of the war where he found relatives, whom he stayed with for three months.

Oral history interview with George Reich

Oral History

George Reich, born September 21, 1921 in Budapest, Hungary, discusses his family and school; learning a trade; antisemitism at school; hearing about Dachau; contemplating leaving Hungary; being called up to Nagykáta labor garrison in 1942, where he worked building an air field for the Hungarian air force in Szentkirajszabadja; being marched to Ukraine, where he had to build bridges, and how the garrison was taken over by German soldiers; planning to escape; ending up in a hospital in Budapest, where he was issued a paper stating he was “unfit” so he did not have to serve as a laborer anymore; the start of the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944; joining and escaping a battalion; making his way back to Budapest, where he went into hiding; being taken to a railway yard on November 28, 1944 with 10,000 other people; Raoul Wallenberg arriving and calling for those who have Schutz passes to go with him, and how George went with him even though he did not have a Schutz pass; Wallenberg taking George and 100 others to a Swiss safe house; going back to his job of making bags after liberation; how most of his family survived; marrying on October, 7, 1945; and leaving Hungary and moving to Australia in 1949.

Oral history interview with Georgette Reiszman

Oral History

Georgette Reiszman, born July 6, 1920 in Budapest, Hungary, discusses her childhood and family life in a Jewish household; her first experiences with antisemitism during the late 1930s; being trained as a nurse; the takeover of her father’s business in 1941; the jailing of her mother on the first day of the German occupation of Hungary; being forced to move into a Jewish group house; her family’s deportation to Auschwitz; the selections and conditions in the camp; a personal incident with Mengele; being transferred via cattle car to Bergen-Belsen; being transferred again to Braunschweig, and then to Ravensbrück; being brought into a gas chamber, only to be suddenly let out again and given a Red Cross parcel; being liberated by the Russians; sexual assault by Russian soldiers; returning to Budapest; leaving Hungary in August 1945; meeting her husband who worked for Americans in Berchtesgaden, Germany; meeting Henry Kissinger; moving to Belgium and having a son; moving to Australia; enduring financial hardship; and marrying her second husband.

Oral history interview with Elizabeth Reti

Oral History

Elizabeth Reti, born May 27, 1912 in Dombegyhaza, Hungary, discusses her childhood; attending school until age 15; marrying in 1934 and having a son in 1936; learning photography, and working in a photography shop until the start of the German occupation; her husband being called up to work as a forced laborer, and dying at the Don river in Russia in 1943; contracting tuberculosis, and remaining sick for years; her whole family being forced to move into a Jewish house in 1944 after the start of the German occupation of Hungary; a prominent Hungarian Nazi couple who lived in the same house who helped Elizabeth and her father from being taken away by other Nazis; testifying as a witness for this couple after the war, which spared them from being hanged; having to move to a different room in the ghetto; seeing Hungarian troops herding hundreds of Jews onto the ghetto streets and shooting them dead before the Russians’ arrival; sanitation in the ghetto; the lack of news about the progress of the war while she was in the ghetto; being liberated by the Russians, who opened up the ghetto; returning back to their original home, where a Christian family was living; going to a sanitarium until 1946 when she was allowed to go back home and start working again; living in Budapest for the remainder of her life; and having a son, Robert Reti, who is a child survivor living in Australia.

Oral history interview with Robert Reti

Oral History

Robert Reti, born April 29, 1936 in Budapest, Hungary, discusses his life before the war; his first recollection of the war; his father being deported to a labor camp where he died; some of his other relatives who were deported; living in a Jewish house; a prominent Hungarian Nazi couple who lived in the same house and helped his grandfather and mother from being taken away by other Nazis; his mother testifying as a witness in a trial for this couple after the war, which spared them from being hanged; being moved into the ghetto on December 19, 1944; problems associated with moving back into the former Jewish house after the arrival of the Russians on January 15, 1945; going back to school after the end of the war; leaving Hungary in 1956; living in Vienna, Austria and then moving to the Dominican Republic in 1957, where he knew some relatives and studied industrial chemistry; moving to Australia in 1959; and marrying and having a son.

Oral history interview with Eleonora Samu

Oral History

Eleonora Samu (née Drova), born October 21, 1919 in Budapest, Hungary, discusses her family and life before the war; the start of the German occupation of Hungary in 1944; having to live in a Jewish house marked with the yellow star; her efforts to prevent being deported; being taken to Orszentmiklos (Őrbottyán, Hungary) labor camp near Budapest on October 15, 1944, where she dug trenches for three weeks; being forced to march on foot towards Germany for ten days, and then being taken via cattle car to Dachau; staying in Dachau for one week, before being transferred to Ravensbrück in December 1944; the arrival of inmates from Auschwitz; life in the camp; being taken to Berlin-Spandau camp; being hospitalized with an infected leg; being transferred to Oranienburg in early 1945, which held mostly members of the Communist party; Russians liberating the camp in April 1945; wandering from town to town after the Russians ordered the inmates out of Oranienburg with no organized transportation to get back home; being given money by a soldier, which made life easier; eventually making it back to Budapest in October 1945 and reuniting with her parents; getting married in 1948; having two children; escaping to Vienna, Austria in 1957; and immigrating to Australia.

Oral history interview with Peter Schey

Oral History

Peter Schey, born September 13, 1934 in Budapest, Hungary, discusses his family; his education; the beginning of the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944; his father being sent to work camps in Budapest and then deported; being forced to move to a Jewish house in Budapest; his mother obtaining a Swedish residential pass, after which his family moved to a Swedish safe house run by Raoul Wallenberg; seeing a Swedish official stopping the Hungarians from shooting Jews; the Russian army entering and liberating Budapest in early 1945; moving back to his original home; a food shortage; moving to Gyöngyös, Hungary until late 1949; his brother escaping to Austria, from where he migrated to Australia; his family’s failed attempt to escape to Austria, for which they were imprisoned by the Russians in Budapest; and his family’s successful attempt to escape to Austria, from where they sailed to Australia.

Oral history interview with Elizabeth Schwarcz

Oral History

Elizabeth Schwarcz, born March 11, 1918 in Vac, Hungary, discusses her background and family; marrying in 1941; her husband being taken away in a Hungarian labor battalion to the Don Campaign where he was killed; the start of the German occupation of Hungary in 1944; living in the ghetto; the belief that the Hungarian government would do something; being transported in cattle cars to Auschwitz; being separated during Mengele’s selections from her mother and her baby; finding out later that her mother and her baby were both killed; feeling a sense of unreality; being transferred to Bergen-Belsen; being transferred to Markkleeberg labor camp, where she worked twelve hour shifts in a factory producing parts for airplanes; the poem she composed while there about the poor conditions; her rations being reduced; her hopes of being liberated by the US Army being dashed when they were forced to walk for 21 days on a death march to Theresienstadt in April 1945; being liberated by the Russian Army; returning to Vac; receiving news of her husband’s death; marrying her current husband in 1946; immigrating to Australia in 1956; and running a kosher restaurant in Sydney.

Oral history interview with Adrienne Schwartz

Oral History

Adrienne Schwartz, born June 7, 1932 in Budapest, Hungary, discusses her family and schooling; her father’s job; early experiences with antisemitism; having good relationships with her neighbors, despite one of them belonging to the Arrow Cross party; her father being called into army service; her father being taken to a labor camp directly from the army; difficulties her family encountered after her father was taken away; watching the Germans march in during the start of the occupation in March 1944; being forced to move into a Jewish house with a yellow star on it in June 1944; the family who moved into her family’s house; her mother giving instructions every time she went out shopping in case she didn’t return; her father returning after escaping while journeying through Budapest on a deportation; a policeman and Arrow Cross youth coming to her house and forcing her family to move into the Budapest ghetto, while her father hid in their shed; witnessing the building of the ghetto walls; seeing all people between the ages of 16 and 65, including her mother, be forced to assemble in the courtyard of their building to for deportation; leaving with her sibling to live with her aunt outside the ghetto, until her aunt was deported too in October 1944, but returned soon after escaping deportation; moving into the ghetto with her aunt during late October; life in the ghetto; hearing Russian artillery; air raids; living in a Red Cross house for ten days; moving back into her aunt’s flat; liberation; and moving to Australia.

Oral history interview with Jack Schwartz

Oral History

Jack Schwartz, born March 5, 1929 in Nyírcsaholy, Hungary, discusses his hometown and family; attending a Greek Orthodox school; leading a traditional Jewish life; how life was hard but normal until 1944; receiving little news on wider events in Europe and not believing what he did hear about the war; moving to Budapest with his brothers in 1943; his oldest brother being taken to a labor camp; the start of the German occupation of Hungary; being given the “Yellow star” edict but being warned by a fellow villager not to go; hearing later that those who reported were taken to a ghetto; getting a new job, for which he was given money and a pass; being able to move unrestrictedly due to his pass; getting a job clearing bomb rubble in June 1944; Jack and all of his coworkers receiving a Swiss Schutzpass; the Arrow Cross takeover of the government; looting; being taken to another house where he lived in the cellar; not being able to go to work anymore, but still going out without his yellow star; everyone in his house being transported via cattle car to Bergen-Belsen; conditions and food at the camp, which worsened as the end of the war approached; the German guards; being one of 1500 prisoners who volunteered to leave the camp on April 5, 1945; being liberated by American troops on April 13 near Zelle (Celle, Germany); being looked after by American doctors in Hillersleben, Germany; being taken to Buchenwald, where he spent two weeks; journeying via train with a group of other children to Paris, France, where they had a huge welcome and was hounded by the press; deciding to remain in Paris while the other children departed for Palestine; and visiting Hungary once before immigrating to Australia.

Oral history interview with Eva Serdy

Oral History

Eva Serdy, born August 25, 1932 in Debrecen, Hungary, discusses her father’s job, her family, and growing up in Budapest; her father being taken as a forced laborer in 1940; her schooling; antisemitic incidents; attending a Jewish high school; the beginning of the German occupation in March 1944; her relatives getting deported shortly after the start of the occupation; her father being called up in June 1944 to a labor battalion; moving next door to a Jewish house; fleeing the house and moving around using fake papers; paying to stay at a policeman’s house for some time; living in hiding at a tailor’s house with 16 other Jews; the tailor, Foldvari, fleeing in mid-October when things got worse; obtaining a Portuguese Schutzpass and moving into a Portuguese house with her mother and grandmother; her father moving to a labor unit with other “Portuguese” and came back on weekends; her father being deported on November 27th; her grandmother being killed during the siege of Budapest when their flat was directly hit; fleeing the Portuguese house with her mother when police started taking people from it to the ghetto; going to another Portuguese house; escaping from that house when the Arrow Cross came to clear it out; returning to the first Portuguese house; liberation on January 16, 1945; returning to her own flat on January 18th; her father returning from Mauthausen and Gunskirchen on August 10th; returning to school; being rejected from university and facing problems finding employment because of her middle class background; and departing Hungary and immigrating to Australia in 1957.

Oral history interview with Tibor Siklos

Oral History

Tibor Siklos, born December 31, 1912 in Budapest, Hungary, discusses his background; schooling; working; marrying; having a family; being taken to a labor camp in Transylvania and Budapest from 1939 to 1942; being taken to Poland with his labor battalion; returning to Budapest in 1943 for a while; being taken to Turka in Poland (now Ukraine) for the second time in 1944; marching towards Hungary after leaving Poland and encountering the Arrow Cross on the Hungarian border; escaping from the labor battalion to Ungvar (Uzhhorod, Ukraine), where he encountered Russian troops on October 27, 1944; arriving in Budapest on December 31, 1944; life and working conditions in Hungary after the war; escaping from Hungary to Kosice and then to Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, and eventually arriving in Vienna, Austria in 1949; and living in Austria for a few months before moving to Sydney, Australia.

Oral history interview with Augusta Singer

Oral History

Augusta Singer, born May 7, 1906 in Zalaegerszeg, Hungary, discusses her childhood as one of 15 children; completing school; marrying in 1927; moving to Győr, Hungary and having a daughter; [gap in interview]; working until the end of May 1944, when she had to enter the ghetto; being forced to board a train to Auschwitz; spending six weeks in Auschwitz; arriving at Parschnitz camp in Slovakia; working at the Allgemeine Elektrische Gesellschaft at Trautenau (Trutnov, Czech Republic); staying together with her daughter; digging tank traps; being liberated on May 7, 1945; various incidents that occurred while in Parschnitz; watching the German guards discard their uniforms and run away right before liberation; walking to Oppen, where she stayed for six weeks; arriving via train in Budapest in July 1945; returning to Györ; and moving to Australia in 1957.

Oral history interview with Margaret Somlai

Oral History

Oral history interview with Irene Stanbrook

Oral History

Irene Stanbrook, born April 28, 1926 in Budapest, Hungary, discusses her childhood in a German-speaking household; growing up in a sheltered environment; her first experiences with antisemitism in 1940 and 1941; her father handing his business over to his foreman; being banned from school in 1941; being sent to a factory where she got some protection from the Germans; the start of the German occupation; walking to the Megyer brick factory (possibly in Békásmegyer), where her parents were assembled; being transported in cattle cars to Auschwitz; arriving in Auschwitz on July 1, 1944; spending six weeks in the camp before being transferred to Neusalz; her work pitching hay in the fields, then being sent to work in a cotton factory; being sent with 900 girls on a death march for six weeks starting on February 16, 1945 to Bergen-Belsen; getting frost bite; being liberated by the British Army; getting shot in the shoulder and being taken to a field hospital; being taken on a boat to Malmo, Sweden, and then to a sanatorium in Ekeberg, Sweden, as she was very sick with tuberculosis; spending two and a half years in the sanatorium, and then three more years studying microbiology in Sweden afterwards; and moving to Australia.

Oral history interview with Ibolya Stark

Oral History

Ibolya Stark (née Szalvendy), born on April 11, 1919 in Budapest, Hungary, describes growing up in Hungary before the war; the beginning of the German occupation; the subsequent Jewish persecution; living in a Jewish house after her property was confiscated by the Arrow Cross; leaving her town and being transported to Goed (possibly Göd, Hungary), where she was a forced laborer; liberation; and immigrating to and establishing her life in Australia in 1956.

Oral history interview with Kathleen Steinhaus

Oral History

Kathleen Steinhaus (née Laszlo), born on August 7, 1920 in Budapest, Hungary, describes growing up in Hungary before the war; experiencing the beginning of the German occupation in 1944; escaping the Gestapo with the help of Wallenberg; her fake Swedish passport; surviving the war living under a fake identity; traveling to Sweden post-war; emigrating; and establishing her life in Australia in 1946.

Oral history interview with Joseph Symon

Oral History

Joseph Symon (né Steiger), born February 14, 1925 in Budapest, Hungary, describes growing up in Hungary before the war; experiencing the beginning of the war; the subsequent persecution of Jews; witnessing the deteriorating conditions in Hungary and the eventual German occupation; working in the fields in Jaszbereny, Hungary; being transferred to Chepol (possibly Csepel, aka XXI. Kerület) outside of Budapest; working at a Shell oil depot building bunkers; liberation; traveling to Israel after the end of the war; and immigrating to Australia in 1959.

Oral history interview with Paul Szabo

Oral History

Paul Szabo, born September 2, 1921 in Budapest, Hungary, describes growing up in Hungary before the war; experiencing the beginning of the war; the subsequent persecution of Jews; working in a labor camp starting in October 1942; witnessing the unprompted Hungarian violence towards the Jews; performing forced labor in Ukraine digging trenches in the mountains; retreating with the approaching Russian army; escaping and taking a taking a train to Romania to hide; surviving the war and returning to Hungary; traveling to Cuba in 1969; and immigrating to Australia in 1981.

Oral history interview with Tibor Vajda

Oral History

Tibor Vajda, born January 26, 1924 in Budapest, Hungary, describes growing up in Dombóvár, Hungary before the war; experiencing antisemitism as a child; witnessing the beginning of the war; living under German occupation; working in Jolsva, Hungary (possibly Jelsava, Slovakia) as a forced laborer; escaping from forced labor and returning to Hungary; obtaining false papers; joining the resistance movement; surviving the war in hiding; marrying his fiancée with whom he stayed together throughout the war; traveling to Austria post-war; and immigrating and establishing his life in Australia in 1957.

Oral history interview with Ernest Vamos

Oral History

Ernest Vamos, born December 31, 1911 in Rakoskeresztur, Hungary (XVII. Kerület, Budapest), describes growing up in Hungary before the war; acquiring his degree in Stuttgart, Germany in 1929; returning to Hungary after working a for a short time in Germany; witnessing the rise of Hitler; a failed attempt to flee Hungary in 1937; being sent to the Romania border to work as a forced laborer; returning home shortly after only to be called to perform forced labor again in Russia and then in Hungary; escaping forced labor and then acquiring Aryan papers; surviving the war in Hungary; leaving Hungary for Austria; and eventually immigrating to Australia in 1950.

Oral history interview with Eva Varnay

Oral History

Eva Varnay (née Hubert), born July 3, 1931 in Budapest, Hungary, describes growing up in Hungary before the war; experiencing antisemitism as a child in school; being forced to leave her home and relocate to a different area after Nazis forcibly inhabited her apartment; hiding in various places throughout the war to avoid deportation; surviving the war and returning to Budapest; emigrating; and establishing her life in Australia in 1950.

Oral history interview with Magda Verebes

Oral History

Magda Verebes (née Lebovits), born on April 1, 1924 in Budapest, Hungary, describes growing up in Hungary before the war; the beginning of the war; the start of the German occupation in 1944; living in fear and seeking shelter in a cigarette factory; being transported to Ravensbrück; leaving Ravensbrück and going to Penning where she survived the war; returning to Hungary and marrying her husband; and living in Paris, France after the end of the war before emigrating; and establishing her life in Australia in 1950.

Oral history interview with Dalma Victor

Oral History

Dalma Victor (née Gyozo), born on July 24, 1919 in Budapest, Hungary, describes growing up in Hungary before the war; realizing that conditions in Hungary were deteriorating; her failed attempt to flee Budapest; the beginning of the German occupation and the restrictive antisemitic laws that followed; being forced to dig anti-tank trenches; escaping from forced labor; acquiring a job as a maid in Budapest; surviving the war and performing medical duties to aid the Red Cross; living in Romania and Paris, France after the end of the war; and immigrating to Australia in 1957.

Oral history interview with Thereza Waldner

Oral History

Thereza Waldner (née Schwalb), born on May 24, 1910 in Gyor, Hungary, describes growing up in Hungary before the war; the beginning of the war; the start of the German occupation in 1944; leaving her town and working in a brick factory as forced laborer; being deported to Auschwitz; enduring the harsh conditions of Auschwitz; being transferred to Ravensbrück, Tachau bei Leipzig, and then to Altenburg, where she worked in an ammunition factory; being liberated in Altenburg; returning to Hungary; and immigrating to Australia in 1958.

Oral history interview with Irene Weidler

Oral History

Irene Weidler (born Glück), born on February 24, 1915 in Nyiregyhaza, Hungary, describes growing up in Budapest before the war; living in hiding with a Christian woman in Kiskunhalas, Hungary during the war; being transferred to an unknown concentration camp and then to Auschwitz after the Hungarian police found her while in hiding; being transferred to Horneburg and Berndorf (both in Germany); journeying towards Hamburg; being liberated by the Red Cross; living in Denmark, Sweden, Israel, and Hungary after the end of the war; and immigrating to Australia in 1959.

Oral history interview with John Weiner

Oral History

Oral history interview with Elizabeth Weiszmann

Oral History

Elizabeth Weiszmann (née Braun), born on November 18, 1900 in Budapest, Hungary, describes growing up in Hungary before the war; the beginning of Nazi occupation of Hungary in 1944; the start of Jewish deportations; living in the cramped confines of the ghetto; leaving the ghetto; working as a forced laborer in a brick factory in Bekasmegyer, a village just outside of Budapest; being transferred to Auschwitz in cattle cars; the harsh conditions of Auschwitz; being transferred to Bergen-Belsen and then to Magdeburg where she worked in an iron factory; liberation in Magdeburg; returning to Ujpest (IV. Kerület, Budapest) after the end of the war; and immigrating to Australia in 1962.

Oral history interview with John Weiszmann

Oral History

John Weiszmann, born on September 29, 1926 in Ujpest (IV. Kerület, Budapest), Hungary, describes growing up in Hungary before the war; experiencing the beginning of the war; the eventual German occupation; working in forced laborer in Bor, Yugoslavia (Serbia); being discharged from Bor; making his way to Turnu Severin, Romania and then to Timisoara, Romania; surviving the war and returning to Hungary in 1945; studying medicine in Hungary and working at the family business; moving to Austria; and immigrating to Australia in 1957.

Oral history interview with Aniko Whealy

Oral History

Aniko Whealy (née Vago), born on June 12, 1908 in Kunszentmiklos, Hungary, describes growing up in Budapest before the war; the beginning of the Nazi occupation in 1944; her imprisonment; being transferred to Ravensbrück; being transferred to Meuselwitz and then to Buchenwald; living with a German family after Buchenwald was evacuated; leaving the German family and walking to Graslitz (Kraslice, Czech Republic), where she lived for a short period of time before returning to Hungary via train; communicating with her brother in Sydney, Australia; deciding to emigrate; and immigrating to Australia in 1946.

Oral history interview with Susan Young

Oral History

Susan Young (née Vogel), born May 22, 1920 in Budapest, Hungary, describes growing up in Hungary before the war; experiencing antisemitism as a child; learning of the Nazis’ actions in Germany and Austria; contemplating emigration; the beginning of the war; the creation of the ghetto; living in the ghetto; the harsh conditions of the ghetto and leaving in secrecy to obtain extra food; surviving the war in the ghetto; and immigrating and establishing her life in Australia in 1947.

Oral history interview with Rosa Fridman

Oral History

Rosa Fridman (née Jazovski), born June 2, 1920 in Vilkaviskis, Lithuania, describes growing up in Lithuania before the war; leaving Vilkaviskis and going to Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania to study; losing her mother and brother during the war; living under the German occupation; the persecution of Jews under German occupation; being deported to Danzig and then to Stutthoff concentration camp; digging trenches during forced labor outside of Stutthoff concentration camp; escaping Stutthoff upon the approach of the Russian army; liberation; living in Poland, Germany, Italy, and Egypt after the end of the war; and immigrating to Australia in 1946.

Oral history interview with Naftal Sieff

Oral History

Naftal Sieff, born October 24, 1924 in Schwekschna, Lithuania, describes growing up in Lithuania before the war and his family; experiencing the beginning of the war; the start of German occupation in 1941; moving near the East Prussian border on orders by the German army; experiencing German brutality; being transported to Auschwitz II-Birkenau; being transferred to the Warsaw ghetto after the ghetto uprising and liquidation in 1943 as a laborer to dismantle and flatten the ghetto; rumors of the Russian army’s approach; being forced on a death march to Dachau where he worked building underground hangars at Mulhdorf; being liberated by American troops; living in a private house that was part of a displaced persons camp for three years; and immigrating to Australia in 1950.

Oral history interview with David Brandon

Oral History

Oral history interview with Geertruida Finkelstein

Oral History

Geertruida Finkelstein (née Shapiro), born June 18, 1925 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, describes growing up in the Netherlands before the war; experiencing the beginning of the war and German occupation; fleeing Amsterdam with the help of the underground; living in hiding on a farm and working for the underground; almost getting caught once when Germans went to the farm; liberation; and immigrating to and establishing her life in Australia in 1946.

Oral history interview with Jozef Frank

Oral History

Jozef Frank, born on February 26, 1907 in Groningen, the Netherlands, describes growing up in the Netherlands before the war; experiencing the beginning of the war; the German occupation; living in fear while in hiding in Zutphen, the Netherlands; mourning his family, all of whom perished during the war; surviving the war with his wife; and immigrating to Australia in 1951.

Oral history interview with Mary Frank

Oral History

Oral history interview with Els Frankel

Oral History

Els Frankel (née de Beer), born on May 15, 1919 in Amsterdam, Holland, describes growing up in Holland before the war; experiencing antisemitism as a child; witnessing the beginning of the war and German occupation; leaving Amsterdam to go into hiding in Haarlem; working as a servant while in hiding; the end of the war; struggling to cope with her wartime experiences; living in South Africa, Rhodesia, and Israel after the end of the war; and immigrating to Australia in 1989.

Oral history interview with Samuel Lissing

Oral History

Samuel Lissing, born March 2, 1921 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, describes growing up in Holland before the war; working as a diamond cutter before the war; experiencing the beginning of the war and the German occupation; on November 11, 1942 being sent to a cinema in Amsterdam with other diamond cutters; being sent to a camp in Vught to build a diamond factory, which was never used; being transferred to Westerbork for a night then to Auschwitz; being sent to Monowitz to the music barracks; finding his brother there and staying with him for a few months; the purpose of the orchestra; being sent to Dachau and then to Mühldorf; liberation; returning to the Netherlands after the war ended; and immigrating to Australia in 1951; and establishing his life in Australia.

Oral history interview with Charlotte Melkman

Oral History

Charlotte Melkman (née Blokjesman), born April 13, 1920 in Paisley, Scotland, describes moving to the Netherlands as a young girl and growing up in Amsterdam before the war; experiencing the beginning of the war and the German occupation; being transported to Westerbork concentration camp in Holland; being transferred to Bergen-Belsen where she worked collecting leather shoes; leaving Bergen-Belsen on a train through German where she was liberated by Russian soldiers; living in England, Indonesia, and the Netherlands after the end of the war; and immigrating to Australia in 1951.

Oral history interview with Jacqueline Phillips

Oral History

Jacqueline Philips (née Spetter), born January 7, 1924 in Pontianak, Indonesia (the Netherlands East India), describes growing up in Voorburg, Holland before the war; experiencing the beginning of the war and German occupation; obtaining false papers; fleeing her town; going into hiding in various homes and farms during the war; aiding the underground movement in the Netherland, thereby risking her life; surviving the war in hiding; living in the United States, Holland, Indonesia, and New Zealand after the end of the war; and immigrating to Australia in 1972.

Oral history interview with Franka Berk

Oral History

Oral history interview with Golda Blumner

Oral History

Golda Blumner (formerly Golda Sussman; née Stotter), born September 14, 1911 in Kroscienko, Poland, describes her childhood before the war; her family that consisted of her parents, three older sisters, two younger sisters, and herself; her time in Molotowska Oblasi, Czermoski Rayon, and Posiolek Gorki, all located in Russia; marrying and having two daughters; travelling to Poland, Czechoslovakia, and France after the war; and immigrating to Australia in 1948.

Oral history interview with Gedale Bosak

Oral History

Gedale Bosak, born July 1, 1915 in Dereczyn, Poland (Dziarechyn, Belarus), describes his childhood before the war; his family before the war; being in the Polish Army from 1937 to 1939 in the artillery; his experiences in the Dereczyn ghetto, where he stayed until 1941; being in hiding near Dereczyn in the winter of 1941 and 1942; joining a partisan group; the book, Sefer Derets'in, which tells the story of his town during the Holocaust; his time in the Lepiezanske Forest (Lipicanskaja pušca) working with the partisan movement; joining the Russian Army; travelling to Poland and Germany after the war and seeing Dachau; marrying in 1946; his two daughters; and immigrating to Australia in 1955.

Oral history interview with Roman Curtis

Oral History

Roman Curtis (né Gross; later Kurtycz), born May 10, 1914 in Lwow, Poland (L'viv, Ukraine), describes his family before the war; serving in the Polish Army; his time in Hemer, Görlitz, and Lublin, as a POW during the war; escaping from a POW camp to Warsaw, Poland, where he lived with his father; changing his name from Gross to Kurtycz in order to hide his true identity; the Warsaw ghetto uprising; the end of World War II; his time in London and Germany after the war; and immigrating to Australia in 1958.

Oral history interview with Stanislawa Curtis

Oral History

Stanislawa Curtis (née Ellenbogen), born October 4, 1911 in Rozwadów, Poland, describes her family before the war; moving to Lwów (L'viv, Ukraine) with her brother; the Russian occupation of Lwów; her first husband who was taken away and perished; working in a restaurant in Lwów; moving to Warsaw on Christian papers; meeting her current husband Roman; the end of the German occupation; liberation; her time in London after the war; and immigrating to Australia during September 1958. Note that the interviewee experiences problems with her memory during the interview.

Oral history interview with Jakob Enoch

Oral History

Jakob Enoch, born May 31, 1926 in Krakow, Poland, describes his family before the war; the beginning of German occupation and the ensuing restrictions placed upon Jews; the creation of the ghetto in Podgórze; being transported to Płaszów concentration camp; being sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944; being forced on a death march to Buchenwald in 1945; being liberated by American soldiers; his recovery in Switzerland; marrying in 1945; immigrating to Australia in 1948; and his children and family.

Oral history interview with Laura Freedman

Oral History

Laura Freedman (née Wachs), born September 15, 1916 in Lwow, Poland (L'viv, Ukraine), describes her family before the war; the German invasion of Lwow; the creation of the Lwow ghetto in 1942; acquiring a Polish birth certificate; escaping the Lwow ghetto with the help of a Polish acquaintance; being disappointed by the lack of help given to the Jews by her Polish and Ukrainian neighbors; her husband’s death; working as a kitchen maid in Germany; her false identity as a Pole during the war; her forced labor on a vegetable farm; being liberated by American and French armies; her travels to Austria, France, and South Africa after the war; marrying her current husband; and her eventual immigration to Australia in 1961.

Oral history interview with Rubin Furgang

Oral History

Rubin Furgang, born September 22, 1923 in Lwow, Poland (L'viv, Ukraine), describes his family before the war; his time in the Lwow ghetto; being transferred to Janowska concentration camp after the Lwow ghetto was liquidated; his time in hiding in Lwow; being liberated by the Soviet Army; his service to the Russian Army as a courier; his return to his family in Lwow; moving to Czechoslovakia and Vienna, Austria after the war; and immigrating to Australia in 1952.

Oral history interview with Tauba Furgang

Oral History

Tauba Furgang (née Lipszyc), born May 6, 1925 in Łódź, Poland, describes her family before the war; the arrival of the Germans; the establishment of the Łódź ghetto; the liquidation of the Łódź ghetto; being transported via cattle car to Auschwitz in August 1944; arriving at the camp in the night and the selection process; being forced to run naked; being transferred to Hoch-Tief concentration camp in Germany; working in the salt mines during her time at Hoch-Tief; being transferred to Bergen-Belsen; the horrific conditions at Bergen-Belsen; being liberated; travelling through Germany and Italy post-war; immigrating to Australia; and her post-war struggles to cope with trauma from the Holocaust.

Oral history interview with Masza Goldenberg

Oral History

Masza Goldenberg (née Pakula), born on December 28, 1921 in Chorszow, Poland and describes her family before the war; her family’s move to Łódź in 1936, where she worked and attended university, receiving a degree in business; the beginning of Nazi occupation; the construction of the Łódź ghetto; the liquidation of the ghetto and her transfer to Auschwitz; being transferred to Christianstadt labor camp where she dug trenches for water pipes; the march from Christianstadt to Bergen-Belsen and the harsh conditions that it entailed; moving to Sweden after the end of the war; and immigrating to Australia in 1947.

Oral history interview with Helena Goldstein

Oral History

Helena Goldstein (née Midler), born January 31, 1919 in Lublin, Poland, describes her life before the war; her family’s move to Warsaw, Poland; her law studies at the University of Warsaw; being forced to leave the university due to her Jewish identity; the establishment of the Warsaw ghetto; her experiences in the Warsaw throughout the war; her post-war travels to Germany and France; and immigrating to Australia in 1949.

Oral history interview with Jacob Greene

Oral History

Jacob Greene, born May 29, 1925 in Bolechow, Poland (Bolekhiv, Ukraine), describes his life before the war; the German and Russian occupation of his town; his father’s involvement in the Judenrat; his father’s resignation from the Judenrat after 2,000 Jews were deported from Bolechow; his experiences in hiding in the Carpathian Forests; his time in the Russian army after Bolechow was liberated; escaping to Lublin, Poland in 1945; travelling to Hungary, Italy, and Israel after the war; and his immigration to Australia in 1945.

Oral history interview with Helen Grosman

Oral History

Helen Grosman (née Futerhendler), born September 1, 1925 in Tomaszow-Maz, Poland, describes her life before the war; establishing of the Tomaszow ghetto; her father’s time in Buchenwald and eventual death in Stutthof; the ghetto’s liquidation, from where she was transferred to Blizin labor camp; being transferred to Auschwitz concentration camp; her evacuation on a death march from Auschwitz-Birkenau and her short time in Gleiwitz, Mauthausen, and then Hindenburg concentration camp; being transferred to Bergen-Belsen; being liberated by the British army; her time in Germany, Poland, and France post-war; and immigrating to Australia in 1949.

Oral history interview with Stanley Grosman

Oral History

Stanley Grosman, born April 9, 1924 in Tomaszow-Maz, Poland, describes his life before the war; his service in the Polish Army; the German occupation and subsequent establishment of the Tomaszow ghetto; his forced labor in Obrowiecz work camp; his return to the Tomaszow-Maz ghetto; being transferred to the Blizin concentration camp; his clandestine escape from Blizin; his postwar time in Riga, Latvia; Vilnius, Lithuania; Poland; Berlin and France; and immigrating to Australia in 1949.

Oral history interview with Tecia Grynberg

Oral History

Tecia Grynberg (née Moskowitz), born November 3, 1908 in Kielce, Poland, describes growing up in Kielce, Poland before the war; persecution under the Nazi occupation; the harsh conditions of the ghetto; witnessing her children’s death; being transported to Auschwitz; survival in Auschwitz; being transferred to Ravensbrück and then to Malchow; traveling to Denmark, Sweden, Poland, and Germany after the end of the war; and immigrating to Australia in 1948.

Oral history interview with Bronia Hatfield

Oral History

Bronia Hatfield (née Goldstein), born November 4, 1924 in Lublin, Poland, describes life in Poland before the war; moving to Lutsk, Ukraine; experiencing the outbreak of the war in 1939; restrictions placed upon Jews; living in the Lutsk ghetto; hiding in various family’s homes during the war; acquiring false Polish papers; working as a housekeeper for a German family in Rodno; her decision to not live with hate in her heart; being liberated by the Russians in Barashovka; studying medicine in Kiev, Ukraine after its liberation; searching for family members post-war; moving to Vienna and continuing her medical studies there; and immigrating to Australia in 1950.

Oral history interview with Arthur Heimberg

Oral History

Arthur Heimberg, born March 24, 1920 in Boryslaw, Poland (Boryslav, Ukraine), describes life in Poland before the war; the beginning of the war; the Boryslaw ghetto; being transferred to Płaszów, Auschwitz, and then to the Mauthausen subcamp, Ebensee, during the war; traveling to Austria, Italy, and the United States post-war; and immigrating to Australia in 1947.

Oral history interview with Herman Kamerman

Oral History

Herman Kamerman, born April 15, 1909 in Boryslaw, Poland (Boryslav, Ukraine), describes life in Poland before the war; the German occupation; the Boryslaw ghetto; hiding in a bunker in the woods of Boryslaw after the ghetto was liquidated; seeking help from a Russian soldier; returning to Borslaw in 1945; moving to Germany post-war; and emigrating and establishing his life in Australia in 1951.

Oral history interview with Jack Kappelmeister

Oral History

Jack Kapelmeister, born June 5, 1928 in Kielce, Poland, describes life in Poland before the war; the outbreak of war in 1939; the establishment of the ghetto in Kielce; his forced labor for the Germans during the war; being transferred to Radom and then to Auschwitz; the harsh conditions at Auschwitz; being transferred to Buchenwald where he was liberated; moving to Switzerland post-war; immigrating to Australia in 1950; building a life and family; grappling with the fact that he survived; and his Jewish identity.

Oral history interview with Stefan Karp

Oral History

Stefan Karp, born October 7, 1917 in Łódź, Poland, describes life in Poland before the war; the outbreak of war; the establishment of the Łódź ghetto; being transferred to Auschwitz concentration camp; being transferred to Braunschweig concentration camp; his forced labor in a factory in Büssing Nag near Wechelde concentration camp; his forced labor in a salt mine in East Germany; being transferred to Ludwiglust camp; the harsh conditions at the camp; liberation; traveling back to Poland to find his relatives; living in Germany and Poland; immigrating to Australia in 1948; and meeting his wife and establishing his life in Australia.

Oral history interview with Henry Kaswiner

Oral History

Henry Kaswiner, born February 26, 1928 in Stanislawow, Poland (Ivano-Frankivs'ka, Ukraine), describes life in Poland before the war; the start of the war and Russian occupation; witnessing the German invasion in 1941; the German occupation and the establishment of the Stanislawow ghetto; fleeing and hiding in a forest after the ghetto was liquidated; finding refuge in a benevolent Polish village; volunteering for the Polish army; leaving the Polish army and obtaining a job for a Russian farmer; returning to Stanislawow to try to find family members; moving to Gleiwitz and then to Wroclaw for academic reasons; and immigrating to Australia in 1958.

Oral history interview with Rosa Kresner

Oral History

Rosa Kresner, born January 19, 1913 in Warsaw, Poland, describes growing up in Poland before the war; witnessing the beginning of the war; the construction of the Warsaw ghetto; experiencing virulent Polish antisemitism; the January “Aktion” of 1943; obtaining false Polish papers and living in the Aryan side of Warsaw; hiding in various Polish homes throughout the war; surviving the war and receiving aid from Polish friends; and emigrating and establishing her life in Australia in 1949.

Oral history interview with Felicja Kurzer

Oral History

Felicja Kurzer (née Lipper), born July 26, 1925 in Lwów, Poland (L'viv, Ukraine), describes growing up in Poland before the war; the beginning of the war; the Russian occupation; the establishment of the Lwów ghetto; obtaining false papers; moving to Jaroslaw, Poland with her brother; living with a Polish family under a false identity; surviving the war in Jaroslaw; liberation; and immigrating to Australia in 1946.

Oral history interview with Leon Lehrer

Oral History

Leon Lehrer, born September 14, 1918 in Stryj, Poland (Stryi, Ukraine), describes growing up in Poland before the war; experiencing Russian and then German occupation when the war began; living in the Stryj ghetto; serving in the Russian army; returning to the Stryj ghetto; performing menial labor in the ghetto; hiding with a Polish lawyer and learning English during this time; being liberated by Russian soldiers; harboring anti-German sentiments today; meeting his wife; moving to Germany; and immigrating to Australia in 1950.

Oral history interview with Schaul Lieberman

Oral History

Schaul Liberman, born April 2, 1920 in Łódź, Poland, describes being raised in Poland before the war; experiencing the outbreak of World War II; the Łódź ghetto; working in the ghetto’s kitchen; being transferred to Auschwitz after the liquidation of the ghetto in 1944; his forced labor at the Büssing Werke factory in Braunschweig, Germany; witnessing benevolence towards Jewish children; being transferred to Ravensbrück and then Rotenberg; being liberated by American troops; transferring to a Polish repatriation camp and then displaced persons camp; moving to Germany and Israel; and immigrating to Australia in 1966.

Oral history interview with Isak Lips

Oral History

Isak Lips (born Lipszyc) born July 10, 1920 in Łódź, Poland describes life in Poland before the war; the rise of the Nazi Regime and the beginning of the war; leaving Łódź and traveling to Warsaw; deciding to leave Warsaw to move to Russia; experiencing German brutality; being forced to return to Łódź; being transferred to Auschwitz and then to Dachau; surviving the war; living in Munich, Germany and France after the end of the war; and immigrating and establishing his life in Australia.

Oral history interview with Richard Merer

Oral History

Oral history interview with Eva Nagler

Oral History

Eva Nagler (née Ginat), born October 28, 1926 in Łódź, Poland, describes growing up in Poland before the war; experiencing the beginning of the war and German occupation; witnessing rampant antisemitism; living in the ghetto; the dynamic of the Judenrat; coping with her father’s death from tuberculosis; being transported to Auschwitz, Stutthof, and then to Schippenbeil (Sępopol, Poland); the death march and then hiding; working as an Aryan in Pillau, Germany (now Baltiisk, Russia); being liberated by Russian soldiers; moving to Poland, Italy, and Israel after the war; and immigrating to Australia in 1952 and establishing her life there.

Oral history interview with Regina Neustein

Oral History

Regina Neustein (née Rosen) born on May 1, 1917 in a small town in Galicia, Poland, describes growing up in Poland before the war; experiencing the beginning of the war; life in the Stryj ghetto; hiding in the Stryj forest during the war; surviving the war and liberation; living in Poland, Austria, and France after the end of the war; and emigrating and establishing her life in Australia in 1947.

Oral history interview with Moses Pearl

Oral History

Moses Pearl (né Perl), born on August 28, 1919 in Sucha, Poland, describes growing up in Poland before the war; witnessing the beginning of the war; entering the Sucha ghetto; watching as his father, younger brothers, and sister were sent to Auschwitz never to be seen again; being transferred to Breslau-Gross Masselwitz; being transferred again to Bismarkhütte; working as a radio mechanic; being transferred to Freiburg and Waldenburg, Germany; liberation; living in Poland and France; and immigrating to Australia in 1949.

Oral history interview with Marian Pretzel

Oral History

Marian Pretzel, born on June 28, 1922 in Lwow, Poland (L'viv, Ukraine), describes growing up in Poland before the war; experiencing the beginning of the war; the establishment of the Lwow ghetto; working on a farm during this time; acquiring forged Polish documents and obtaining a job in Kiev, Ukraine; leaving Kiev and moving to Odessa, Ukraine and then Bucharest, Romania; witnessing the arrival of the Russians in Bucharest; fleeing to Palestine in January 1945; returning to Europe and living in Vienna, Austria for three years; and emigrating and establishing his life in Australia in 1949. [Note that the recording ends abruptly during the conclusion of the interview.]

Oral history interview with Pola Price

Oral History

Pola Price (née Przytycka), born on December 15, 1923 in Jadow, Poland, describes growing up in Poland before the war; moving to Warsaw, Poland during the outset of the war; being accused of being a spy; being forcibly taken to Siberia, where she worked in factory to survive; moving back to Poland after the end of the war; and moving to Australia and establishing her life there in 1958.

Oral history interview with Michael Reed

Oral History

Michael Reed (né Morzesz Riesenberg), born on May 8, 1922 in Gorlice, Poland, describes growing up in Poland before the war; leaving Gorlice after the start of the German occupation; walking to the Russian border; being picked up by the Gestapo; being transported by train to Lwów (L'viv, Ukraine), Kharkov, and Dnepropetrovsk; working in a labor camp for three years; traveling by train via Uchva Tchechova, Cotlas, Uzbekistan, and Jugurs; working on a cotton farm near the Aral Sea; reuniting with his brother after the war; living in Vienna, Austria for a short time; and moving to Australia in 1951.

Oral history interview with Helen Roan

Oral History

Oral history interview with Kasriel Rosen

Oral History

Oral history interview with Pepa Rosemann

Oral History

Pepa Rosemann (née Feuer), born in 1914 in Przemysl, Poland, describes growing up in Poland before the war; experiencing the beginning of the war; establishing the ghetto in her town; leaving the ghetto in 1942 to live in Lwow (L'viv, Ukraine); being in contact with the Polish underground while in Lwow; obtaining false papers; traveling to Warsaw and living with a Polish family; the Warsaw uprising of 1944; living in Czechoslovakia and France after the war ended; and immigrating to Australia in 1952.

Oral history interview with Abraham Rotkopf

Oral History

Abraham Rotkopf, born December 7, 1917 in Jaroslaw, Poland, describes growing up in Poland before the war; studying to become a dentist; the beginning of the war and Russian occupation; the consequences of Germany invading Russia and breaking the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact; fleeing Poland through the forest to Sambir, Ukraine; traveling to Rostov and Stalinabad (Dushanbe, Tajikistan); working as a dentist in a local hospital in Dushanbe; moving back to Poland after the end of the war; and immigrating to and establishing his life in Australia in 1961.

Oral history interview with Max Schein

Oral History

Max Schein (birth name Himmelschein), born January 15, 1928 in Warsaw, Poland, describes growing up in an orphanage in Poland before the war; attending school; experiencing antisemitism; returning home from the orphanage; witnessing the beginning of the war; living under German occupation; not wearing the Jewish star; escaping the Germans and hiding in the forest; working on numerous farms in order to survive; living in a displaced persons camp in Austria after the war ended; and immigrating to Australia in 1949.

Oral history interview with Yolanda Schneider

Oral History

Yola Schneider (née Rawdin), born August 15, 1932 in Warsaw, Poland, describes growing up in Poland before the war; the bombings during the beginning of the war; the construction of the ghetto; living in the ghetto; the impoverished conditions of the ghetto; escaping from the ghetto; passing as Poles in Piastow; living in Germany after the war ended; and immigrating to Australia in 1949.

Oral history interview with Regina Schuldiener

Oral History

Regina Schuldiener (née Perl), born April 28, 1922 in Sucha, Poland, describes growing up in Poland before the war; experiencing the harsh realities of antisemitism before the war; fleeing Sucha when the war began and staying with her sister in Tarnów; being transported to Freiberg, where she worked in a factory; being transferred to Egersdorf, Germany (near Cadolzburg) in 1944; a death march to Kratzau concentration camp; liberation; returning to Poland; and immigrating to Australia in 1957.

Oral history interview with Alina Schwarzbaum

Oral History

Alina Schwarzbaum (née Rotner), born May 15, 1924 in Miechow, Poland, describes growing up and moving to Sosnowiec, Poland before the war; leaving school early upon outbreak of the war; her family having to close their bookshop; being sent to the ghetto in 1942; deciding to not do what the Germans said; escaping a roundup of Jews by hiding in vegetable fields; spending time in Katowice and Königshuette (Chorzów, Poland) throughout the war; being arrested and convincing the guards not to execute her; surviving the war and returning to Poland; learning that she was the only survivor from her family; living in Katowice and Germany after the war ended; and immigrating to Australia in 1956.

Oral history interview with Tola Shmerler

Oral History

Oral history interview with Denise Sten

Oral History

Denise Sten (née Spiegel), born October 3, 1923 in Lwów, Poland (L'viv, Ukraine), describes living in Poland before the war; experiencing the beginning of the war and the arrival of the Russians; spending time in Warsaw, Krosno, Przemysl, and Łódź during the war; obtaining false papers that allowed her to pass as an Aryan; working in a Polish firm throughout the war; spending time in Poland after the war; and immigrating to Australia in 1957.

Oral history interview with Ronica Strauss

Oral History

Ronica Strauss, born February 12, 1913 in Tarnopol, Poland (Ternopil', Ukraine), describes growing up in Vienna, Austria before the war; attempting to escape Vienna and go to France; her inability to enter France and subsequently being transported to Rivesaltes camp; obtaining release papers and traveling to Lyon, France with her then-husband; escaping two raids by the Gestapo; surviving the war in Lyon; reuniting with her family, who all survived; and immigrating to Australia in 1918.

Oral history interview with Herman Strykowski

Oral History

Herman Strykowski, born March 28, 1923 in Krosniewice, Poland, describes growing up in Poland before the war; the antisemitism that was prevalent in his town before the war; experiencing the beginning of the war and German occupation; moving into the ghetto; performing work in a labor camp; being transported to Auschwitz; being transferred to the Eintrachthuette labor camp, where he worked in an ammunition factory; being taken to Gusen concentration camp in Austria in advance of the Russian Army’s approach at the end of the war; being liberated by the United States Army; traveling to Italy and finding his uncle in Constanz, Germany post-war; and immigrating to Australia in 1950.

Oral history interview with Sonia Sznicer

Oral History

Zofia Sznicer (née Heliczer), born April 11, 1924 in Trembowla, Poland (Terebovlia, Ukraine), describes growing up in Poland before the war; experiencing the beginning of the war; the Russian occupation; the later German occupation; fleeing Trembowla and taking a train to Zhmerinka in Russia (Zhmerynka, Ukraine); traveling from Zhmerinka to Stalinabad (Dushanbe, Tajikistan) and then Marghilon, Uzbekistan; working in a knitting mill to feed herself; traveling to Biewewai and then Tashkent where she met her future husband; and immigrating to Australia in 1957.

Oral history interview with Adam Szumer

Oral History

Adam Szumer born on January 27, 1930 in Jaslo, Poland describes growing up in Poland before the war; experiencing the beginning of the war and the Nazi invasion; moving to Stanislawow and living under Russian occupation; leaving Stanislawow to move to Drohobycz, Ukraine; witnessing the occupation of Drohobycz; the establishment of the Drohobycz ghetto; acquiring false papers; traveling via train to seek refuge and avoid being captured; working in an oil refinery; the end of the war; and immigrating to Australia in 1947.

Oral history interview with Adam Szus

Oral History

Adam Szus (born Schüss), born September 1, 1917 in Brzostek, Poland, describes growing up in Poland before the war; experiencing the beginning of the war and the German occupation; being transported to a camp in Lublin in 1940; escaping the camp and returning home; fleeing to Russia; relocating to Lwow after being caught near the Eastern front; and leaving Lwow and being transported to Janowska concentration camp.

Oral history interview with Nathan Waigensberg

Oral History

Nathan Walgensberg, born January 2, 1919 in Łódź, Poland, describes growing up in Poland before the war; witnessing the beginning of the war and fleeing in an effort to avoid the German Army; returning to Łódź after being caught by German soldiers; living in the ghetto; the harsh conditions in the ghetto; being transported to Sachsenhausen with his father and brother-in-law; being transferred to Koenigs Wusterhausen camp; being liberated; living in Poland and Germany after the end of the war; and immigrating to Australia in 1949.

Oral history interview with Sigmund Werner

Oral History

Sigmund Werner (né Kott), born November 16, 1909 in Warsaw, Poland, describes growing up in Poland before the war and moving to Warsaw upon marrying; witnessing the beginning of the war and the German invasion and subsequently losing his job; leaving Warsaw and moving to Zamosc, Poland; performing office work for the German air force as a forced laborer; losing his wife and child; leaving Zamosc and being transported to Majdanek concentration camp; working on the black market buying and selling cigarettes; being transferred from Majdanek to Skarzysko to work in an ammunitions factory; experiencing the Russian offensive and being sent to Czestochowa; being liberated; traveling to Austria, Germany, and France after the end of the war; and immigrating to Australia in 1947.

Oral history interview with Jacob Widawski

Oral History

Jacob Widawski, born May 21, 1921 in Wieruszow, Poland, describes growing up in Poland before the war; experiencing the beginning of the war and German occupation; being transported to Kalbsfelde forced labor camp, where he worked on the Autobahn; being transferred to Gutenbrunn camp; being transferred to Auschwitz, where he worked as a food carrier; leaving Auschwitz to work in a coalmine in Janino; liberation; and emigrating and establishing his life in Australia in 1962.

Oral history interview with Mina Widawski

Oral History

Mina Midawski (née Laub), born on November 9, 1921 in Krakow, Poland, describes growing up in Poland before the war; experiencing the beginning of the war and German occupation; moving to a small apartment with her family on the outskirts of Krakow; being forced to move into the ghetto; being transported to Płaszów and working to build barracks in the camp; being transferred to Skarzysko labor camp and then to Leipzig; leaving Leipzig on a death march to Dresden and the harsh conditions it entailed; returning to Poland after the end of the war; and immigrating to Australia in 1962.

Oral history interview with George Winston

Oral History

George Winston, born July 5, 1934 in Lwow, Poland (L'viv, Ukraine), describes growing up in Poland before the war; experiencing the beginning of the war; establishing the Lwow ghetto; living in the ghetto; the harsh conditions of the ghetto; fleeing Lwow and traveling via train through Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon; arriving in Palestine in 1944; living in France after the end of the war; and immigrating to and establishing his life in Australia in 1950.

Oral history interview with Sam Young

Oral History

Sam Young (né Szmul Jungzweig), born November 7, 1925 in Łódź, Poland, describes growing up in Poland before the war; experiencing the beginning of the war; establishing the Łódź ghetto; the persecution and harsh conditions that he faced during the German occupation; working as a courier smuggling goods into the ghetto; being transported to Auschwitz after the liquidation of the ghetto; being transferred from Auschwitz to Kaufering, Landshut, and then Henschel; liberation; entering Feldafing and then Föhrenwald displaced persons camps; living in Paris, France after the end of the war; and immigrating to Australia in 1950.

Oral history interview with Walter Ziegler

Oral History

Walter Ziegler (né Wof Cygler), born November 27, 1927 in Olkusz, Poland, describes growing up in Poland before the war; experiencing the beginning of the war and German occupation; working at a German police station as a shoe cleaner; being transported to Blechhammer forced labor camp; being transferred out of Blechhammer after a dysentery outbreak to a transit camp called Branden; being sent to Zwittau labor camp (possibly Brünnlitz); being transferred to Faulbruck, Peterswaldau, and then Langenbielau; liberation; living in Poland, Germany, and Switzerland after the end of the war; and immigrating to Australia in 1950.

Oral history interview with Regina Zielinski

Oral History

Regina Zielinski (née Feldman), born September 2, 1925 in Siedliszcze, Poland, describes living in Poland before the war; experiencing the beginning of the war; the creation of the ghetto in her town; her time in Staw concentration camp, Sobibor death camp, and Frankfurt, Germany during the war; traveling to Wetzlar and Butzbach, Germany after the end of the war; and immigrating to and establishing her life in Australia in 1949.

Oral history interview with Benno Finger

Oral History

Benno Finger, born August 10, 1919 in Czernowitz, Romania (Chernivtsi, Ukraine), describes growing up in Romania before the war; experiencing the beginning of the war and German occupation; living in the harsh conditions of the ghetto; being deported to Ukraine and staying in a stable in a Kolkhoz; working on a farm to survive; going to Nikolayef doing road work; being liberated by the Russian army; serving for the Russian Army in Poland; living in Bucharest, Romania and Belgium after the end of the war; and immigrating to Australia in 1948.

Oral history interview with Gisella Gold

Oral History

Gisella Gold (née Adlerstein), born on January 6, 1926 in Maramarossziget (Sighet), Romania, describes growing up in Romania before the war; experiencing the beginning of the war and German occupation; living in the cramped ghetto; being transported from the ghetto to Birkenau; realizing that she would never see her parents again; leaving Birkenau on a death march to Bergen-Belsen; being liberated by the British Army; returning to Romania and reuniting with some of her family; traveling to Hungary and France after the end of the war; and immigrating to Australia in 1948.

Oral history interview with Marton Hamor

Oral History

Marton Hamor (né Hirschl), born on March 24, 1913 in Oradea, Romania, describes growing up in Romania before the war; experiencing the beginning of the war; the introduction of antisemitic laws; participating in forced labor in Balatonaliga, Hungary and Kiev, Ukraine; retreating to Stanislau when the Russian troops began to approach; witnessing the German occupation of Hungary; being transported to Mauthausen concentration camp and then to Gunskirchen; being liberated by the American Army; living in Hungary after the end of the war; and immigrating to Australia in 1956.

Oral history interview with Hedvig Hunter

Oral History

Hedvig Hunter, born July 27, 1920 in Oradea, Romania, describes his childhood and schooling; beginning his studies in law in 1938, but being forced to leave school after an antisemitic incident, after which he was warned that there would be more; his failed attempt to flee to Palestine; the Hungarian takeover of Transylvania in 1940 and the immediate imposition of antisemitic laws; moving into the ghetto in April 1944; offers to hide the family, which his father refused; being on the last transport out of the ghetto to Auschwitz; the work and general life at the camp; getting sick and being sent to the hospital; last minute reprieves from the gas chambers; attempting to commit suicide; survival during the last days before liberation; being liberated by Russian troops; being taken to a hospital in Katowice, Poland, where he recovered for some weeks; spending a short amount of time living in Sluck; returning back to Oradea; and immigrating to Australia in 1948.

Oral history interview with Sarah Vogel

Oral History

Sarah Vogel (née Weintraub), born March 22, 1915 in Siret, Romania, describes her life in Bukovina before 1941; her whole village being evacuated in cattle trucks and shunted around for two weeks; the Romanians from her village being sent back to her town while the Jews were shunted around some more and sent to labor before being allowed to return home in 1941; being forced to march hundreds of miles to Ukraine in 1942; bribing authorities to be allowed to live with local peasants; being liberated by Russian troops in March 1944; bribing the Russian border guards to let her cross the border and go back home; arriving back home in July 1944 and finding everything destroyed; sending her children to Bucharest, Romania; getting forged documents and following her children to Bucharest; living with a wealthy cousin and then with her brother once he returned from Russia with another cousin; illegally journeying to Israel in 1947 but not arriving until 1948; and immigrating to Australia in 1955.

Oral history interview with Alisa Brosan

Oral History

Eva Berger

Oral History