Overview
- Interview Summary
- Lillian Bàrdos Bekefi, born December 9, 1919 in Miskolc, Hungary, describes life before the war; studying piano and voice at a music academy; the invasion of Hungary in 1944 and the restrictions placed on Jews; her father's deportation to a labor camp; his escape, capture, and execution; living with her family in the ghetto from March 1944 until they were deported to Auschwitz at the beginning of June 1944; spending a week in a brick factory on the outskirts of Miskolc before being deported to Auschwitz; the transport to and their arrival at Auschwitz; the selection process and her later deportation to Płaszów; the evacuation of Płaszów; being sent back to Auschwitz with her mother and sister; her mother's separation from her daughters and murder, probably because of injuries sustained at Płaszów; her transfer to a factory in Rochlitz and then to a factory in Calw; how her singing ability helped her to survive; her liberation near Innsbruck, Austria in April 1945 during a forced march from Calw; and marrying Andrew Bekefi, who was a member of the American Army (she had known him before the war) and immigrated to the United States when he was 18 in 1949.
- Interviewee
- Mrs. Lillian Bekefi
- Date
-
interview:
2008 July 12
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Lillian Bekefi
Physical Details
- Language
- English
- Extent
-
2 sound cassettes.
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- Concentration camp inmates--Selection process. Forced labor. Holocaust survivors. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Hungary--Personal narratives. Jewish ghettos--Hungary--Miskolc. Jews--Hungary--Miskolc. Singers. Star of David badges. Women concentration camp inmates. World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Germany. World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Poland. World War, 1939-1945--Conscript labor. World War, 1939-1945--Deportations from Hungary. Women--Personal narratives.
- Geographic Name
- Hungary--History--1918-1945. Kraków (Poland) Miskolc (Hungary) Oświęcim (Poland) Płaszów (Poland) Rochlitz (Germany)
- Personal Name
- Bekefi, Lillian Bàrdos, 1919-
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- Lillian Bekefi donated her oral history interview to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on July 12, 2008.
- Special Collection
-
The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2023-11-16 09:40:23
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn36235
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