Oral history interview with Lillian Bàrdos Bekefi

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.