In the countryside where we lived grape did not grow. People were bringing grape from other places and sold it, and if they didn't sell all of it, they had an empty house where they used to store it. We had no money to buy grapes. I think I was 11-12, and one time we went to that house some 8 of us, Jewish children, broke in and stuffed ourselves with grapes. The real problem wasn't that we ate some 20 kgs of grape, but that we destroyed almost all of it. This happened on a Saturday afternoon, even though our religion forbid us to do that on Saturday. Of course, the gendarmes came on Monday and took us in. Eventually it had no consequences, because we weren't responsible for our deed, since we all were underage, but they forced our parents to pay the damages. Another example was that they brought water-melon from hundreds of kilometers away, because it didn't grow there. They were piled up in gigantic heaps, with I don't know how many buyers around them. Then we went there and began touching the melons, but in the meantime I took another one and threw it backwards through my legs to another kid, who then gave it to a third one, who ran away with it. Or there was another prank we used to do, when people brought fruits: apple, pear or plum in cross-overs. These were long-shaped baskets that country people used to carry on their backs, put them on the ground and placed two stones between them in order to prevent them from falling over. This was a specificity of our region. A whole bunch, some 10-12 children, walk around until one of us 'accidentally' stumbled over a basket. The basket fell over and the apples scattered. The man or the woman began running after some of us, but it was no way they could catch us, since the market was full of carriages and one could hide anywhere, even under these carriages so they were unable to catch them. In the meantime we packed our pockets with apple, pear or plum, anything we could get. We used to do these kind of pranks.
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Bernat Sauber
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The holiday of Torah was a festival for children. On the two days of the holiday it was a custom to play with nuts, children amused themselves this way. In the afternoon the gathered and there were several games. One of them was the brekli. Brekli means board. We leant the board cater-cornered against a chair, stood beside it let's say five of us, and each let a nut rolling down the board. The winner was the one who managed to knock someone else's, and the winner picked up all the nuts on the ground. There was another game, the resh, meaning head, and each player had three nuts to play with. They put the nuts next to each other on a level surface, if there was any cement, they preferred it, otherwise thy put them on the ground, and the game begin by choosing the one who will throw first. The first player put a nut next to the line of nuts. The second one came saying he occupied a certain length, let's say 5 meters and put his nut next to the nut line. Then another came and put two more nuts, occupying 2 meters, and so on. The first to throw was the one who put the last nut down, because he put the most nuts. So we had a 5-6 meters long nut line. The children selected in advance the most round nuts, smoothed them, put a hole in them and pored lead or tin, that substance one used to solder. They did this to make them heavier and to make them to go [roll] straight when thrown. So the player threw the nut and, if it hit the head of the line, the whole line was his, and if he hit only the back of the line, he could only pick up those nuts. This was a very common entertainment, children used to play it from morning to evening. As I look back, I'm always feel the nostalgia thinking what a holiday was that for us. When we went home, our pockets were full of nuts. This wasn't a question of bringing home some nuts, because we had enough at home, but it was a special feeling to win 50 or 30 nuts. The other, the loser, began to cry so the others gave him a nut or two just to have something in his pocket. We played mainly in the yard of the synagogue, because there was plenty of room there, but we also played at some houses. There were several wealthy Jews who had some 10 meters long porch-like construction in front of the house, which was covered with concrete. Only the rich Jews could afford to build their houses with such porches.
Romania
In the seventh evening of Sukkot, that is, on the eight day, everyone was called to the Torah, this is called to step up to the Torah, and each had to say the prayer and to read a pericope, a verse from the Torah. They used to read from the first and the last pericope of the Torah, but from its middle, as well. Well, this took quite long, it could last until the evening, so in communities where there were, let's say, 300 Jews, there were 5 Torah scrolls, and people read from them in different corners. 15-25 people said the prayer, nobody was left out from Torah reading, it was organized this way. In the center the notabilities and wealthy people were called up, the others gathered in the corners. Everybody over 13 had to be called to the Torah. In a community like ours was in Magyarlapos, there were 10-15 Torahs. After the reading processions followed, these had to be done 7 times. People walked round inside the temple carrying Torah scrolls, these were the Hasids, the very religious Jews, and they expressed their joy by loud singing, they used to dance and sing with the Torahs. This was the holiday of Torah [the Simchat Torah]. Everyone had their turn to do the procession. Such a procession lasted 2-3 hours in our community. On these occasions, the children made for themselves flags out of colored paper, and, I remember that, we used to put an apple in the tip of the flag, we made a hole in the apple and put a candle in it, which we lit. Children walked round in the synagogue with these flags.
On the last day they selected 3 bridegrooms. There was the bridegroom of the Torah, the bridegroom of The Creation and the so-called Maftir. [Editor's note: Chatan Torah – the one who finishes the 5th book of Moses, Chatan Bereshit – the one who starts the first book of Moses, Maftir – the one who reads the verse referring to Shmini Atzeret, the next holiday after Sukkot. These are coming one after the other during the Torah reading on Simchat Torah, and they're all great privileges, but only the first two are called bridegrooms. The Maftir is the one who 'finishes' the Torah reading on each Saturday and holiday.] When these three bridegrooms were praying, usually 3 notabilities, women used to throw nut, sugar and hazel-nut. This was for the joy of the children, who picked them up. These were all wealthy Jews, and in the following three weeks, on Saturday, they were bound to bring to the synagogue cake, beverage to invite all to dinner. This was much to the liking of children, and the temple was packed with them, each picking up the hazel-nut, nut.
On the last day they selected 3 bridegrooms. There was the bridegroom of the Torah, the bridegroom of The Creation and the so-called Maftir. [Editor's note: Chatan Torah – the one who finishes the 5th book of Moses, Chatan Bereshit – the one who starts the first book of Moses, Maftir – the one who reads the verse referring to Shmini Atzeret, the next holiday after Sukkot. These are coming one after the other during the Torah reading on Simchat Torah, and they're all great privileges, but only the first two are called bridegrooms. The Maftir is the one who 'finishes' the Torah reading on each Saturday and holiday.] When these three bridegrooms were praying, usually 3 notabilities, women used to throw nut, sugar and hazel-nut. This was for the joy of the children, who picked them up. These were all wealthy Jews, and in the following three weeks, on Saturday, they were bound to bring to the synagogue cake, beverage to invite all to dinner. This was much to the liking of children, and the temple was packed with them, each picking up the hazel-nut, nut.
Romania
They used to bring long palm-branches from Israel, called lulav, etrog, myrtle branches and there were these very nice smelling wickers, which had to be brought each day from the riverside and were also placed in the tent. These had a support, plaited from old lulav, abd next to it there was the etrog. On the first day of Sukkot, each Jew had to go inside the sukkot to pray, holding the lulav and the etrog in their hands. They picked up the etrog [Editor's note: etrog, which wasn't tied together with the other 3 plants], a plant between the lemon and the orange [lime fruit]. It has a small sphere at the end, which wasn't allowed to be broken off, it had to be there, and people were very careful with it. There was a prayer that had to be said. And what about the poorer Jews? Etrog had to be paid for, and it wasn't cheap at all. In these cases, for example, the Jewish children went from house to house, I did, too, we took it [the etrog] and visited several houses. There they said the prayer, this branch had to be shaken – there's a ceremony to that. It was only allowed to be carried by men, women were forbidden to. Women had no say in this matter. In addition, there was one at the synagogue: those who couldn't afford to buy or pay for the etrog, came to the temple and did the ceremony there. This had a special prayer, it is taken round the synagogue, and is shaken towards different directions: to the East, to the West [to the North and to the South, as well], up towards God and down towards hell. Each [direction] had a different prayer. This was on the first and second day of Sukkot. The third day is a half holiday. But this ceremony was repeated in every morning of the holiday. On the last but one day of the holiday, in the morning of the seventh day, every Jew had to come to the synagogue, each of them with a bunch of 5 wickers, called haishanes in Hebrew, and they had to knock together them until no leaves were left on them. Thus people redeem their sins, then they threw the bunch away. This was a day of atonement, the Hashanah Rabba.
Romania
After Yom Kippur comes Sukkot. The custom was that every Jewish family puts up a tent in the yard. This is to symbolize that when Jews were coming out of Egypt, they lived in such tents. There were four walls of board prepared, joined them with catches and this construction was in the yard of every Jew. They assembled them, put some pine branches on top and decorated them with beautiful ornaments. There were these colored sheets of paper, there were all kinds of colors, and shiny golden sheets, as well. Children used to make ornaments from these. We learned how to cut out the forms. There was a long paper band, wrapped around a nut and hanged. There were magen Davids, different biblical scenes and pictures about how the Jews were walking [in the desert]. They hanged these ornaments on the walls of the tent. We used to keep these ornaments for the coming years. We also used to hang apples and grapes, as well.
The truth is that the religious Jew has to eat in the morning, noon and evening and sleep in that tent for five days [a whole week, to be precise]. Regardless of the weather, in cold or heat, they had a couch to sleep on. We had such a tent, as well, but my father didn't sleep there. The religion prescribes people to sleep there, but it was already cold outside, and there were very few who slept in the tent. [Editor's note: if it's raining or it's very cold, it's not obligatory to sleep in the tent.] There were other solutions, as well, some of the Jews, when building their house, they built a room slightly higher than the others so one had to go up 2-3 steps. The roof wasn't fixed, the boards were placed on top of each other, so they were easy to remove. The two sides were opened using a rope on a pulley. Mainly the wealthier Jews could afford to build such houses, the others didn't have such constructions in their houses. We, the children, used to go and take supper inside the tent in the evening, but for breakfast we didn't go there, we ate inside the house. But my father, who observed the religion, he used to. In the tent we sang some religious songs with Jewish theme.
The truth is that the religious Jew has to eat in the morning, noon and evening and sleep in that tent for five days [a whole week, to be precise]. Regardless of the weather, in cold or heat, they had a couch to sleep on. We had such a tent, as well, but my father didn't sleep there. The religion prescribes people to sleep there, but it was already cold outside, and there were very few who slept in the tent. [Editor's note: if it's raining or it's very cold, it's not obligatory to sleep in the tent.] There were other solutions, as well, some of the Jews, when building their house, they built a room slightly higher than the others so one had to go up 2-3 steps. The roof wasn't fixed, the boards were placed on top of each other, so they were easy to remove. The two sides were opened using a rope on a pulley. Mainly the wealthier Jews could afford to build such houses, the others didn't have such constructions in their houses. We, the children, used to go and take supper inside the tent in the evening, but for breakfast we didn't go there, we ate inside the house. But my father, who observed the religion, he used to. In the tent we sang some religious songs with Jewish theme.
Romania
Yom Kippur is the highest holiday. The evening begins with fasting. At 6pm we take the supper, and on the next evening, after the morning star rises. We are not allowed neither to drink, eat or smoke, anything at all. Only those who are on medication are allowed to drink some water. Children fasted around 10-12 hours, but if one turned 13, there was no getting away from it, one had to fast for the whole day.
Romania
For example, the first holiday, the Rosh Hashanah means the head of the year, that is the New Year's Day. This lasts for two days. For us, every holiday begins the evening before. On the next day, at 8am, we have to be in the synagogue, and the prayer lasts until 2pm.
Romania
Back home at Magyarlapos there was no Hungarian public library. The Jewish community only had a Hebrew library, where you could find just religious books. There were Reformed and Catholic confessional libraries, but Jewish people didn't go there. There you could find literature, not only religious books. But they didn't borrow books for Jews, so they borrowed books from each other. There were well-situated people who bought books, and these books circulated in the Jewish community. Usually Jews enjoyed reading very much. My father really liked reading, in the morning, or in the afternoon, when he had nothing to do, he read books or newspapers. My father read rather classical literature. He read just Hungarian books, he practically didn't know Romanian, then he learned it, but he newer spoke it perfect. I used to go for the books, they told me go now to X and ask him for that book. It happened that X told me: 'I don't have the book, Y has it, please come after 5 days' and then Y sent me to somebody else. My father had a few books, because we bought books, too, so he used to lent out books himself. Books were very expensive, but we still bought them. Back home we had some sixty-seventy books. Not every Jew, but 10-15% had libraries at home, comprised of several books. There were well-situated Jews, who bought every serious thematic novels and itineraries. There were also those traveling traders who sold books.
My father's mother tongue was Hungarian. At home we use to speak in Hungarian, that was the everyday language. We spoke Yiddish on holidays, or when we went to the synagogue. At the synagogue we spoke in Yiddish, but we used Hungarian at home. My father learned Yiddish at home, as child. He was a big fan of books. I can clearly remember that he read the Miserable We have no electricity, he used to read at the light of a kerosene lamp placed on the night-table. There were some problems because my mother asked him to turn off the light because she couldn't sleep. One time the kerosene ran out, and my father went to bring some. It was in a bottle and he pore it. He spilled some kerosene on several pages of a book. It was a huge scandal, because the book wasn't ours. I don't know how we cleaned it, I think with blotting-paper. We put the blotting-paper on the pages and ironed it with hot iron, thus absorbed the kerosene.
So I came home and started off my life. I finished seven grades of elementary school, but I had to graduate. I finished two other grades in private, because high-school had nine years then. I graduated within one year in Des and received my graduate certificate. After that I was elected lay judge. I worked for some three months, but then a decree came that stated that the lay judges who are only high-school graduates, but show great promise, should attend a one and a half year college to study law. The former judges and prosecuting attorneys had to be replaced, but not due to ethnic reasons, it didn't matter whether you were Romanian or Hungarian, the decree only enforced the replacement. Many lawyers had been replaced then.
Matild Weis (née Sauber), was a housewife in Szaszregen, she lived there with her husband. Armin Weis was a tailor and they had a decent situation. They were orthodox, observant Jews. They had no children. My younger brother Dezso Sauber worked in Disznajo in a grocery store. His wife' name was Lotti, and she was Jewish. They also were religious. In 1954 they emigrated to Israel to Kiryat Tivon. He worked as technician in an iron mill, while his wife was a housewife even in Israel. They have two children, a boy called Hillel and a girl, Orli. My younger sister Judit Henzel (nee Sauber) was a sewing-woman. She lived in Magyarlapos and got married in 1945 with Tibor Henzel. They emigrated to Israel in 1946, to Kiryat Tivon. Both of them went there because they wanted to be together. Judit was a housewife in Israel, while her husband a construction sub-engineer. They have a daughter, Gilla, who is single. Emma Farkas (nee Sauber) was too a sewing-woman in Magyarlapos. In 1945 she got married with Dezso Farkas, a trader. They have a son, Jozsef, who is a sapper. My other younger sister Zelma Sauber was deported from Magyarlapos. She perished in Auschwitz. All my other sisters have been deported, but they came home. I don't know where they were, in which camp. Even though we talked about where we were taken, and related how they helped each other out in the camp, and probably that's why they got away [lived], but I don't remember the details. My younger brother was taken to forced labor to Ukraine. By the time I arrived home, two of them were already in Israel, one of them was living in Disznajo, here, near Szaszregen. I didn't know anything about any of them, I only knew my little sister was living in Des. We knew our parents and the rest were deported, but we had no idea what happened to them.
,
After WW2
See text in interview
In the end, none of us remained in Odessa. We came home not by cattle trucks, but by normal passenger carriages, and we had to get off in Focsani. They retained us there in quarantine. This was in June 1948. Each of us got papers and I think 350 lei – quite a sum then. Trains weren't yet circulating normally. In order to get to Des, I had to go to Iasi and get on another train that took me to Des, where my sister was living. I wanted to go to Magyarlapos, but there was noone left there.
When they set us free, the horrible thing was that they took everything away: photos, postcards, everything we got as forced laborers and kept for ourselves. I had some, too, from my father and my little sister Emma, even since before the Holocaust. I received letters and photos from my other brothers and sisters, as well, which I brought with me. They took them away and threw them into the fire. They burnt up everything. This was the most terrible thing to do. I don't know how, but I left one of the postcards in my pocket, where my little sister's boy, who was born in that period, was one years old. It was stuck on a postcard, which I somehow left in my pocket, so it survived. I received it in early 1948, some 6-7 months before I got home. I don't remember the addressee, but it arrived to the camp in Odessa. How did thy find out I was there, I don't know. There was nothing interesting on the postcard, it was one of those standard postcards and there were only several words written on it: 'This is my son, Joska. We are all well and we hope you are, too.' But it was not allowed to write anything about other family members. I gave it to my sister, because she was collecting the photos of her son. The photo is now in Israel. The boy is now 53.
We had a free pass, and went to the opera, theater or restaurant in Odessa. I was for the first time in an opera house. A man from Kolozsvar convinced us to go to the opera. I was a country boy, I didn't even know what an opera was. I have seen operettas, because there were some touring companies, and I used to attend their operetta shows. The opera house was a true copy of the Scala from Milan. Everything was the same, but the characters were stylized Russian characters from the past. As we went up the stairs, in the lobby, or along the stairs, I don't remember anymore, there were some statues. We couldn't believe such things can exist in the Soviet Union. That style and tidiness… We watched the Traviata [Giuseppe Verdi's opera], the Lakme [by Leo Delibes], and also some ballet performances, such as Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker or Swan Lake. I don't want to brag about it, but we had our own box there, we were gentlemen. In order to get in, we didn't pay 10 roubles for the ticket, but 20, so we always had a box or two booked. We were some ten POWs, and we went there not wearing very elegant, but anyway decent clothes. After that we used to go to the restaurant, women etc…, in one word we had a rich life. The guards weren't there, because we had passes. There was no way to escape. One could walk for some 50 kms, but then they were asked for their papers and brought back. And if they heard you saying one or two words, they could realize that you are not Russian. We knew Russian, but we had to look for words. And it wasn't in our interest to flee, though. Moreover, we even had thoughts of settling there. We had such a life…, why should we go to Romania, who knows what awaits us there? Several of us even courted some girls. We spent one year in Odessa. Then, after one year, we had enough of it and started some kind of a strike.
By then the inhabitants were getting more bread, people weren't starving like before. One could buy things from the store, for money, of course. But until then this was not possible, because you could find anything there, unless you paid the three or five times its price. The Russians wore simple clothes, that regular quilted coat and that rubashka. This was a jacket with closed collar, or a thick shirt like the Cossacks used to wear, with a row of buttons, bound round with a waist-belt. They usually wore tight pants and boots. This was their regular clothing. Women were dressing somewhat better.
They took us to Odessa, there were some six transit camps there, and they told us they would let us go home from there. We had a relatively good time there. I was the head-cook there. Then we worked for the Secutitate [15], they made us steal coal and wood. Our duty was to carry coal and wood for the employees and the offices of the Securitate. We lived in the camp, but we went out to work in the morning, and we only returned in the evening. The load was in the harbor of Odessa. Back then each company got a load of wood and half a load of coal. At dawn, we went by car to a heap and loaded the car with coal and wood. One of us knew perfect Russian, he looked for customers. We didn't had to look for them, because we always found someone right away, due to the lack of wood and coal. Every day we sold one or two trucks of coal and wood, it sell like hot cakes, because everyone needed it for the winter. And we sold them relatively at a low price, unlike those on the black market. From the money we raised our commanding Russian officer took his share. There was an under-officer, and a driver, and the money was split between them. The guards, who were there all night long, saw us while we were stealing, so, in order to let us go, they had to receive their part, as well. They supervised us while loading the trucks, it was a well organized action. Corruption in the Soviet Union was so high it's inconceivable. The sum we were left with we split among us. This still was a very large amount. Sometimes we had so much money in just one day that even an average Russian couldn't raise in a whole month.
Almost two months have passed and nothing happened. Suddenly a delegation of Russian officers came. They relieved, even arrested the camp commander for his statements and because he allowed the Germans to treat us like they did – at least thirty had died in just a few months. They introduced the new camp commander: a Jewish lieutenant called Levin. He was blind in one eye and had the 'Hero of the Soviet Union' star on his jacket. In the end I found out that he was among those soldiers who put the red flag on the Reichstag, the Parliament of Germany, in Berlin. After a few days he summoned the whole camp and declared: 'YX is the head-cook and YX is the cook', so they put Jews everywhere. 'It will be order in this camp! Order! There will be no exceptions, Jews or Germans, there will be no exceptions! I only ask you one thing: don't come to me with complaints.' He wanted to say 'Whatever you do, do it in such way that the other couldn't complain.' He was young and he had a two and a half years old son. They appointed me to take care of the boy. I had a pass to get out of the camp, I went to his apartment and spent there ten hours. I played with the kid, and I ate, because there were all kinds of delicacies there. They were receiving packages from America, took out the chocolate and canned food and distributed them among the Russians. Some of this food was brought into the camp, but most of it was distributed by the Russians among themselves. I worked there until one day they took us away from there saying we would go home.
,
After WW2
See text in interview
One day, when I was working in the night shift – I can clearly remember that –, we came out from the mine at approximately 8am. We saw three men standing in the gates. We knew they were from the NKGB [People's Commissariat for State Security], because they were wearing leather clothes. They stopped us saying we have been called in. So we stopped. The German went to them and reported in German that the so-and-so Jewish brigade has arrived. Then one of these Russians asked him: 'Who are you?' 'Me? I'm not Jewish!' So everything went on just like before we got there. I already understood some Russian. So one of the Russians rapped out an oath: 'How on earth could this be, that a German is the ganger of a Jewish group?' Then he asked us: 'Is there anyone among you, who knows Russian?' Those from Sziget, who knew Ukrainian, also spoke good Russian, so two of them came forward. Hew then asked: 'And who knows German?' Well, I spoke German, but I knew Yiddish, and I managed to communicate quite well with the Germans. He wrote down our names and numbers, and after we washed up, they called us to the office. There were only the two of them there, and a commentator. They showed us our letters. 'Do you admit you wrote these letters?' 'Yes, we do.' We thought: 'Oh my God, what will happen next?
In the mine we worked together with the Russian workers. These were regular pitmen, regular miners. Pitmen are the who cave the coal with hackers. They conducted the work, we only were subworkers. Later we came across with the Saxon girls from Segesvar and Beszterce, and worked together with them in that mine. I was 23-24, and a 20 year old girl was working beside me, who was taken to the Soviet Union after the war. We became friends with the Russians, and we gave them presents, because we managed to save some valuables, rings, but especially watches, and the Russians would do anything for a bottle of spirit. We finally managed to meet some very decent people. I had some history with the movement, so I knew what the Soviet Union and who its leaders are. We knew that many of them were Jewish. We began to write letters in Russian, we got them translated by the Romanians from Bessarabia, who were also there in captivity, and the Russian workers mailed them. We explained our situation: we were supervised by Germans, the camp commander was Anti-Semite and that daily there were a number of Jews dying. It wasn't enough that we lost our families in Germany, now the Jewish youth left alive would not go home from there. We wrote to Kaganovich [Kaganovich, Lasar] [13], Ilya Erenburg [14], who was a famous Russian writer, he has some serious novels. He flee the country under the Stalin terror, and lived in Paris for I don't know how many years. Stalin insisted to bring him back and gave him the proper appreciation. Quite a long period has passed – I don't know how long, I think several months –, and we thought our letters never reached the addressees.
The morning started there with 10,000 prisoners of war, split into brigades, and working in shifts in the mine. We were working in three shifts of eight hours. In addition, there were the internal workers: at the kitchen, the needlework workshop, the shoemaker, at the dryer, the wash-house and the laundry. These positions were all occupied, of course, by the Germans, we had no access there. You can imagine: the mine was wet all over, and we were working in asbestos clothes. Every day we went down into the mine, we got undressed in a changing room and went to work. There we had to bathe, because we were black from the coal. Each of us had a number, the clothes were put in the dryer, and after they dried, we put them on on went for breakfast.
I ended up in Stalino, on the Don, now called Donetsk. Anyway, it was a big city, and there is the largest coal-mine, the Donbas. [Donbas is its Russian name, in English is the Dnepr-Donetsk depression] Now is part of Ukraine. In Donbas were the largest coal reserves of Russia. The first big surprise was when we arrived there. These were organized camps for the Germans. We had to work in the mine there. when we got there, we were some 170, but only 60 of us came home, due to the awful conditions we had to work in. We were not starving, because we miners had decent meals. Strangely, we were again supervised by Germans. We were in a very, very desperate situation, and what is more, a Russian commander said Hitler left alive too many Jews. And this was a Soviet colonel! We were so desperate we were sure we would perish. Above all, the situation was difficult due to the poor hygiene. The Germans were managing everything, and there was a hospital-like facility, but it was very difficult to get in there. We didn't know how to get out of this situation, how we could escape. Moreover, our guards were Germans, the brigade leader was a German, and beside the Russian guards there were 2 or 3 German POW guards, as well. Can you imagine that we were guarded by Germans even in Russia?
They transferred us to transferred to different camps. I found myself in a Romanian camp – I don't remember its name, but it was in the Ukraine, between Kiev and Sztalino, I believe, where pickpockets and murderers were kept, sent sometime by Antonescu [12] to the front. As soon as these people reached the front, the next day they surrendered to the Russians. It was horrible to live among these people. We were afraid to go to the toilet at night, because they waited for us with knives: 'Get us your money, or else…!' I spent there 2 or 3 months.
We became prisoners in 1944. There were 4 of us from Magyarlapos. The Romanians were the first ones to get home, but they wouldn't let us go because we were Hungarians, and not Romanians. They told us they would let us go home when [Northern] Transylvania will be given back to Romania. Transylvania was then part of Hungary, and we have been taken prisoners together with the Hungarian soldiers. But the soldiers went home in 1946 saying that there would be elections held in Hungary and people were needed to vote for the Communist Party. [Editor's note: The 'blue slip' elections took place on 31st August 1947.] The Jewish boys originally from Hungary have gone home. Well, since we came with the Hungarians, we were expecting to be set free, as well. Transylvania was handed back to Romania [following the peace treaty from Paris in 1947], so we became Romanians. They said to us: 'You are not Hungarians, Transylvania is Romania!' and didn't let us go. The Hungarian prisoners went home, the Russians allowed them to. It's funny that one of us, by God knows what circumstances, ended up with the Hungarians and came home.
,
1944
See text in interview
We stayed in a kolkhoz [11] and could hear the grenades exploding around the kolkhoz, but in the building, as well. How could we save ourselves? If they captured us or we got involved in firing, they would surely have slaughtered us. In the kolkhoz there were these 100 meters long, 2 meters high large dunghills. They didn’t take it out for several years, because it was occupied and they just stacked it up. One of our guards had an idea, and told us: ‘You know what? Each of you should dig a hole in this dunghill. And when the attacks will come, you will just hide in there.’ Many died in the kolkhoz, but none of us. It seems it stopped the bullets, it functioned as a shelter, and thus we managed to escape. On the next day the Russians came. Then I had my first big, big disappointment, when one of us, who knew a little Russian, because he was from Maramarossziget [Editor’s note: Amongst the heterogeneous population of Maramaros there lived Ruthenians, as well, and their language is very close to Ukrainian]. He went to one of the Russians – we didn’t know the ranks then – and told him we were not Hungarians, but Jews. He got two such slaps in the face... Then we learnt how to swear in Russian and told him to go and screw himself. They surrounded us and the Hungarian soldiers and rounded us up. There were almost 10,000 prisoners. It was August 1944, we were out on the field, we were surrounded by Russian guards with dogs. On that night, everyone of us heard some wailing. The Hungarian soldiers killed I don't know how many officers of their own because the way they treated us on the front. In the morning we saw the bodies: the Russians came, or who did this? In deed, who did it? Now, could you find the criminal among 10,000 people? They took us right away to Sztri [Stry]. We spent there some 3 or 4 weeks. The daily meal was 250 grams of biscuits. It was quite enough, because 250 grams of biscuit was equivalent to 1 kg of bread. We dipped it in water or tea, and ate it like this. Then they took us to Stalino [Donetsk, in today's Ukraine]. Thus the 4 years of Russian captivity began.
,
1944
See text in interview
In April or May 1944 another incident happened on the front during the Holocaust. The company commander, a teacher from Kolozsvar, a very decent man, came one day, gathered us and said to us: ‘You have two possibilities. We either retreat together, or everybody is for himself. If we retreat and I’m taking you in the country, you will be deported.’ So, we couldn’t decide what to do. He then said to us: ‘If you listen to me, you will not return to your homes. None of your family members are at home. And probably the same fate awaits you, too.’ But he didn’t tell us what to do, he only wanted us not to come home. And many of us went home, and as soon as they got there, they had been deported to Auschwitz. We remained there and worked. In August we began talking abut what we should do, where should we go. We couldn’t use the roads because the Hungarian soldiers took it on the lam, I could never imagine this could happen. Then we gathered to talk it over whether we would go with them or we would stay. It was a fearful mess. In the end we decided not to go with them.
In 1944 the front was in retreat. The Eastern front was breached to such extent that one day, while working, we could hear the whizzing of bullets. We saw everyone running, carriages, cars, motorcycles, bicycles, as the Hungarian soldiers were running away from the Russians. We had to retreat.
Then we stayed for a month in a small town, I think in Nagyszolos. From there we took us as forced laborers with a company-on-the-march to the front at Kolomea. This was in Ukraine, already in January 1943. We stayed on the front for more than one year. We were assigned to an engineer company. We went to work every day. We built bunkers, fire-trenches, roads for them to be able to move their mechanized equipment. We worked in very difficult conditions. The meal was very bad.
Interestingly, after 2 months I was sent back to the company in Nagybanya. We worked there for approximately a month, then they transferred us into a company-on-the-march and we went to Bacska and we worked there. This was in the fall of 1942. From there we went to Transcarpathia.
From Szatmar they took us directly to the prison in Budapest. They brought us back where I was released before. I was there for 2 weeks. It was an awful situation. Then someone came from the Omzsa and asked me how I ended up there again, after one and a half year. A man called Klein was the contact with the Jews in the prison. Then I told them. The people from Omzsa then arranged for me to be released from this prison and to be transferred to a prison in Kolozsvar. So I was transferred to a prison in Kolozsvar, together with Geza Simo. He also was an illegal communist, a teacher. We were 6 or 7 in one cell. The lifestyle was the same, we shared everything. At first, when I got there, they were reluctant, because they thought I was sent there to spy, but after they asked me some questions, they realized my situation was similar to theirs.
In those days there were around 17,000 Jews, including very rich ones. When the local Jews saw us with yellow arm-bands [Editor's note: because some of us have been summoned there from forced labor] – we didn't have uniforms yet, we were in civil clothes – and everybody asked us: 'What are these guys doing here? Why are they taken to the courthouse?' One Sunday morning we went to the headquarters, escorted, of course. When we entered, one of the sergeants said to us: 'Wait until the colonel calls you.' The local commander was a colonel in the Hungarian army. 10 minutes later they called us and when we walked in we almost fell prat. The colonel sat at a small table having coffee with a bearded Jew wearing kippah, theeing each other. Oh God, what's this? Then he said: 'So, you good for nothing communists, you're lucky with my friend Mr. Freund here.' The Jew was called Freund, he was the president of the Jewish community. This Freund family was very wealthy, now the whole family is in America. He was on good terms with this local colonel, and he arranged for us to get rid of the arm-bands and to go to the court by ourselves in the morning, without escort. He guaranteed that we would not flee. I was sentenced to one and a half years in prison, being charged with the fact that with the money I raised I helped the communists from Northern Transylvania.