Eyewitness account by Gertrude Deak, Szombathely, of anti-Jewish measures in Hungary, Birkenau concentration camp, slave labour, a death march and liberation

Deak, Gertrude

Archival description

Item description

Description

Title:: Eyewitness account by Gertrude Deak, Szombathely, of anti-Jewish measures in Hungary, Birkenau concentration camp, slave labour, a death march and liberation

Summary:: Mrs Deak, whose father was a Jewish doctor, grew up in the Hungarian provincial town of Szombathely, where antisemitism was traditional. Anti-Jewish measures were introduced already before the German Occupation in March 1944, but then conditions deteriorated. In May the Jewish population of Szombathely was moved into a ghetto; in June they were rounded up for deportation. Mrs Deak was sent to Auschwitz, where she got separated from her parents, whom she never saw again. She was taken to Camp B Birkenau-Zigeunerlager.

She gives a very detailed description of the conditions in the camp. Particularly bad were the roll calls, during which they had to stand for four hours from 4am onwards while it was still extremely cold. For showers they were taken to Auschwitz proper, which was 5 km away. At the end of August they were taken to a camp near Kassel, Hessisch-Lichtenau, where conditions were much better in the beginning but soon deteriorated, with food becoming more and more scarce. One group of girls had to work in a sulphur factory; many of them died after terrible pains from sulphur poisoning. Mrs Deak had to work in a munitions factory together with French voluntary workers and Ukrainian and German female prisoners. Some organised a sabotage group, which succeeded in rendering some of the shells harmless. Once she was included in a group of 200 workers selected for the gas chambers, but since on counting they were found to comprise 201 she - since she looked healthy - was taken out of the group.

When the Russian army approached, the prisoners were moved first to a camp in Leipzig, which had a humane commander. But the camp was bombed and the prisoners were taken to another camp outside Leipzig, called Tekla. After a few days, on 7 April, the Americans approached and about 15,000 prisoners were marched off on a death march, which after ten days reduced their number to 4,000. Mrs Deak was unable to walk any more and was left lying in the road. She crawled to a village, where some German women gave her food. She hid in a barn, where she was found by some Russian soldiers who were on a foraging expedition on the American side of the demarcation line. After their withdrawal she joined up with a group of French prisoners. One of them proposed to her. She agreed to marry him. But when she got to his home in Toulon she found that he intended her to work for him as a prostitute. When she refused he denounced her to the French police as an SS-woman. She was put into prison in Marseille and was only released in October 1945 after having met a young Frenchman who had been a fellow prisoner on the death march.

Witness:: Deak, Gertrude

Number of pages:: 23 pieces

Date(s):: 1958

Catalogue ID:: 105980

Reference number:: 1656/3/8/864

Language:: English

Subject:: Antisemitism Escapees Slave labour Death marches Auschwitz-Birkenau (concentration and extermination camp) Deportations Extermination camps Ghettos

Location:: Hungary Leipzig Szombathely

Date Range:: 1939-1945

Type of Material:: Eyewitness account

Description

Table of contents

download as

download page

Citation links