Mrs Hirsch is the daughter of Christian parents. Her mother, Mrs Meyer, née Kerl, managed a large boarding-house in Teplitz, where Mrs Hirsch spent her youth until she married Egon Hirsch, a Jewish insurance agent for the “Viktoria“ company. The couple lived first in Bodenbach, then in Karlsbad.

When Hitler annexed the Sudetenland, they fled to Prague. When Prague was taken by the Germans Mrs Hirsch prepared for their emigration. She succeeded in getting an exit permit for Mr Hirsch which enabled him to go to England. She, as a Christian, was not allowed to leave the country, and her marriage was dissolved on Gestapo orders. With labour conscription in Czechoslovakia, she took various jobs where she could be helpful to Jews, or where she could sabotage the work of the Germans. She also sheltered a Jewish friend. With a doctor’s certificate that she was suffering from TB she managed to get time off for holidays in the mountains, but when she finally joined her mother in Teplitz, she had to attend a doctor who treated her alleged disease with painful injections.

After the end of the war, Russians occupied Teplitz, and for fear of Russian acts of violence, the women took German prisoners of war into their house, but the constant nervous strain and fear of deportation drove the mother to suicide.

In 1946 Mrs Hirsch could join her husband in England, and their marriage was legalised again. However, the 7 years of separation had estranged them, and after 3 years they got a divorce. After the usual type of work for refugees, Mrs Hirsch finally obtained work with the European service of the BBC. She lost all her possessions in Teplitz-Schönau.

The outstanding impression of the account, written in the first person, is the deep religious faith of the writer. Rather than a record of facts, it is a praise of the Lord for her salvation, both physical and spiritual, and an explanation of her eventual conversion to the Christian Faith.

The author was born in Berlin, the daughter of Orthodox Dutch Jews. When the Nazi regime started, the family moved to Amsterdam, but the happy atmosphere of their home was never recaptured there. After the German invasion and with the gradual elimination of the Jews from the economic and cultural life, the Dobschiner's moved to the Jewish part of Amsterdam, and an uncle and two cousins lived with them.

In February 1941 German armed soldiers raided the town, demanding 4,000 Jews, and author's two brothers were taken away and murdered. Her parents, already weighed down by fear and expropriation of their property, broke down completely. The author's relation to them became strained, particularly as her father insisted on her training as a tailoress, whereas she longed to become a nurse. She finally yielded to this urge and looked after the many Jewish orphaned children. In December 1942 author contracted scarlet fever and during her illness felt that life held a message from God. The raids had already taken her uncle and the cousins, when in April 1943 her parents were arrested. The author was allowed to see them twice at the collecting centre and later she witnessed their deportation from the Children's Home, where she then worked.

Some time later the Children's Home was raided, the 150 children and staff deported. Shortly before, the author had been placed with a Jewish family, but they, too, were arrested and taken to the Amstelstation. The author, quite apathetic to her own fate, offered to take charge of the children, and later, when they were herded into a goods train, she discovered spots on a child and diagnosed a contagious disease. The Gestapo let her take the child to Dr. van Emden-Boas who, impressed by her courage, made her his nurse. She worked at the station and at a hospital until July 1943, when patients and nurses were deported. The author was already on the train, guarded by armed soldiers, but the same night she was back at the hospital “God delivered me!”.

When the hospital was raided again in August 1943, the author happened to nurse at a private house. For some time she then worked at the Joodse Invalide, the Jewish home for the aged. In the end, underground life was the only escape from deportation. With the help of the porter at the Home, the author contacted an unknown lady in whose flat she met Uncle Bas. On 3 September 1943, he took her on a hazardous journey to his home in Nieuw Beerta. With five other young people in hiding, the author lived with the Rev. Ader and his wife for 13 months. Several books have been written about this heroic man and the life in his manse. When danger approached, he found new underground places for his protegees.

The author lived in more than 27 different houses during the last span of this period. While in Uncle Bas' house, she came across the Children's New Testament and sometimes listened, hidden behind a door, to his services. He never tried to convert her, but she became more and more impressed with the teachings of Christ. South Holland was liberated by the Americans in September 1944, and in November she was baptized. She had never been able to discuss her intention with Uncle Bas. He and his wife were finally tracked down by the Gestapo. He was offered their freedom at the price of the name of ten of his protegees. As he would not speak, he was shot on 20 November 1944.

Original title: Bericht aus der Verfolgungszeit.

Recorded by: Dr. H. G. Adler

Original form and contents: Personal report of a young girl, born in 1927, from the Protestant Secondary School In Budapest. _ Prosecution began with the German occupation of Hungary, on the 19th March, 1944. Restrictions. Yellow Star (p.1,4) The “Avokatenliste” called the author’s father, together with abt. 300 solicitors and lawyers, to the internment camp Rökszilad utca, then to Magdolna utca, Horthyliget(Csepel), Kecskemt and lastly a camp unknown, probably Auschwitz; no survivor. Moving Into a “Jewish house“(June, 1944). Forced labour (throwing up entrenchments) at Ujpest, super - vised by Hungarian “Pfeilkr euzler“ most primitive youngsters (p.5). Marched to Austrian frontier; several people sent back to Budapest, as “Schutzpaesse“ arrived for them from foreign legations (p.6). On the frontier, the transport was taken over by SS; seven days’ journey of the men to Buchenwald, of the women on to Ravensbrueck; arrival 21st Nov. 1944 (p.7). Description in detail of the camp, holding abt.60.000 at the time (p.8-12). -”Blockaelteste” and assistants mostly antisemitic Polish women, but also wicked Slovak Jewesses. - Ill-famed gynaecological experiments. By lorry through burning Berlin (5th Dec.1944) to BENZ-DAIM- LER FLUGZEUGMOT0RENWERKE, GENSHAGEN, Kreis Teltow (p.ll-20). Among 1000 foreign women abt. 80 Jewesses, treated in a friendly way Supervisors SS women. Very long working hours. - Anti-Nazis among German workmen (p.17). - Increasing difficulties of the Works from February, 1945 (p.17-19). Transfer to camp Oranienburg-Sachsenhausen; ghastly experience of the Jewish women (p.20,21) and their transport back to RAVENSBRUECK; here the crematorium had been destroyed an hour earlier. Situation improved. - Red Cross parcels. - Evacuation on the 28th April, 1945 under escort of SS who shot at the German soldiers throwing chocolates and cigarettes to the prisoners passing by (p.23). On the 30th April, escape near MIROW (p.23-25). Freedom under RUSSIANS who proved very helpful (p.25-28). Adventurous journey to Budapest, partly on foot(p.27-29). Quarantine in Berlin because of typhoid fever (p.27). Arrival at home on the 2nd June; back to school, for a fortnight.

A report by Mrs Sussman, an Austrian Jewess, who had been living in Paris with her husband, an artist, since 1937. After the outbreak of war both were interned. They were not supplied with gas masks by the French as they also considered Austrian Jews as their enemies. When the Germans approached Paris the Sussman's marched together with about 2 millions French people into the so called “Free Zone”.

In 1942 Mr and Mrs Sussman decided to return behind the demarcation line in order to work against the Germans (Resistance). Seven times their identity papers had to be changed but in the end they were handed over to the Germans by the “Special Brigade” collaborating with the latter. Mr and Mrs Sussman were taken to the military prison at Fresnes. For two months Mrs Sussman was there in solitary confinement in her sixth month of pregnancy, but excluded from the care of the Red Cross. Thereafter she came to the reception camp Drancy.

In 1944 she was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Nightmare transport in cattle trucks with a notice board: “8 Horses or 40 Persons” but they were about 120 in each. Mrs Sussman describes her arrival at Auschwitz and the already well-known conditions there.

All pregnant women were ordered to register ”in order to obtain a daily supply of 1/4 pint of milk”. Mrs Sussman was warned by a Polish doctor not to do so and thereupon she warned also the other pregnant women. But when almost starved one of them did register. For 3 days she received the milk whereupon the other women - with the exception of Mrs Sussman - registered too. They were all called for and never seen again. When Mrs Sussman, as a punishment, had to carry a very heavy sewing machine without help she gave premature birth to her child, a little boy, in a corner of a hut, covered with filthy rugs infected with Dysentery Bacilli. She screamed only once but this brought Dr. Mengele to her block who took the child from her and threw it in the open fire. Then a Polish doctor took her - at her own risk - to the hospital hut.

In Auschwitz Mrs Sussman became a kind of philosopher. She did not expect her co-prisoners there to behave like human beings anymore and even did not blame the nurses who stole the sick rations of their patients. On the other hand she speaks with the greatest admiration of the exceptions, the few heroic people who risked their lives in order to save others. Her fellow prisoners were women from Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Greece, Austria, and Soviet Russia. She observed that none of them spoke of a future, they were all deeply concerned with the past.

After 3 months in Auschwitz, Mrs Sussman was transferred to the concentration camp Kratzau near Reichenberg-Zittau, affiliated to the Gross-Rosen camp.

Addendum :

     1) On her and her husband's Illegal Work in France : They produced and distributed illegal literature.

     2) On her pregnancy at Auschwitz : It was not conspicuous as almost every woman, because of malnutrition, had a swollen stomach.

     3) On sabotage in an SS armament factory in Kratzau : She pretended to be a good technician and succeeded, together with a Hungarian girl, in damaging the precision, mashine to such an extent that it did not work any more.

     4) On her husband's survival : He was already selected for the gas chambers when a SS-officer called for someone able to design Christmas cards and when he said he could was given back to life.

A report by a 56-year-old author on his experience of six months at Dachau and one month at Buchenwald. The Nazis’ methodical education to hateful contempt, cruel ill-treatment and pitiless annihilation of the so-called ‘Untermenschen’.

Vivid description of life in Concentration Camp. The information is “packed” into many short chapters, each an interesting and significant cross section, but together forming a complete readable “film” on the subject.

The book is concerned with the best known camp Dachau, and the most dreaded one, Buchenwald. It is shown that Dachau, although rightly pictured as a living hell, was almost a paradise compared with Buchenwald.

It is emphasised that apart from the purpose of creating terror, another purpose of these Camps is to educate the Nazi youth to ruthless bestiality. It also shows that these Nazi methods at the same time educate unflinching, resolute enemies to Nazidom. Just as Germany's armament rearmed the entire world so their Concentration Camps not only crush, but also create deadly opposition. Ordinary people develop into determined fighters against Nazism. Whilst the book as such shows this development by describing the setting (as done classically in Dostojewsky's “Memoirs of a House of the Dead”).

As the author has been an editor and particularly a picture editor for twenty years and made it his task to observe and note everything in the Camp, he together with a draftsman could illustrate the book by line drawings in the most accurate manner if so desired.

Mrs Laszlo was a schoolgirl of thirteen when the German Nazis occupied her native town. The report describes the two ghettoes in Debreczen and her deportation in May 1944 (p.3-4) to Auschwitz, however the train which carried the girl and her family instead took the deportees to Vienna. The children - between 7 and 13 years old - had to clear the bomb-sites in the suburbs. They were always hungry, but sometimes non-Jews helped them to an additional ration, another time they helped to find their way back to the Camp when they got lost in the streets. Others hid them after a bomb hit the school in which they were interned (p.5-6). The children always lived in abandoned school-buildings and occasionally had to sweep the snow off the street around others.

Epidemics; transport (p.7-8), during which a disastrous attack ruined a station at Vienna; the survivors were taken back to the Camp, which was abandoned by the guards the next morning. Vivid description of the days that followed and the way home, partly covered on foot.

A report on ill-treatment of the worst kind, atrocities, horrible conditions of life in camps and during transports; mass-murders. Also includes information on the author's deportation from Frankfurt am Main to Minsk where he arrived in 22 November 1941; unbelievably bad conditions; vermin (p.1, 4, 6). The Robert Ley-House (p.1). Wehrmacht and SS (p.1). When a gun was found at the Loot-Commando, left there by Russian workmen, every seventh of the Jewish detainees was shot including a former reserve officer who held both Iron Crosses.

High death-rate because of starvation (p.2, 6, 8) and mass-murder (p.2-5). Unteroffizier Peter Greven late of Cologne, saved the lives of five men of the Heeresbaudienst Stelle on occasion of the massacre of 60 internees. In July 1942, 8,000 Jews were murdered during one Aktion (p.2). Heeresverpflecmagazin: Oberzahlmeister Heinrich (p.2-3) ordered the Yellow Star not to be worn in the Office, his successor did not object, but Oberscharführer Rübe (on 13 March 1943) had the 12 girls and 4 women of the Office led to the cemetery by sixteen Russians to be shot there, including the author's twenty-year-old daughter, his only child. On 26 May 1943, Gestapo-men shot dead every living being at the sick-bay, patients, nurses, children and visitors alike. On this occasion, the author lost his wife who had fallen ill when she learned of her young daughter's fate.

In September 1943, all bachelors and girls were taken to the SS-labour camp in Minsk; the married people and children were never heard of again. In vans said to be transporting 120 men each to the labour-places, the passengers were being killed by burnt gas (p.3).

The author was transferred to the Heinkel-Flugzeugwerke in Budztn, Poland (p.3-4). Ill-treatment by the German foremen; wretched conditions of life; vermin and epidemics (p.4). Loudspeakers recording music during the mass-murder of twenty thousand Jews, on 23 November 1943 (p.4). At Heinkels’ at Milec, a Hauptwachtmeister, late of a police-station at Frankfurt am Main, shot the Baracken-Älteste Zimmermann, because he found the place not clean enough; he was also responsible for cruel punishments and atrocities.

In July 1944, the author was transported to Welicka and in September was sent on a horrible transport to Mauthausen (p.4-6) which turned out to be worse than any of the dreadful places before. Doing incredibly heavy work in the quarry, rushed and beaten up constantly. Mass-murders. After three months, he was transported to the Hermann-Goring Works at the Camp of Linz of about two thousand men. Cruel ill-treatment. Public execution of three Russians who had tried to escape. Air-raid; a bomb killing 110 detainees at Block 13 (p.5). Starvation (p.6); frost; vermin. On 5 May 1945, the author was liberated by the Americans. The Spanish Legion. The Hermann-Goring-Lazarett (p.6).