Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Olga Adler - July 26, 1982

Forced Labor Camps

So, your father, brother and your future husband all were in forced labor camps.

My husband. My dad wasn't anymore.

Your dad wasn't.

I mean, you know, my dad wasn't a young man anymore that time, you know.

And when they were in forced labor camps, did you hear from them by letter? Did you hear from them?

Yes. Yes, once in awhile they sent. As a matter of fact, I have a couple of cards too that my husband wrote... wasn't boyfriend, he wasn't even my boyfriend.

Yeah. And when they were in forced labor camp, was there anything suspicious? Did your family or you suspect anything that they were... What was the excuse to put them in a forced labor camp? What did they say?

[Asking her husband] Poffi.

Husband: Yeah?

You were in the forced labor camp already under the Hungarians.

Husband: [Responding from other room]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so that was the Hungarians idea to pick up the Jews and take them to forced labor camps or under German pressure or what? Under German pressure.

Husband: [Talking in background and phone rings]

Husband: What happened, Hitler wanted the Jews. Hitler... Well, I don't know exactly at that time yet, but uh, right after we were liberated, so-called, by the Hungarians. They, see, that portion, part was Hungary before.

I told that already.

Husband: And so in 1940, in 1938, after the Munich conference, it became Hungary again. And uh, as a matter of fact, I was even in a Hungarian army unit. So, then they converted that, all the Jews, all the Jewish boys and men from the age of sixteen to sixty went to go... join or be drafted into a labor camp.

Which wasn't a concentration camp.

Husband: Right from the beginning, 1940 on.


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