Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Magda Beer - July 5, 1983

So what happened? Your father-in-law and your husband were gone and your brother was gone so it was just you and your mother and your mother-in-law and your son. Then what happened?

Woman: ???

No, no. First, first with my son I went in a, in a, factory. They made army, uh...

Uniforms?

Uniforms. And I paid to the woman that I can stay there and I thought maybe I will save myself and my little son. Peter was this time one and a half-year old. And my mother stay home where we lived and my mother in law too and after everybody--all young women was in this factory and one day came the ghetto. We had to go to ghetto and the, the young women has to go. They went out to my best friend and took her out.

Everybody from the factory went to the...

Yes, yes and with the--I, I went to the ghetto with my little son. And, I find my mother. She was already in the Dob Utca in the--I don't know how you call it, Dob Street. It was a ghetto, you know, they made a ghetto. And my mother-in-law's house was exactly in the courtyard. It was in the ghetto in the first place. And the second place they take more because it was too many people. And I find my mother, and my mother and my son and myself we went to my mother-in-law's house and this time it was a two bedroom and bathroom and this time was already twenty people there.

In the original house that you had only had to yourself?

Yes.

So...

Then we, we live for--'til January fifteen. We were most of the time in the basement.

In the ghetto with your--the four of you. There were four?

No--yes my mother, no and my, my first husband's family. I mean uh, his brothers, mother, father and, and the son--and the uh, uh, grandson.

And then were you--that's when you were deported or take...transferred?

I wasn't. I was once in the brick, brick factory. They took me in brick factory and I had two paper. One was uh, uh, from Swi...Switzerland, you know, it's, it's a letter that I belonged to Switzerland. And the other one from, from the Pope, you know.

Mm-hm.

And they took everything. I wanted to, to escape. And they take me--almost they take off me but I escape. I went to the, to the man--to the guard and I told, "If you don't get me home I will just--will die." It was, you know, I don't know how many ??? and he said, "Okay, go home." And I went home and my mother was ??? my little son. This was before the ghetto.