Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Larry Brenner - December 13, 1981

By the way, before I go further, one, one event what I have to mention here that, as I mentioned to you there was Swiss protectionist there too. Also I didn't know how to, aunt too, and I wanted to get... find, talk on the family news. Uh, one morning they uh, about ten of us from the, from this group, we said we're going to try to get into the Swiss consulate. And we got up in one morning and we got maybe ten from our group and we tried to stay in line. This wasn't official but uh, saying again, the officers looked aside and go ahead and do it anyway. So, but somehow there was, this was a street where the, and I think the name was... I don't ??? was the name where the Swiss consulate was. And for somehow, some reason there was about a couple of hundreds like us from different groups standing in line that wanted to get into the consulate and wait. And about ten o'clock the army comes out, the Hungarian army with a couple of truckload of Hungarian uh, soldiers, Gentile soldiers and they surrounding us, they surrounding the streets. And they get all of us in line and because this, what we did is illegal--we tried to escape the... they tried to escape the Hungarian Army, I mean actually, because we were under the Hungarian army and what we doing is, is a treason and they got us all together and start to march us to the headquarters. I knew this is no good because this was already September, October and I was there with no winter clothes, nothing and I knew that if they get us, they deport us. I mean, the, why would they come in with such a force and get us. And I didn't have nothing with me. Absolute nothing, you know, because when you, when you start to escape and, because by the law says that every Jew has to get, or a yellow band all year round, you cannot go... And I didn't have none of those. In order to, you had, you were dressed quite well, I had a pair of shoes on me and a, and a light coat. And I didn't even carry anything with me. So, I knew that I have to escape from here before I get to the headquarters. Because once I get in the headquarters there's no way to escape there. And, and there, there, lucky for us this was about ten kilometer, approximately ten kilometer or five kilo... I don't know, it was five maybe, five or ten, march into the headquarters. In the meantime the, the tram, we're going the middle of the street. It's a long, long line, because a couple hundred people they, they got us. And lots of people tried to escape, jump into the tramway, the, the, the streetcar, the streetcar was going. But the son of a bitches, those Hungarian Nazis, they stopped the streetcar and here's a Jew, get him. So, I remember one place, I knew pretty well Budapest, knew that, and we go in from this street, go like this and I, and I waited for a, you know, trolley car to come. As the trolley car comes back I jumped out from the line and there is another streetcar was going and I was running fast like hell, I didn't look back. I was so fast, I guess like if I figure that, they're going to shoot at me, let 'em shoot at me. And I thought that they won't shot at me because it's still, the civilians went back and forth. And I knew that I could run, I was twenty years old, I had all the, you know, I run real fast. And uh, but I was running for a mile before I even look back. It so, so, so scary, and I escape. Anyway people whom I knew that were with me and they didn't, they didn't make it, never heard from them again. So anyway, this fellow, going back there, this fellow comes to me and he says that he has time to, he has a place where to hide me. But that night, middle of the night where they wake us up and we're surrounded with this uh, Nazis and they're going to, get pack up and hurry, to take us.