Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Anne Eisenberg - May 11, 1982

Hungarian Anti-Semitism

But nobody would take a Jew at that time. I had a brother who was a furrier, he took side jobs. And the pain to see in my father's eyes that he had to take money from my father, from my brother... It's too ???. Its'... But he had to do it. And it... [pause] And I--when it came being discovered to work on the fields, because I loved my father so much, I was so close to him. I--'til today I can't stand a worm, but I--we were putting the manure in the fields and I was taking the manure with my hands and putting it all over. That all because I wanted to be next to him. And in 1942, all the Hung...the Jews that weren't Hungarian citizens were supposed to be shipped to Poland. And we too received notice that my father's parents were in the United States and somehow my mother let them know that maybe the next letter would not find us home. To whom she went or what she did I have no knowledge. But for... She received a letter, it was summons to city hall. My father had a beard so he was free to go. But my mother and my aunt went down. And, and they greeted them with the charm, they were beyond words. They couldn't imagine what could have happened. But so they found out. A letter was taken out if they by any chance or the family was harmed by the Hungarians or we were shipped anywhere. And where my mother said no. They took her hand and they were all charm. And at that they--she--they had to sign a paper and there were--leave. But day after day, the trains were going with the people to Poland. At that time we didn't know what was going on. But within one year, in '43, the people that survived happened to come home. And we found out most of them were thrown into the Dnieper. They were made to dig the holes and then they were shot in. Some of them that managed to climb out of the hole that they were, were taken to be shot and they climbed out of the hole during the night. They survived and they came home. But it didn't take long. Within one year they found themselves in the same destiny. In 1943, it was '44 already, all men, what they can--the Jewish men were taken for forced labor.


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