Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Lanka Ilkow - October 12, 1991

Conditions in Ghetto

Had it occurred to you to run away?

No, because I was so close to my parents, I wanted to be with my parents and you know, I--it was very close and my uncles and my aunts there, everybody's there. So who knew that they will take us to work and they was taking us out to work to sort clothes, you know. All the--from the Jews where they take, they was--we were sorting. And then they uh, searched us because we found money, we found gold, you know. But uh, they uh, searched us so we couldn't take nothing with us. And, uh...

So you lived in this brick factory.

Brick factory in uh, only thing what I did uh you know, they was coming in like whiskey you know, cases with whiskey. So I put Meyer Moskovitch on that case you know, so my father got the whiskey, you know. I switched for--one guy was getting all the time and he was making black market with it. So I put Meyer Moskovitch and they called him that he should come take that whiskey. So my father was giving all the religious Jews there everybody you know, they should share with the whiskey. But uh, my mother said "So long uh, we're rely uh, together we'll never hungry." Because I always brought food from the ghetto, you know. And uh, matter of fact that, people remember me what I was doing, you know. I put in my brassiere and I was very busty that time myself and I put the dough, when we make doughs I put dough in the brassieres all over where I could put on me anything to walk out and give for those people who were--didn't eat the food what they cooked there and they did it themselves. So I give 'em the dough and they could make noodles and cook on a little pot you know, to make uh, bricks, two bricks in a little fire and they cooked like this.

And this was still just the Hungarians.

Yeah, the Hungarian. I never saw a German soldier you know, 'til

Until Auschwitz.

I come--'til Auschwitz.

Um...

They was in Budapest, German soldiers.


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