Lanka Ilkow - October 12, 1991
Blockowa in Auschwitz
She--was she Czech also?
Uh, she was Hungarian. Yeah, she come, well, before it was Czech and then it was Hungarian a little.
You knew her before and her family, where was she from?
Uh, she was uh, near Ungvar, from a, a place, Chop.
So not far from you.
It's far, but uh, my mother knew her sister, which she lived on--in the next town you know, and so on.
But when she hit your mother, did your mother or you or your sister do anything--say anything to her?
No, we, we couldn't do because if you woulda...I wanted to attack her so we was afraid of the Blockowa will come and beat us up, which she did a lot of people. She was a Slovak, she already suffered five years there in Auschwitz. So uh, she was very nasty to us.
Also Jewish.
Jewish, yeah. She used to say uh, "When you was eating cholent, I was already hungry." And she uh, "You just came? I am here the fifth year already."
After your mother was hit that way, do you think that affected the way she worked?
Well, she uh you know, it's uh, had those bruise for a couple days and you couldn't do nothing, nobody did nothing you know, so, uh...
But when the selection came, you don't think that that was a part of it.
No, no. But they took her away because of her gray hair. They took her away in the selections.
How old was she?
Forty-four. She looked like an old lady. I look better now in my seventies.
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