Helen Lang - February 23, 1982
Hungarian Army Reaches Munkacs
Hm. Now when the Hungarians came, did the, did the Hungarian army march into the city?
Yes. And how, and how...
Do you remember that day?
Yes, everybody was so unhappy. Everybody was unhappy because we knew what they are. They're anti-Semitic, very much so.
Now did...
They even made remarks, when they walked in, you know. The soldiers--they saw--they heard about it that there are so many Jews here. And they start to say, "Oh, wait, what we're going to do to the Jews here." So we knew already. That's what my parents heard, somebody told them. "Wait what's going to happen now to the Jews." And it happened. And it happened.
What's the first thing you remember? Was--were there laws passed?
Well, they were right away the six percent, like I told you.
Did that happen...
That happened...
And those went to Hungarian businesses?
With the Hungarians, yes, mm-hm.
What about uh, armbands? Do you remember having to wear armbands?
That when the Germans came in.
The Germans came.
You see, that's what I'm talking about, that I--when I went out that they on the street I didn't have my armband--the yellow one. And that's why the Gentile man came to me, says, "What you doing here with no armband?"
What was the punishment for that, do you remember?
For the non...nobody would dare to go out without the armband. They--we were so scared we were shivering from the Germans. When we saw a German we were just shivering.
But until the Germans came, what kind of changes--between 1938 and 1944--what kind of changes took place in your daily life? Did you still go to school, did you uh, did you go to theaters still? Uh...
There were no more. The Jews didn't go.
Mm.
The Jews already stayed away, you know, from things like that. We didn't go anymore.
And school?
And school. Mm-mm. No, it was already very limited. We knew already that, you know, these Hungarians they are like the same--almost like the Germans.
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