Helen Lang - February 23, 1982
Munkacs Ghetto
Um, when you were in Budapest, you weren't, you weren't in the ghetto then?
No. In Budapest? There was no ghetto at that time.
No, but I mean...
I...
...when the ghetto--when the Germans came there was a ghetto in Budapest. They were starting to form a ghetto? And you...
No, not when I went home. They didn't start it. They just started first, you know, they were coming up like this.
So there was a ghetto in Munkacs.
Was a ghetto in Munkacs.
I see.
We had a ghetto in Munkacs.
Who--and you were there during the ghetto time.
I went home, yes.
Uh, who was in charge of the ghetto then?
You mean--well, there were--you mean the Jews?
Were there any Jews put in charge of it, or were they...
Yes, they were. They were Jews. You know, they led them. They were always talking to the Germans like, you know. Ah, and I think one of, I think one of them was the main speaker there--I forgot his name. He was a little businessman in Munkacs. And because of that--because he arranged all these things--so his whole family--they let them go to ??? I think. They said, "Wipe the whole family."
And they--what did they do? I mean, what--did they send...
Well...
...people off to uh, work to...
Where? To work where?
Well, were the Germans asking for laborers, for workers?
Nothing. They just picked them up.
Just picked them up from...
You know, they brought them in from the villages. They made a ghetto--they put them in there. You know, they had to take 'em in--whoever lived there, you know. They had to take 'em in. And uh, then when all the villages were emptied out--all the Jews--then they start to take them...
Mm-hm. To the train.
...to the train and then they went to Auschwitz.
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