Vera Schey - June 10, 1994
Hiding with Little Girl
You left off with the little girl.
I don't know what happened to her when they came in. I simply hid her under the bed or something, because she had no papers and we knew one look at her would give her away. So when the concierge came up to tell us that the uh, the Arrow Party's here to check, I think he stuck her in a, in a bed, under a bed, I don't remember. But I know she was not one of them who was checked. And they went through the house but again they didn't find her. We were there 'til, 'til the liberation. 'Til, you know, Russians were shooting from one side, the Germans from the other side. I was still going out trying to get bread and getting this and that, whatever was available. Water, we had to go to another house to schlep water over because there was no running water. When the, when bomb hit that house then we had no more water after that. And uh, they were--if they caught you then--I think that was for me maybe the most dangerous time because there were no questions asked. They took you and they took you, lined you up by the Danube and shot you. And there were many, many friends who we lost in these last few days. The Germans were fleeing the city already, the Russians were on the other side of, of the town. They were shooting at each other, they were bombing and they still had time to round up Jews and line them up by the Danube and, and shoot them.
You mean the Gendarmes.
The Gendarmes and the, and the Arrow head, the Arrow head. It was, and, and the German. German soldiers too. Before they were fleeing, this was their last little deed to do. At that point there was already a ghetto in Budapest. And as I understand the ghetto was undermined, but they didn't have time to, to uh, to anni...to, to...
To blow it up.
To do... What?
To blow it up.
Den...deno...
Detonate.
Det...uh, I was in that ghetto. I went in a couple times as a Gentile taking food to people. There was allowed, the reason it was allowed because there were some homes where Gentiles lived. So there was an access in and out for awhile, not the last week but, last two weeks maybe not. But before. So I, whenever I was able to get hold of some food, my grandmother was there, my uncle was there. And I don't--I cannot picture it, I can't picture the h...the room they were in. I can only see the gate where I went in and out with my false papers, each time risking. Naturally it was a--I--discovered or not. But I did it. But I can't remember how many were in a room or which house they were.
Now when you went in, did they think you were taking food to...
To uh, to Gentiles.
To Gentiles.
Yeah.
But you took food instead...
Yes, yes, yes.
To, to your relatives. And your grandmother didn't survive.
She sur...she survived it. She died shortly after. She survived.
There must have been deportations going on at this time.
Oh yes. Oh yes. The deportations were going on from--I don't know if they, they--who did they put, really, in the ghettos? Just the older people. The young people were already being deported because they had to go to these football fields, what I told you...
Yeah.
...when these proclamat...and they were deported from there. So I think it was to a certain age, and the older people were in the ghetto.
Did you see the trains?
No, never.
You never saw the trains.
Never.
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