Testimony of Dr. Sághy Vilmosné regarding her experiences in the Rákoskeresztúr Ghetto and the camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Kraków Plaszów, Bergen-Belsen, and Aschersleben

Testimony of Dr. Sághy Vilmosné regarding her experiences in the Rákoskeresztúr Ghetto and the camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Kraków Plaszów, Bergen-Belsen, and Aschersleben. Her father was drafted into the Hungarian Army’s labor battalions, 1942, despite his age, following denunciation; her father was a doctor; the Second Jewish Law; confiscation of a radio device; restrictions; hostile treatment by gendarmes; economic hardship after her father could no longer serve as the town’s physician; fair treatment by the local population, who even repaid debts owed to the family; locals wept during the deportation in 1944 and helped carry the deportees’ belongings; German occupation of Hungary, 19 March 1944; German soldiers were stationed in her father’s clinic and were prohibited from speaking with them; after three weeks, the Germans left, advising the family to escape before the SS arrived; prohibition on leaving home; body searches of women before deportation - her mother was not searched; forced to carry stones up a hill in Kraków; given food by an SS man; she attended school in Budapest; the school’s headmistress called by telephone to warn her not to attend, as Jewish students were being rounded up; Governor Horthy’s proclamation, 15 October 1944; Szálasi’s rise to power; Transfer of Jews from Pécel, Rákoscsaba, and other places; establishment of the Keresztúr/Rákoskeresztúr Ghetto; prohibition on leaving the ghetto; an offer by a woman to hide her, which she declined due to her mother; refusal to accept forged documents because they were not offered for her mother as well; transfer to a sugar factory in Hatvan and staying several days without shelter; jewelry stolen by gendarmes; deportation train, late May 1944, and a 2-3 day journey in a crowded, overheated cattle car holding 100 people; lack of water and deaths in the car; some people lost their sanity; barred windows; arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau; selection by Mengele; hair was cut; forced to walk on broken glass; transferred to a block where her friend Vali was housed; fell ill from drinking contaminated water; lacking blankets, they took one from a body covering her at roll-call; chosen in a selection after a few days, saved by her mother; Transfer about a week later to Kraków Plaszów with her friend Vali Vágó; work in a quarry, carrying stones up a hill; the block head (Blockälteste), a Polish woman who was the companion of an SS man, treated the prisoners with hostility; fair treatment by the Polish work supervisor; transferred to the “Revier” (infirmary); returned to the block; following the escape of a woman, murders were committed in the camp; narrowly survived being strangled by a Polish inmate; searched for food in the garbage dump; transferred to the “Revier”; escaped; returned to Auschwitz with her mother and friend Vali, late July 1944; moved to a wooden barrack; the barrack was sealed, but they were released, and she never saw the other occupants again; disinfection; transferred to Camp V, Block 29; life conditions: roll-call, hunger; her mother shared her bread with her; Living conditions in Bergen-Belsen; no food distributed, poor sanitation, overcrowding; transported in freight cars at Christmas to Aschersleben camp; forced labor in an aircraft factory; conditions there included hot and cold water and living quarters in a stone building; transferred to the “Revier”; received food from a doctor and a nurse; pediculosis; received shirts; air-raids; work in the factory; fair treatment from a German worker who provided her with food; heavy air raids, March 1945; left the camp; during the march, weak prisoners were shot; arriving in Halle; continued the march; the SS fled, and the marchers continued and stayed in the forest, April 1945. Encounter with British soldiers; liberated weighing 29 kilograms, late April 1945; arrived in (likely) Düben; transferred to Eilenburg, stayed in a school building; sent to a convalescent home; fair treatment by the nurses, who were nuns; escaped from the convalescent home; transferred to Leipzig; parted from Vali; her mother survived; received news, 1943, that her father, who had been in forced labor, was missing; escaped from Leipzig; posed as Romanians to reach Budapest; arrived in Pozsony; reached a group of Russians and then Budapest, 30 July 1945; her grandmother and two aunts survived; a printing press was established in their house in Keresztúr/Rákoskeresztúr; spent a year and a half in a convalescent home. Note: She and Vali Vágó were friends but also second cousins.