Testimony of Gyula Rechnitzer, born in Alsóújlak, Hungary, 1922, regarding his experiences in a labor battalion in Kőszeg and Beszterce and in Heiligenkreuz and Mauthausen camps and more

Testimony of Gyula Rechnitzer, born in Alsóújlak, Hungary, 1922, regarding his experiences in a labor battalion in Kőszeg and Beszterce and in Heiligenkreuz and Mauthausen camps and more Deportation to forced labor in a labor battalion in Kőszeg, 04 October 1943; transfer to the Uzsok Mountain Pass; labor in transferring logs to the Beszkid Mountain Pass; hostile treatment by the Hungarian soldiers and Illés [his first name is not known], the commander; being subjected to beatings; labor in the Galicia area in clearing snow; daily walk to the Galicia area and back (a total of 30 kilometers); food rationing; transfer to Szobránc; labor there in construction [of barracks?, the text says ghetto]; completion of the construction and labor in fortifications; transfer to Szürte; labor there; living in a synagogue; supervision by Hungarian soldiers; lodgings in a place surrounded by a fence; replacement of the commander by a new commander called Pálhiday [his first name is not known]; cruelty of the commander including beating of forced laborers with a whip and punishment by tying them up outside for hours; transfer of the sick to harder types of labor; transfer to Hollóháza; labor there in fortifications; transfer to Beszterce; labor there in constructing fortifications; hunger; living quarters in a place surrounded by a fence; being subjected to hostile treatment; replacement of commanders; transfer to Székesfehérvár after two months; transfer to Sárvár; transfer to Körmend; robbery of possessions there by members of the Arrow Cross; transfer to Szentgotthárd; being handed over there to the Germans; deportation on foot to Heiligenkreuz camp; labor there in constructing a trap for tanks; transfer on a death march to Mauthausen, 20 March 1945; life on the march for two weeks; sleeping outdoors without shelter in freezing cold temperatures; suffering from hunger; murder of many inmates by shooting; arrival in the camp, 02 April 1945; camp life; sleeping without shelter; food rationing; mass mortality of hundreds of inmates a day from total exhaustion and from typhus; burning of the dead bodies in pits; transfer on a death march to Günskirchen camp, 06 April 1945; life on the march; receiving small amounts of food one time; becoming weaker and mortality from hunger; leaving inmates behind and murder by shooting; freezing cold; sleeping without shelter; arrival in the camp, 10 April 1945; camp life; living in barracks with crowding; receiving small amounts of food; mass mortality from total exhaustion and from typhus; life without bathing conditions in the dirt; thirst; leaving the bodies of the dead out in the camp without burial for days; burial of the dead in pits; liberation by the US Army, 04 May 1945; hospitalization in a hospital in Wels. Interviewer: Margit Weiss.