Testimony of György Gáthy, born in Budapest, Hungary, 1919, regarding his experiences in a labor battalion in Jászberény, in the Hatvan Ghetto and in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Dachau and other camps

Testimony of György Gáthy, born in Budapest, Hungary, 1919, regarding his experiences in a labor battalion in Jászberény, in the Hatvan Ghetto and in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Dachau and other camps Deportation to forced labor in a labor battalion in Jászberény, 04 June 1944; life there for a few days; transfer to a military hospital in Budapest for a medical examination; detention on the way to Jászberény to a labor battalion in Hatvan, by SS soldiers and gendarmes, 12 June 1944; deportation to the Hatvan Ghetto together with 600 Jews; deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau, 13 June 1944; life on the road in a freight car without food or water; being handed over to the Germans in Kassa; arrival in the camp, 15 June 1944; selection by Dr. Josef Mengele; transfer to a shower; cropping of hair; changing clothes into prisoner clothing; transfer to a quarantine camp; life in the quarantine camp, for three to four days; transfer to Auschwitz; life in Block No. 6/a; contracting pneumonia; life in a hospital for a month; hunger; labor for one week; contracting typhus; hospital life; labor in a quarry for the DAW (Deutsche Ausrüstungswerke-German Armament Plant), November 1944; shortage in winter clothing; labor from seven in the morning to seven-thirty at night; cruelty of the SS soldiers including beatings and murders; evacuation of the camp, 18 January 1945; transfer on a death march to Dachau; life on the march in the snow in wooden shoes and summer clothing; further transfer in open freight cars; life in the train car together with 150 inmates; life on the road for one week without receiving water or food; eating snow; mortality from starvation; murder of inmates by shooting and humiliation of inmates; death of between 60 to 80 inmates in each train car; arrival in the camp, 30 January 1945; camp life; waiting for the shower for four to five hours in freezing cold temperatures without clothing; transfer to a quarantine camp; transfer to Mühldorf camp, 28 February 1945; sick on arrival in the camp, 29 February [sic ?] 1945; camp life; living in a dirty tent; selection; transfer back to Dachau, 12 March 1945; arrival in the camp, 13 March 1945; camp life; camp life in a quarantine camp without labor; having roll calls lasting many hours; tortures perpetrated by SS soldiers; life in dirt; withholding food from inmates suffering from lice and from typhus; hospitalization for typhus, 14 April 1945; evacuation of the camp and transfer on a death march [leaving the sick inmates in the camp]; leaving the hospital, 28 April 1945; liberation by the US Army, 29 April 1945. Interviewer: Lily Beimel.