Anonymous eyewitness account by a Jewish chemist from Lučenec entitled 'Forced Labour in a Hungarian camp, the death march from the Russian front to Mauthausen' 1. Index Number : P.III.i. (Hungary) No. 897. 2. Title of Document : Forced Labour in Hungary and the Death March from the Russian Front to M authausen. 3. Date : 1938 - 1945. 4. Number of pages : 12. Language : German. 5. Author or Source : Anonymous. 6. Recorded by : Mr Alex Szanto, London. 7. Received : September 1958. 8. Form and Contents : The author was a chemist in Losonc. Anti - Jewish laws were introduced in 1938, but vicious persecution did not start before spring 1940. In the course of wholesale recruiting for forced labour author was sent to Tokay, where 15,000 Jews had to do very heav y, but completely useless work under inhuman conditions and bestial treatment. When German troops occupied Hungary in March 1944, practically all Jewish men were sent to forced labour and the author came to Miskolc, under the command of the worst elements of the Hungarian army who revelled in sadistic treatment of their charges, particularly the Orthodox Jews. In the course of May the aged, women and children who had been left behind were driven into Ghettos. The author saw the long trails of unhappy people staggering into the newly established Ghetto in Miskolc and later, having been robbed of their last belongings, into the inferno of the collecting camp in a disused brick factory, the departure station for Auschwitz. Deportations from other Hungarian area s took place simultaneously, and Miskolc being an important railway junction, the trains frequently shunted there, and the author witnessed the heartrending plight of the deportees clamouring for air, food and water. The author and his fellow - prisoners tri ed to succour them, but the merciless Hungarian military police prevented this. In July the slave labourers were drafted into so - called “Sturm - Kompanien” for pioneer work at the front. In over - crowded supply trains they were sent into Poland; from Delatyn they had to march for several days and found the frontier in a state of retreat. They had to carry heavy military equipment back across the Carpathian mountains and finally halted at Beregszaz and Marmarossziget - once flourishing places, now completely de solate. The synagogues were storage places for confiscated Jewish chattels. The failure of President Horthy to make a separate peace resulted in riots, and the author saw the synagogues and state property looted. On the resumption of the retreat many of th e non - Jewish guards deserted, and the author escaped together with 5 others. However, the chaos on the roads, the cold weather and the complete lack of food and money reduced them to a state of utter exhaustion. One of them died, and the others gave themse lves up to the Military Police in Dunaszerdahely. They were taken to a collecting camp in Gyoer - the worst of any the author has known. Conditions there still worsened, when the “Pfeiikreuzler” rounded up the remaining Jews and drove them on the roads tow ards Vienna. Those who were not shot or died en route, were herded into the camp. After a few weeks in “this hell”, the author had to proceed with others to Szombathely, in the wake of the death march of thousands of Jews whose corpses, graves and belongin gs lined the route. At the Austrian frontier they had to dig fortifications, but soon they were rushed further west. After 21 days of marching they reached Graz and were taken to the ill - famed Mauthausen camp. When author was driven to yet another place - Guenskirchen - where American troops liberated him on 4 May 1958. Forced Labour in Hungary and the Death March from the Russian Front to Mauthausen When the 2 nd World War broke out, I was a young pharmacist in the small city of Losonc in Northern Hungary . Like all provincial cities in Northern Hungary, Losonc also had a strong Jewish community. Although I myself was unmarried, I had a large kinship network in Northern Hungary. Grand - parents, uncles, aunts, and cousins lived in the provincial communities o f Losonc, Miskolc, Kaschau and the other cities. We often met and gathered together frequently; we lived a happy, carefree life. This changed soon after the outbreak of the war. Although at first, Hungary remained neutral and first entered the war in 1941, the life of the population did not remain untouched and the first to feel the hardships were the Jews. In fact the first “Jewish laws” had already been enacted in Hungary in 1938, though these were limited essentially to the economic area and their effect s could be mainly deflected. However, in the spring of 1940, young Jewish men (from around 20 to 45 years of age) were conscripted for the first time for the so - called “labour service”, and that was the end of the peaceful life from then on. I myself went in this period as a forced labourer at first to the small city of Tokaj whose name is famous worldwide through its good wine. We had there anything other than a pleasant life. Around 15,000 Jewish forced labourers from all possible parts of the country wer e mustered there. We were accommodated partly in wooden barracks and partly in the engineers’ barracks, crushed together under inhumane conditions. We had to sleep on straw or on the bare ground and the food was terrible. Those who did not receive food pac kets from home literally starved. We were pressured to work from early in the morning to late in the evening, and the engineers in particular, distinguished themselves as brutal slave drivers. The work consisted in part of street improvement, working in th e fields, dragging stones and pushing carts in a stone quarry and similar. The people were often driven outside in the wind and bad weather by the engineers out of pure lust for torture and occupied with totally senseless tasks. It cannot be said that any really productive work was performed. The entire initiative was a purely - 2 – anti - Jewish action which had not the least use for either the state or anyone else; and against that on the other side, a large number of the Jews involved contracted chronic sickness and suffering as a consequence of the bad treatment and heavy exertions. It was so to speak the general rehearsal for the large persecution which was to take place later. In autumn, the Jewish forced labourers were discharged and sent home again, but in the following year, the conscription repeated itself. The method was completely irregular. Whilst many of those who shared the same fate remained spared again in 1942, others were sent in special work companies to the Ukraine where the majority of them died from hunger, the cold and deprivations. I, myself, was conscripted every year for several months with astonishing regularity and then sent home again. The most difficult time of suffering began in 1944. German troops occupied the country on the 19th of March 1944, and a marionette government completely dependent on the Germans was installed in Budapest. The worst anti - Jewish actions set in immediately, compared to which everything prior to that had been child’s play. In those days, I myself was in the Southern Hungarian city of Szeged where I was preparing for an advanced course in my profession. We were all completely surprised by the events. I travelled as quickly as possible via Budapest, which resembled a churned up ants’ hill, back to Lo sonc, where, similarly, the population, especially the Jews, found itself in a situation of great panic. It should be pointed out here that in Losonc besides Hungarians and Jews there was a very strong Slovakian minority which was thoroughly anti - German an d anti - Nazi, and which was preparing itself for liberation by the approaching Russians. Actually, some months later, a Slovakian partisan uprising broke out in this whole area. The enmity between individual groups of people, the presence of the German troo ps and the gradual approach of the front line – all of this threw the whole of Upper Hungary into a situation of extreme tension and nervousness. In April, the conscription for forced labour commenced again, this time in a far greater and more expansive measure than in the previous years. Virtually all male Jews were conscripted. Out of the entire community - 3 – only the women, the children and the elderly people remained at home. There was a tendency which by the way was also confirmed throu gh similar reports for the rest of the country: that men were separated from their families and those that remained were delivered defenceless to their fate. This time, the labour company to which I was assigned was not to Tokaj, but to the district of Mis kolc. This was a lively industrial city and at the same time an important railway junction. Because of its importance, the city, which at that time may have numbered between 150.000 to 200.000 inhabitants, was occupied by strong German and Hungarian army u nits. The labour companies were accommodated in the smaller villages around Miskolc, primarily in Hejoecsaba and in Jolsva, and were engaged in road building and improvement works. The treatment and the food, was, if anything, even worse than in the previo us years. Those who were assigned to the individual companies as so - called “frame” officers and NCO’s distinguished themselves through exceptional brutality. They were mainly the very worst elements of the Hungarian army, people who shirked front line serv ice and who took out their most disgusting anger and hate instincts on the defenceless Jews. The following remains in my memory of the individual unit from those days. The majority of the forced labour penned up here consisted of orthodox Jews from Upper H ungary and the Carpathian - Ukraine region, who previously, had clung strictly to their ritual rules for food. They would rather starve while doing work than touch the food coming out of the field kitchen. In previous years, they had the ritually prepared fo od sent in packages by their families. That was now associated with many difficulties and in the end it was completely impossible. Now, the NCO’s took great sadistic pleasure in starving these people and forcing them to eat the food they had previously dec lined. That is why they asked in vain to be allowed to provide food for themselves in Miskolc for a lot of money. Under the assertion that only the fare from the field kitchen, which in reality was a completely inadequate broth concocted out of waste, coul d give them the strength to work “for the Hungarian fatherland”, they were openly forced under scorn and derision to eat what they were given. But even this bullying paled in the face of the horror which occurred in the following weeks and months. - 4 – During the month of May, in all of the provincial cities of Hungary, Budapest came later in the sequence, the remaining Jews, that is, above all the women, the children, the old people and those men, who, under any pretence had contrived to evade forced l abour service, were evicted from their home and crowded into ghettoes. This was the prelude to their deportation. We forced labourers were witnesses to the way in which the Jews in Miskolc were resettled into a ghetto formed out of two or three streets. Fr om our quarters in Hejoecsaba, which lay around 2 kilometres outside of the city, we moved into Miskolc whenever it was possible to help the Jewish women and children with this forced relocation. They had to leave behind the predominant part of their belon gings in the homes that they had left. Dragging with them bundles and suitcases with the most essential luggage, the hapless figures with the yellow stars on their breast tottered through the streets. They were herded together from 10 to 20 in one room in the new accommodation. But even here their stay did not last long. After they had been robbed here of the majority of the last morsels of the belonging they had saved – house searches, raids and mistreatment were on the daily agenda – the entire ghetto was deported again to a brick factory which lay outside of the city. Little by little the Jews still remaining in the small towns in the area were brought there. And at the end of May or the beginning of June, there were around 15,000 to 20,000 people jammed together here in a confined space like animals under unbelievable unhygienic conditions and surrounded by barbed wire. As enforced labourers, we succeeded here and there in smuggling into the ghetto a bit of food, but given the high numbers imprisoned ther e, it was a drop in the ocean. The unfortunate people suffered under heat, thirst, the parching sunshine, vermin and sickness. No doctors were allowed into the ghetto from outside and inside there were only very few Jewish doctors, who in addition, had as good as no medicines. The sick lay helpless in the open air; pregnant women brought their children into the world without assistance; and many deaths occurred. It was like an inferno. Then, at the beginning of June, all of the inmates of the ghetto were pu t in waggons at the goods station on the land of the brick factory and deported to Auschwitz. In the meantime, the deportation from the remaining Hungarian cities had already begun. As already mentioned, Miskolc is a rail transport junction where the conn ections from the whole of Upper Hungary run together. The deportation trains from Kaschau, from Losonc, from Gyoengyoes and from other cities went through Mickolc. They remained here, - 5 – mainly on outside platforms for several hours and often for the whole night. They were then re - arranged and transported onwards to their baleful destination. These circumstances went round the city at lightning speed, and we forced labourers, now put everything humanly possible in motion to get to the railway station a nd somehow to be able to help there those who shared our faith and our fate. For this purpose, we reported voluntarily for work at the railway station, or if that did not succeed, we reached it through bribing our superior and our escorts, so that we obtai ned access to it. Our efforts and our worries were that much greater when these deportation trains came from our former places of residence and we had to accept that our own relatives were in the trains. These fears proved to be correct. Frightful, unforge ttable scenes unfolded, when we, arrived at the railway station after a long struggle, and had to recognise to our despair that we stood impotent before the closed waggons and could do nothing to prevent or ameliorate the fate of our relatives and friends. The escort for the deportation trains consisted of Hungarian gendarmes. These gendarmes were a constantly feared and hated troop because of their brutality and inhumanity, and they were much worse than the police or the military. These people felt complet ely in their element, especially since the Germans were in the country, and the Gestapo worked closely with the Hungarian gendarmerie. They were probably also the only ones in the country, who, now in the last year of the war, still believed in a German vi ctory. Whilst you could still achieve something with a Hungarian policeman or a soldier mainly with bribes, this was a hopeless matter with a gendarme. Not because they were less greedy for money or more morally resolute. In those days, all Hungarian genda rmes filled their own pockets with possessions stolen from the Jews and enriched themselves shamelessly. But their methods were different. They did not engage in bargaining or negotiation, but robbed and blackmailed with open violence. If they saw or also only suspected money with a Jew, they simply took it away without performing the least service in return for it. Gendarmes and the Gendarmerie, mainly it was the officers, zeroed in on the supposedly rich Jews in the ghettoes and tortured them in the most bestial ways, in order to squeeze out of them where they had hidden their wealth. - 6 – Under these circumstances, all of our efforts to get into contact with the unfortunate occupants of the deportation trains were doomed to failure. So often, when w e got to the platform where the trains stood, we were brusquely thrown out of there by the gendarmes placed there. Referring to the fact that we had to work at the station, we did not allow ourselves to be expelled, but stopped within at least calling dist ance of the trains. They were long trains with all of the waggons tightly closed and calls got out only from the ventilation flaps and the windows. We called back and over the heads of the gendarmes a type of conversation developed which was interrupted al l too often. As soon as the occupants of the trains had learnt through our calls that we, Jewish forced workers, were close by, they called loudly and desperately individual names. In this way, was our own supposition confirmed, that our relatives were in the trains. Also my name was called. My elderly grandmother, who came from Losonc, was in one of the trains. The unfortunates begged despairingly for fresh water and asked that they opened the doors at least for a short time because unbearable heat prevail ed in the tight crush of the waggons. We turned again and again to the gendarmes and attempted to stir them. Also the station master and some railway employees, to whose humanity we had appealed, intervened on behalf of the occupants. However, it all remai ned in vain. The gendarmes remained merciless and did not even allow a single cup of water, nor a single slice of bread to be brought over to the waggons. Some of our people, who had heard the voices of their wife or mother, ran in despair through the chai n of gendarmes. But before they reached the waggons, they were grabbed and driven back with rifle butts and kicks. We waited for hours and made fresh attempts. With the onset of darkness, some people crept from the rear of the station close to a train, and from close by, were able to exchange some words with those who were cooped up. They were then discovered by the gendarmes and expelled. They learned during this opportunity that in one of the waggons, it was a train from Gyoengyoes, there was a young woma n who was 8 months pregnant and who had become unconscious. The next morning the news spread in the city. The train still stood at the platform. Several non - Jewish civilians, who had retained a spark of humanity, went to the gendarmes and began to speak to them. A gathering formed in front of the station and the commander of the gendarmes, who feared a scandal, finally gave permission in this single case for the door of the waggon to be opened for some minutes. We saw how inside the waggon where the occupan ts stood or sat tightly crushed together – there was no room to lie down or stretch out – many had torn the clothes from their bodies in the unbearable heat. At great speed, a bucket of water was brought to the waggon, but when we wanted to add some bread and other foodstuffs, the commander got into a rage and gave the order - 7 – for the door of the waggon to be closed again. An outcry of indignation and consternation went through the crowd. But it was all in vain. The waggon with its cargo of human mise ry was closed again, and the gendarmes forced the crowd back from the platform with fixed bayonets. The train released steam and moved off a short time later in a northerly direction whilst the constant cries for help continued to sound from within. Some d ied during the journey in the waggons. Most of them left their lives behind in Auschwitz. Amongst all of the rest, my entire family on my father’s side – uncles, aunts, cousins and my grand - mother – were all wiped out. We forced labourers remained behind u nder continually worsening circumstances. The food became worse and we were no longer able to supplement it – for one, because relatives, who could send food packages, were no longer there, and also because our own resources had run out. Our work now consisted mainly of building air raid shelters in Miskolc and the surrounding area. This had become necessary because the Hungarian cities were now being afflicted by air attacks, more frequently than before. As soon as there was an air attack alarm, the Hungarian military and the civilian population, sought shelter in the bunkers built by us. Access was forbidden to us in these circumstances. We had to seek cover in the open. Miskolc was heavily bombed repeatedly. Even the railway station, whi ch shortly before had been the setting for the scenes of horror already described, received several direct hits. In July, so - called Sturm - Kompanien were formed out of the forced labourers gathered together from around Miskolc to go off to the front. Not, o f course, to perform service at the front with weapons, but to carry out trench work and similar right behind the fighting troops. We travelled by train via Huszt and over the northern Hungarian border to the Polish area in the former Galicia. Now, we were also in waggons tightly packed between boxes of munitions, horse carts and apparatus of all kinds. There was scarcely enough space to sit or lie. We suffered terribly from the heat. In Delatyn the train remained stationary and we had to get out. Here we s aw for the first time frontline German soldiers equipped for battle. Artillery fire could be heard in the distance. A German officer went along the train and urged haste. - 8 – The train had to be unloaded within a quarter of an hour and then we went on, heavily loaded, by foot. We marched for several days, via bad streets, fields without paths, through woods and deserted villages in the cheerless area of Galicia until close to Kolomea. Our nightly accommodation was mostly in the open air. Here and there we were able to find shelter in derelict barns or huts. The supply of provisions functioned miserably. Frequently, we remained without food and we nourished ourselves with bran, boiled in water. Finally, we arrived at our destination a few kilometres behin d the front. Here, we were supposed to build a reserve position. But our stay was not long. The front was in retreat, and in the end, this retreat degenerated into a flight, to such an extent that the holding of reserve positions was out of the question. T he Hungarian units who fought here, and with them were also forced labourers, were pulled back in hurried forced marches to the Polish - Hungarian border. We forced labourers had to drag the Hungarian and German waggon trains and various burdens over the pas s via the steep mountain paths of the Carpathians. The Russians were hard on the heels of the retreating German and Hungarian troops, and in the night, there were frequent raids by Ruthenian partisans. Now, our constant companion was not the artillery fire alone but also machine gun fire. Many amongst the Jewish forced workers attempted to slip away from the troops and hide themselves in the woods until the Russians came. However, the risk was high because every deserter, whom the Germans or the Hungarians could get hold of, was shot on the spot. We never heard a thing again from those who attempted to go over to the Russians on this section of the front, and it is very doubtful if even one of them succeeded in reaching security and saving their life. The re treat came to a standstill temporarily behind the crest of the Carpathians and we spent several weeks in Beregszaz and in Marmarossziget. I knew those places well from before. Once, active life and action prevailed here. A large per cent of the population had been Jewish. Now these small cities made a dilapidated and miserable impression. The businesses were closed, the streets were run down, there were few civilians to be seen and all of the Jews had been deported long ago. The two Jewish temples in Marma rossziget, which I knew well, stood there empty and with barricaded doors. Inside, as we heard, - 9 – were many objects stockpiled which had belonged to the Jews who had been deported in May and June. Although also here, a lot had been robbed and plundered, the authorities had collected together a part of the furniture and clothes etc from the deserted Jew ish residences and had them stored in the two synagogues whose doors then were barred. The businesses which were once Jewish were mainly closed and barricaded. We were in Marmarossziget on the 15 th of October. This was generally known as the day on which t he Hungarian Regent Horthy attempted to make his famous offer of a ceasefire, to back out of the alliance with Germany, and to achieve a separate peace. The attempt failed and the result was a pointless extension of the war for Hungary and a continuation o f our suffering. However, the order in Hungary was seriously shaken by the events of the 15 th of October, the fighting spirit of what remained of the Hungarian army was reduced to a minimum and the entire regime lived from then on in a state of agony so to speak. The breakdown of order showed itself in Marmarossziget, the place where we were, in that large scale plundering took place where the police behaved passively. The Jewish businesses, which were locked up, were broken into and the goods that were fou nd there were stolen. In the same way, the rabble forced their way into the Jewish temples that were closed and looted them completely. Nothing remained from the belongings that were assembled there. The furniture was carried off on hand - carts and the clot hes disappeared down to the last scrap. In one of the temples, a lot of bed linen had been stockpiled. This was dragged away and because the crowd quarrelled and wrangled over possession, a lot was torn. The next morning, the whole street in front of the t emple was white from the feathers blown and scattered about. However, the plundering did not only limit itself to the former possessions of the Jews. Because the police and the gendarmerie did not intervene, in the end, the mob also forced their way into t he public buildings and store houses. Amongst others, the storehouse of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration was broken into and hundreds of thousands of cigarettes and other tobacco products were thrown onto the street where the crowd fought amongst themselves for them. Most of them were trodden on and were ruined in the general tumult. All of this played out before our eyes. The retreat was continued a few days later. Again, it went onwards in forced marches, this time in a south westerly direction v ia Leva and Ersekujvär to Western Hungary. During the march, desertion prevailed. Not only the forced labourers - 10 – but also many of the non - Jewish escort took off on their own and disappeared into the darkness of the night. Generally the fear was gre at that the company would be transported to Germany or Austria where they would then have to wait for a long time until the end of the war. However, if you were to stay in the country in some sort of hideout and could wait for the entry of the Russians, th en you would have the hope of liberation sooner. That was the general feeling amongst the Jewish forced labourers as well as the Hungarian soldiers who were tired of the war. Unfortunately, the assessment was not correct because the Russians only advanced slowly. There were still several up and downs in the war situation, and the campaigning in Hungary dragged on for many months more. To give one example: the city of Cegled, where several forced labourers known to me fled, changed hands 3 times during Novem ber. The advance of the Russians was followed by a German counter - attack, and those Jews, who had fled there, and who with the first entry of the Russians already considered themselves safe, found themselves overnight in the area of the German troops once again. It was in the area of Ersekujvar where I also made myself “independent”, as we described the absconding from the troops at that time with a “technical term”. Together with 5 other like - minded comrades, we tried off our own bat to break through in th e direction of Budapest. Though the difficulties proved to be too great. All of the streets were swarming with German and Hungarian soldiers, and on the cross - roads there were raids on shirkers and deserters. We had no more money and no food. Also, we coul d no longer sleep at night in the open air because the autumn weather had set in. One of the youngest amongst us, a weak youth, whom the deprivations of the last months had completely enervated, collapsed in the village of Imely. Because we were unable to get medical help, he died before our eyes. We asked the villagers to at least allow him to be buried in the cemetery, but they threatened to alert the gendarmerie and have us all arrested. As a result, we then had to bury him at the edge of the road. Compl etely defeated and in despair, we moved on. After one or two days wandering about, we realized that what awaited us was either death through starvation or to be caught with the execution that went with it, therefore we decided in our despair to give oursel ves up. We reported to the gendarmerie station in Dunaszerdahely and stated that we had “lost” our military unit. With the general chaos that prevailed at that time in this area, which had become a base, this did not appear to be completely unbelievable. - 11 – Together with a number of other forced labourers, who had arrived here in similar ways in small groups, they sent us to the city of Gyoör (the German name of this city is Raab), where an assembly and reception camp had been established for scattere d military and labour service men. The Hungarian deserters and shirkers were directed from here to their troop units as far as was possible. By contrast, the Jews were accommodated in a camp surrounded by barbed wire. The circumstances there were more horr endous than everything that we had known hitherto. We had to live in unheated barracks with the windows broken during the onset of the cold of winter. In the early morning, we were forced to the Danube and had to help there to unload the Danube ships. Or w e had to unload coal from train waggons on the neighbouring grounds of the electricity factory. We were told that we would only be given something to eat if we unloaded the whole waggon on the same day. After we had been forced to do the hardest work for t he whole day without the least to eat, finally, in the evening, ice cold soup was distributed. On this day, a whole number of people collapsed during the work. The camp filled with more people from day to day. Now, not only forced labourers were brought he re, but also many Jews who had been driven together without any choice from all parts of the country and above all from the capital Budapest. The main road from Budapest to Vienna went through Raab, which at that time was the setting for unheard of scenes of horror. The Germans now no longer deported Hungarian Jews in goods trains, but the Hungarian fascists, the so called Arrow Cross members, who had established an uncontrolled regime of terror in the parts of Hungary which were not yet occupied by the Rus sians, drove thousands of Jews from Budapest by foot westwards along the main road to Vienna. Anyone who collapsed on the trek was either shot en route or dragged into some camp close by. For most, this meant not their salvation but on a continuation of th eir suffering. In this way, many Jews also came into the camp at Raab, all of them in a completely exhausted condition. There were many women and children amongst them, and the barracks were soon over - crowded. Other elements also came into the camp such as a group of Russian prisoners of war. The death rate was high. The stream only stopped, when, with the encirclement of Budapest by the Russians, all the connecting roads from there to the west were cut off. - 12 – After we had spent some weeks in this he ll, a company was formed out of men supposedly capable of work and with this I was also driven towards Szombathely close to the Austrian border. On the way along the main road to Vienna, we saw everywhere the traces of the horrific death - march which the Je ws driven westwards from Budapest had walked: bodies, makeshift graves raised at the edge of the road, suitcases thrown away and robbed, articles of clothing scattered around and so forth. We ourselves staggered in ripped shoes with holes in them, and clot hes which you could say were rotting on the body, over the main road which was covered in snow. There were between Szombathely and the Austrian border several thousand Hungarian forced labourers who had been assembled here from different directions and wer e engaged in the development of a defensive position which was supposed to form the last bulwark against the Russians on their way to Vienna after the fall of Budapest. Here, still, Hungarian soldiers lead the supervision. We were later driven further west wards and Austrian Volkssturm men took over the detachment. These consisted partly out of invalids and partly out of very young members of the Hitler Youth. Each 100 forced labourers came under the supervision of 2 or 3 Hitler Youth of whom some may not ha ve been much older than 14, but were all armed with revolvers or rifles. We were all much too exhausted and lacking in hope to be able to consider resistance or flight. The group with which I marched was driven onwards by an invalid, a one - armed SS man who was armed with a machine gun and who drove a type of tractor behind the column and shot down everyone who remained behind or collapsed exhausted. After a 21 day death march during which more than half remained on the route we reached Graz and were taken f rom there to the infamous concentration camp Mauthausen. A part of us was driven further from there to Guenskirchen shortly before the arrival of the Russian army, and liberation by American soldiers reached me there on the 4 th of May 1945. Zwangsarbeit und Todesmarsch von der russischen Front bis Mauthausen Als der Zweite Weltkrieg ausbrach, war ich ein junger Apotheker in der ober - ungarischen Kleinstadt Losonc. Wie alle oberungarischen Provinzstaedte hatte auch Losonc eine starke juedische Gemeinde. Wenngleich selbst unverheiratet, hatte ich doch einen grossen Verwandtenkreis in Ober - Ungarn. Grosseltern, Onkel, Tanten, Cousins und Cousinen lebten in diesen Provinzgemeinden, in Losonc, in Miskolc, in Kaschau und den anderen S taedten. Wir sahen uns oft, wir kamen haeufig zusammen, wir lebten ein frohes, sorgenfreies Leben. Das aenderte sich bald nach Ausbruch des Krieges. Obwohl Ungarn zunaechst noch neutral blieb und erst 1941 in den Krieg eintrat, blieb doch das Leben der Bev oelkerung nicht unberuehrt und als erste bekamen die Juden die Haerten zu spueren. Zwar waren schon im Jahre 1938 sogenannte “Judengesetze” in Ungarn erlassen worden, doch beschraenkten sich diese im wesentlichen auf wirtschaftliches Gebiet und ihre Auswir kungen konnten meist noch pariert werden. Aber im Fruehjahr 1940 wurden zum ersten Male die juengeren maennlichen Juden (etwa von 20 bis 45 Jahren) zum sogenannten “Arbeitsdienst” eingerufen und von da an war es mit dem friedlichen Leben aus. Ich selbst ka m in dieser Zeit als Arbeitsdienstler zunaechst nach dem Staedtchen Tokaj, dessen Name durch seinen guten Wein weltberuehmt ist. Wir hatten dort alles andere als ein vergnuegliches Leben. Etwa 15000 juedische Arbeitsdienstler aus: allen moeglichen Teilen d es Landes waren dort zusammengezogen; teils waren sie in Holzbaracken, teils in der Pionierkaserne untergebracht, besser gesagt, unter menschenunwuerdigen Bedingungen zusammengepfercht. Sie mussten auf Stroh oder auf dem blossen Fussboden schlafen, die Ver pflegung war miserabel. Wer nicht von zu Hause Lebensmittelpakete erhielt, der hungerte buchstaeblich. Vom fruehen Morgen bis zum spaeten Abend wurden sie zur Arbeit angetrieben, wobei sich besonders die Pioniere als brutale Antreiber und Menschenschinder hervortaten. Die Arbeit bestand zum Teil aus Strassenausbesserung, Feldarbeit, Steineschleppen und Karrenschieben in einem Steinbruch und aehnlichem. Oft wurden die Leute aus reiner Lust an Quaelerei in Wind und Wetter von den Pionieren ins Freie getrieben und mit ganz sinnlosen Sachen beschaeftigt. Es kann keine Rede davon sein, dass irgendwelche wirklich produktive Arbeit geleistet wurde. Die ganze Aktion waf eine rein Juden - - 2 - feindliche Aktion, von der weder der Staat noch sonst irgend jemand den geringsten Nutzen hatte, dagegen auf der anderem Seite vom den betroffenen Juden eine grosse Zahl sich infolge der schlechten Behandlung und der schweren Strapazen chronische Krankheiten und Leiden zuzogen. Es war sozusagen die Generalprobe auf die grossen Verfolgungen, die spaeter stattfinden sollten. Im Herbst wurden die juedischen Arbeitsdienstler abgeruestet und wieder nach Hause geschickt; aber in den folgenden Jahren wiederholten sich die Einberufungen. Das Vorgehen war dabei ganz unregelmaessig. Waeh rend manche der Schicksalsgenossen in den folgenden zwei Jahren verschont blieben, wurden andere wieder im Jahre 1942 in besonderen Arbeitskompanien in die Ukraine geschickt, wo ein grösser Teil von ihnen durch Hunger, Kaelte und Entbehrungen umkam. Ich se lbst wurde mit erstaunlicher Regelmaessigkeit jedes Jahr fuer mehrere Monate eingezogen und dann wieder nach Hause geschickt. Die schwerste Leidenszeit aber begann im Jahre 1944. Am 19.Maerz 1944 besetzten deutsche Truppen das Land und eine von den Deutsch en vollkommen abhaengige Marionetten - Regierung wurde in Budapest eingesetzt. Sofort setzten die schwersten judenfeindlichen Aktionen ein, gegen die alles Bisherige nur ein Kinderspiel gewesen war. Ich selbst war in diesen Tagen in der suedungarischen Stadt Szeged, wo ich mich auf einen beruflichen Fortbildungskursus vorbereitete. Wir alle wurden von den Ereignissen vollkommen ueberrascht. Ich reiste schleunigst ueber Budapest, das einem aufgewuehlten Ameisenhaufen glich, nach Losonc zurueck, wo sich gleichf alls die Bevoelkerung - und vor allem die Juden - im Zustand groesster Panik befand. Es muss hier bemerkt werden dass sich in Losonc neben Ungarn und Juden eine sehr starke slowakische Minoritaet befand, die durchaus deutschfeindlich und nazifeindlich eing estellt war und sich auf die Befreiung durch die herannahenden Russen vorbereitete. Tatsaechlich brach einige Monate spaeter in dieser ganzen Gegend ein slowakischer Partisanenaufstand aus. Die Feindschaft zwischen den einzelnen Bevoelkerungsgruppen, die A nwesenheit deutscher Truppen, das allmaehliche Naeherruecken der Front - alles dies versetzte ganz Ober - Ungarn in einen Zustand aeusserster Spannung und Nervoesitaet. Im April setzten die Einberufungen zum Arbeitsdienst wieder ein - diesmal in weit groesse rem und breiterem Masstab als in den vorangegangenen Jahren. Es wurden so gut wie alle maennlichen Juden einberufen. Von der ganzen Gemeinde blieben nur - 3 - die Frauen, die Kinder und die Greise zurueck. Es zeichnete sich die Tendenz ab - was im uebrig en auch durch gleich lautende Meldungen aus den uebrigen Teilen des Landes bestaetigt wurde - die Maenner von den Familien zu trennen und die letzteren schutzlos ihrem Schicksal zu ueberliefern. Diesmal kam die Arbeitskompanie, zu der ich eingeteilt wurde, nicht nach Tokaj, sondern in die Gegend von Miskolc. Letzteres ist eine lebhafte Industriestadt und zugleich ein wichtiger Eisenbahnknotenpunkt. Wegen ihrer Bedeutung war die Stadt, die damals etwa 150.000 bis 200.000 Einwohner zaehlen mochte, von starken deutschen und ungarischen Truppeneinheiten besezt. Die Arbeitskompanien wurden in den kleineren Ortschaften rund um Miskolc, vor allem in Hejoecsaba und in Jolsva untergebracht und dort mit Strassenbau, Ausbesserungsarbeiten usw. beschaeftigt. Die Behandl ung und Verpflegung war womoeglich noch schlechter als in den vergangenen Jahren. Die bei den einzelnen Kompanien als sogenannter “Rahmem” eingeteilten