Protocol Nr. 1617

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Name: S. M.
Gender: male
Place of birth: Igló
Date of birth: 1885
Place of residence: Kispest
Occupation: pharmacist, owner of a drugstore
Ghetto: Kispest
Camps: Auschwitz, Dachau, Mettenheim


The person in question has given us the following information: 3,500 Jews lived in Kispest. Most of them were physicians, lawyers and shopkeepers, with a smaller number of physical workers among them. I owned a drugstore, which allowed us to lead an easy life. I was the director of the Kispest office of the National Rescue League, which also provided an income high enough. The Germans entered on 19th March 1944. Dr. József Molnár executed the antisemitic decrees, on orders of László Endre. It was due to Molnár that Kispest was the last of all places near Budapest where a ghetto was made. They marked out some streets to form a ghetto from them. Compared to the other ghettos the conditions were relatively comfortable there. Nobody guarded the ghetto. We had the possibility to look after our work till the last moment. Everybody could go shopping, so we bought food for our households ourselves. The deportation was carried out by gendarmes. One night they woke us up at 11 o’clock, they treated us brutally and than locked us up in our rooms and stood on guard all night long. At 6 o’clock we marched to the train station. After being entrained we were taken to a collection camp in Monor. That was one of the worst places. We were cold and wet and spent all the time in the open air. There were no washing facilities. It was difficult to get food, because the place was extremely overcrowded. Approximately 12,000-15,000 people were there, including those 3,500 from Kispest. They took there people even from Jászság. These 15,000 Jews were deported to Auschwitz in two transports. Generally 80-90 people were squeezed in a cattle car. They gave us nothing to eat or drink. Many of the older people died already on the way. We suffered the most from the lack of water, while the gendarmes were continuously searching for valuables during the journey. They robbed us mostly of our money. We arrived in Auschwitz at 3 o’clock in the morning on 20th July. There they separated me from my wife, who was sent to the left side during the selection. After a disinfection process I was put into block 13. On 30th July they took us with a labour force transport to Dachau-Mettenheim by train. There I got into a sick room as a medical orderly, and from there I went to work at the central medical centre in Schwindegg every day. This centre supplied the German army with medicine. I was lucky with my position. I was well provisioned and I was treated well at my workplace. During the great bombings I went to Mühldorf, where I was to give first aid. A large number of Jews worked there in those days. 1,000 people went to clean the railway station every day. It is very sad that 300 Jews died and the same number got injured during those two weeks. 6 days before the liberation they entrained us and wanted to transport us towards Innsbruck. They wanted to drag us to a concentration camp, but our leader, who was an outstanding SS Obersturmführer, commanded the train forwards and backwards all the time and finally passed it to the Americans. Finally, on 6th May the Americans liberated us in Tutzing. I went back to Schwindegg on foot. As far as I know, there are still about 6,000 deported Hungarian Jews, men and women, in Feldafing.
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