Oral History Interview with Debora Neudorfer

Lily Maor, née Krausz, was born into a middle class, not very religious family in Gyoer-Raab, Hungary, a town located close to the main road between Vienna and Budapest. Lily shares details about pre-war life and that the Jews were fully integrated into the community. She describes German troops entering in March of 1944 ostensibly to help Hungary. She describes the changes under German Occupation, being forced to wear a yellow star, limitations to her father’s business and being forced to the Sighet Ghetto in June 1944, a poor town which already had overcrowded living conditions. They were allowed to take only what they could carry and she describes leaving many things behind. Lily also describes the sense of confusion that the Germans created before they deported the Jews to Auschwitz, making them move from one part of the ghetto to another, humiliating body searches, being told that they were going to a work camp, the rabbis suffering shaving and humiliation because they called a prayer service. Lily mentions the kindness of one gendarme who helped her evade a body search and also mentions that the local Priest offered some girls to come work on his farm to avoid deportation. They declined because they wanted to stay with their families.

Lily describes being loaded into cattle cars on June 11, which took them to Auschwitz. Lily gives detailed description of the arrival, selection, starvation and depravation at the camp. Her mother and nine year old brother perished there. Lily vividly recalls the cruelty of Kapos and guards, and of Dr. Mengele, who came every few days to observe the selections. She also describes that they were under Hungarian supervision until the border and they were let off the train to use the facilities and were warned by some children to run away.

In Auschwitz, Lily quickly realized that to survive she had to be able to work. She was among 500 Hungarian women chosen to go to Bremen to remove medical, dental and other equipment from the ruins. They were moved to Oberheide, where Lily worked in the cement factory. As the Allies came closer, they were moved to Delmhorst, 20 kilometers from Bremen. From there the women were taken in open trains or were made to walk to Bergen-Belsen.

Lily was liberated on April 15, 1945 by British troops and recalls that on the day of liberation people died because they did not know how to eat the food that had been given to them. She remained in Bergen-Belsen for a short time. When she learned that no one in her immediate family had survived, she moved to Israel. She lived there for a number of years, then emigrated to the United States.

Lily adds comments on Dr. Kastner and his involvement in efforts to rescue the Jews of Hungary. Nora Levin then briefly explains details of the negotiations.

See also her 1988 interview with Sylvia Brockmon.1

Anna Czerwinski, nee Estera Pomrok, was born in 1906 in Radom, Poland into a wealthy, kosher family. She attended public school and worked briefly in a Hashomer Hatzair farm in Lublin. In 19301 she married Lucien Finkielsztein, an assimilated Jew who changed his name to Czerwinski and served in the Polish Army. They lived in Warsaw for a time, but then prompted by her husband, she relocated to a small town, Opole Lubelskie, where it would be safer. Anna and their two children passed as Catholics, hiding in Opole Lubelskie with Polish friends whom she paid. Her daughter was sheltered in a convent until the nuns discovered her Jewish identity and abandoned the child. Many close encounters are related.

In 1944, the family fled to Falenica, where Russian soldiers helped them. Postwar, Anna regained her mother’s store in Lublin and her husband prospered in business in Reichenbach Niederschlesien. In 1950, continuing antisemitism prompted their departure from Europe. After two years in Israel and travel to France and Brazil, the Polish quota permitted their emigration to the United States in 1958.

Also see her 1979 interview in Polish, 1 tape.