A Boy from Buština: A Son. A Survivor. A Witness.

Andrew Burian

A sheltered boy from the small town of Buština (then Czechoslovakia, now Ukraine), Andrew had a beautiful carefree childhood. At the age of thirteen, his world was shattered. Andrew’s wartime odyssey began with deportation from his hometown to Mateszalka ghetto in Hungary. From there, Andrew and his family were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he survived countless selections and near death experiences. In the freezing winter of 1945, he survived the infamous “death march” evacuation of Auschwitz-Birkenau and was loaded into a cattle car for the long journey to the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. Andrew survived another death-march to the Gunskirchen concentration camp from which he was ultimately liberated by the U.S. army. Andrew’s journey took him through Hungary, Poland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, England and, finally, the USA where he made a new life.