Memoirs

Frederick Raymes and Menachem Mayer

Sabina Rachel Kałowska

Ilse Kaufmann and Helena Pardo

Fanny Bienenfeld Lust

Ari Livne

Hani Kedar-Kehat

Ben Z. Redner

Beni Virtzberg

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.

Uri Chanoch | Judith Chanoch

Tomáš Radil, Academic Editor: Bella Guterman

It is impossible to forget Auschwitz-Birkenau. It is useful to remember the basic ethical principles that allowed individuals to retain their humanity even in conditions that were barely human. Born in the Slovakian capital Bratislava, Tomáš Radil grew up in Párkány (Štúrovo), a small border town on the Danube that became part of Hungary in 1938. When the Wehrmacht occupied the country in mid-March 1944, the tide of war had long turned against Germany. Despite the precarious military situation on all fronts, the Nazis did not abandon their genocidal plans. Within eight weeks, hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where most of them were murdered immediately after arrival.

Robert Savosnick | As told to Hans Melien