Interview from a Hungarian archive.

In my birthplace and permanent residence, Taracköz (Teresva)—a village in the Carpathian region near Huszt—the Jewish population numbered 750. They were mostly poor people who eked out a meager living through trade or craftsmanship. The Hungarian government’s ghetto ordinance was enforced in our village on April 29, 1944: on that day, I, too, was taken with my family—which consisted of my parents, four brothers, and one sister—to the Mateszalka ghetto, where, in addition to the Jewish residents of that small town, a portion of the Jewish population of the Carpathian Basin had also been concentrated. Two weeks later, on May 15, we were deported to Auschwitz, where we arrived three days later. Immediately upon arrival in Auschwitz, I was separated from my family, and I have not heard from them since. It was only after my return here to Budapest that I heard that my father is supposedly at home, but this is merely a rumor that I have not yet been able to verify.

I didn’t have to work in Auschwitz, even though I had been deemed fit for work. This leniency struck me as suspicious, and so I feared that during the next selection—or one of the following ones—I would be declared unfit for work and then gassed. That was the fate of many unfortunate souls. I was lucky a few times, but finally—I had already been in Auschwitz for two and a half months—I fell into the trap: apparently, I had become so emaciated as a result of starvation and mistreatment that I was now ripe for the gas chamber. At the last moment, however, things turned out differently: it was announced that 700 young girls had to be selected for urgent work and were to be sent away from Auschwitz that very same day. I was among the seven hundred, while approximately 3,000 girls and women who had been deemed unfit for work during this selection were led away. I do not know what became of them. I only know that among those unfortunate souls were twenty young girls from my home village, who were never seen again. In contrast, all my fellow villagers who were on the labor transport with me returned safely, just as I did.

The transport of 700 of us came from Auschwitz to Geislingen, where we were put to work in an ammunition factory. We worked day and night shifts, and the work was very hard. At first, we were compensated with food that was reasonably sufficient, but later it became less and less and of poorer quality with each passing day, until finally leaves were boiled in water and this stuff was served to us as “soup.” That was our daily ration, from which we were supposed to draw strength for the hard work in the munitions factory.

The treatment we received from the SS men and women supervising us was more than strict—it was cruel. We were frequently severely beaten for no reason at all and otherwise tormented in every conceivable way. We were actually glad when we were marched from the camp to the factory for work, because we were treated decently there—at least as far as the workers were concerned, who even secretly slipped us food from time to time. We had to eat it immediately, because if even a single potato was found on any of us, the person in question would be beaten until they bled. French and Italian prisoners of war also worked in the factory; they were all very kind to us and, whenever the slightest opportunity arose, would slip us something to eat.
After I had worked in Geislingen for a little over eight months, the front came so close that we were moved on—to Allach. But after just two weeks, the front had already closed in on Allach as well, so we were loaded back onto the train cars and spent eight days traveling back and forth, unable to stay anywhere because of the proximity of the front. Finally, we arrived in Landsberg. But we didn’t get off the train there either, since no one knew where to take us. So we remained in the train cars until, two days later, the Americans marched into Landsberg and liberated us. The escort—SS men from Hungary, all of whom spoke fluent Hungarian—surrendered to the American troops, led by the Hauptsturmführer.

Note: This interview must have been conducted in Hungary shortly after the end of the war. It comes from a Hungarian archive.

According to the transport list, Rella Resmovics was born on July 13, 1925.