Vera Federman Full Testimony

five or six count okay you can put that down and you can begin any time you like um you can say your name if you like you can put that away you don't have to mess with that could just put it on the floor in front of you okay okay my name is Veera Federman and I was born in Debrecen Hungary where I grew up and went to school and went to Jewish elementary school and then from there my dad decided I should go to a given I assumed there was no Jewish girls gymnasium so I went to a Protestant gymnasium from which I graduated and that was in 1942 and two years later in 1944 Hungary was the last country in Europe that was occupied by by Nazi Germany and at first we were thinking that they only came in because the Soviet armies were very close to the Hungarian border and that people were not as objects the Jews there were about 800,000 Jews in Hungary at the time and the Hungarian government was not really of the same horrible you know caliber as the Nazi government in fact in 1943 the McClure's Kali who was the prime minister tried to have some secret meetings with the Allies to to us to see how they can extricate themselves out of the war but Hitler got wind of it and that that's how the to be found that out much later that's how the occupation took place on march 19th 9 1944 and as I said at first we did expect anything really bad because we never heard as to what what happened to the Jews of Poland or France or or the other or Russia we didn't that was big secrecy but in a very few days we found out that's that something is beginning and by April 5th of 44 we had to wear the yellow star we couldn't go out on the street without fixing it not on an auto garment and not more than two weeks later there was feet of feverish activity to set up a ghetto and I put a brick wall around it and then me of some sometimes in May we were ordered to move in there and leave all of our possessions behind with the exception of a few things you know I bad and or this or that and we were in the ghetto or another perhaps few weeks and one day German trucks showed up and they ordered the people into the trucks and then they took us outside the city to a brick factory that was located at a single railroad track we of course still didn't know what was going to happen to us and we were there for quite a long time I would say a good three weeks because we found out about the Normandy invasion there and and our hopes were just we were we thought you know we maybe not have to go wherever they were going to take us well the first transport left and my father was very very against being on it the second transport left about about 40 or 45 wagon you know these animal wagons cattle cars and of course the the third one he couldn't he had to go on the third one and whatever little possessions we had we went there we started going up and my father saw that it was was covered with animal litter and was smelly and bad so he decided to start to clean it up which he did and an older sister of a friend of mine Zhu Jie who had worked in a Jewish Hospital in Budapest was a very clever girl she was already a widow which I'm not going to go into it my father looked at her and says Zhu Zhi watch out for my little girl now I don't know what my father do or what he didn't know but that's that's what he told her so we were we were in the cattle car and we didn't know where at all where we were going and there were quite a few foolish Doosan there who had escaped Poland to Hungary and they had false papers but they were caught and they were there and when they noticed that we were going north possibly towards the Polish border they slit their wrists and blood was just gushing all over the place and everybody was crying there a doctor a doctor there was one doctor with his wife he was a man probably in his 50s or close to 60 and it seemed like they have both lost their mind because he was whistling whispering it's very sweetly to his wife saying darling we're gonna arrive to Venice pretty soon so the train crossed the Polish border and at the end of three days I turned 20 on a cattle car and at the end of three days or so we arrived somewhere at dawn and we looked out and we saw lights you know and we're on there for for several hours finally they opened the the doors and they told us to get down and I looked across and I saw a group of men who were being beaten by sticks you know we're on their heads and shoulders and I said to my dad please dad let me kiss you good-bye now and I didn't want to see him beaten and I said I will see you later and he disappeared you know across and my mother and I followed the women's line that was going in a direction and we stopped at a German guard garden I'm some office or something and without a word you know he pointed my mother to the left and me to the right well you know I had no idea what what's on the left or what's on the right but I didn't want my mother to go somewhere where I couldn't go with her I didn't want her to be alone so I said very quickly and I spoke good German I said please I want to go with my mother I'm only 13 years old without even knowing that 13 and 14 was the was that was a lot of the age where they certainly went there with their mothers but he shook his head what he didn't even shake his head it's just pointed me and I went and I saw other young girls then everybody was sobbing and we went in front of it what later turned out to be a bathhouse and we waited there for hours and finally they we went in and they told us to to drop our clothing on the floor and there was a shower for a few seconds and then they threw some bragger clothing to us and that was the first day in Auschwitz and they took us to we this group I actually got to go with my friends Vera and Suzie Suzie who was who was told by my father to look out for me I was with her and we were we went into a barrack she found out was like barrack 7 and barrack 6 was a hospital Barret it was called I don't know when the German it was a hospital Barret but it wasn't that parrot where where people were taking care of because they didn't even have an aspirin there but the women came down with horrible diarrhea and they were put in there and they either neither survived or they didn't and then they were sent to the gas chambers and the food was so bad you know we couldn't eat it we actually threw it honey was so bad in the morning we had some black liquid we drank that and then for lunch there was some kind of soup that I said be threw away and at dinner time that was thought it was sawdust filled bread that was distributed for fried people and there was a piece of margarine that was our daily daily quota our food you know pretty soon everybody was sick and with diarrhea and you couldn't go into that oh by the way there were no toilet there were no doctrine 7 at all there were buckets between the barracks and you had to really relieve yourself that way and pretty soon there was a horrible outbreak of scarlet fever and we saw the girls and I didn't catch it but many many of them did and they took them in this building that was supposed to be the hospital building then and they was too later we were watching them and the trucks pulled out and the girls were chased naked already up on their trucks and it was like sardines one on top of the other and I still didn't believe it but then you know they were taking them to the gas chambers and this this went on and about we were there about six weeks then and one night you know the Steuben Dienst that somebody who takes care of the rooms there I mean some kind of a title we heard German crying children crying in the next glider which was very close to us actually and they were crying in German fact our mood terrible gates - where are you going with and and assuming these sets sit up and maybe it'll be our turn next so next morning we found out that 4200 German gypsies were cremated were gassed and cremated that night and then the next day or two they chose a barrack into a what was it a infectious-disease barrack they didn't kill the girls who had scarlet fever but put him in there and my cousin gave Sidney's wife came up with scarlet fever and that that's where she was taken and everybody always asked for Susie for help and she was crying crying Susie Susie Judy actually it was her Hungarian name send me some water I'm dying and Susie's found some kind of a broken vessel and she actually sent her some water well in a few days I don't know maybe there was they were beginning to take women somewhere to go to work and quite a few transports I were gone because we didn't know where and one day they lined us up you know and we had to go past manually naked with our shoes in our hand and my Susie and her sister looked to be twins to him and he was examining them making them raise their arms and when were you born this you know all that and well I'm a little bit ahead of myself because I came first and he said to me you won't do you're too thin go that way which was left and I didn't go all the way there I was watching Seussian and her sister what was going to happen and they let him go you know to the line where was a good line and then I came back and he said to me I already told you you're too thin you won't do get out get out and I said oh but I'm very I spoke German very well I said but I am very strong which just was kind of ridiculous to say I said I'm very strong and I can work go and then a German woman was standing next to him she was a guard to me you know to everybody she looked like a goddess because she had beautiful hair and wear our hair was gone you know that they shaved our heads and our whole bodies and she was there and she should lead to him and she said that's decline again and he did he did and I joined that group and during the night there was a huge building and everybody thought that it was a trauma to that it was a gas chamber but I don't know and they were still going around and women who were just too thin or just to what so they were eliminated and I was afraid that they would eliminate me but no next next day they gave us some bread and jam or something work butter not but her but margarine and they loaded us up into a into an open cattle car there were 1000 young girls in there and Susie Andrea and I were just like this together and we travelled for three days and three nights and we arrived into western Germany and we got off the train and they made us walk through the woods it was dark and I was scared and I said to Susie's sister what were you supposed they're taking are they going to kill us here and she says don't be silly they could have killed you in Auschwitz it's not funny so we walked and after a few miles we arrived to a camp I can't and we found out I mean I don't know if was that time but a little later that it was emptied of French prisoners of war so it was it was more like a normal camp you know and as we got into unto the entrance all this huge crowd of women Susie says wait you wait right here girls and I'm going to go and see if he can go work in the kitchen we said pleased go don't leave us now please just stay right and this is a crazy thought don't worry just stay so she left about half an hour maybe 20 minutes later she comes back and she says well we're going to be cutoff Australians potato peelers I mean this was something I mean really and by God you know she she took care of us because her father my father that has asked her to take care of my little girl and there was a special barrack for the for the car TOEFL showering and the potato peeling room was off there and actually I mean we were still sick with diarrhea and night in and night out you know there was a pilgrimage to the there was actually a a place to to go kind of a decent place to go to the bathroom and nobody bothered us so we were in the car TOEFL Schaller in kitchen and Suzy gave each of us two or three potatoes a day and we looked pretty good pretty quickly and unfortunately I was thrown out of the kitchen and I was there and came in and said douched at Cayuga her house which means you start strong youth out so I went in the I went in the it was a munitions factory it was a munitions factory and the job was they they were little railroad the railroad tracks and treatment trains you know and you had to take off the steel during hot they were feeling something with explosives and I was doing that it was bloody job for 12 hours and pretty soon I got lucky I was transferred I was transferred to a place where they were they had these big mine you know or something from the sea that they were recycling copper and whatever so I had chisel and to to to take apart the this what is it was it anyway didn't recycle the copper from it and this was done you know also for twelve hours a day and the Osirian who was watching us said to a girl next to me and says I'm putting you in charge I have to leave for about fifteen minutes you see to it that everybody works so when she left I put down the chisel and the hammer I folded my arm and the girl says I'm in charge now you go to work I said you're crazy I don't have to work what are you thinking so I'm gonna tell on you I said no you want well she did and the woman I'm saying it was freakin behind me you know come in and lo slows and I broke one of my fingers wasn't a big deal but I got to go back to the camp and they put some they put some one it's up two pieces of wood tied it up now this was already pretty quickly at the end of it wasn't like at the end of February of 45 and by the way there was a hop Chartier there who was ahead of the camp and he was an older man and he did not lose but one person who was doing some kind of gas meter working with a gas mask so he still had 999 people and I have to say this he was a very decent man the thing is we for for many years how many years now I'm still wondering did he see the handwriting on the wall or was he really decent I don't know but he was so that can you say so one day you know they didn't even have sight cars or any trucks or anything one day become it I was healed and I was coming back from the factory and I see that all kinds of peasant carts are signed out lined up there and the the hop Schaffer is out there and he says where we're gonna go now so we marched you know all night long was about 30 kilometers and we went through German little towns and villages and everybody opened the window and looked out and through and every even met the German of the the German part of a German army who were singing the war is over the war is over and they were throwing chocolates to us I never caught one harder however so during the day we didn't watch and the next day we marched more I remember us was pretty like we used those wooden shoes and my feet were all bloodied but and frankly I didn't think we were ever gonna get rid of them you know I I didn't I thought it was gonna be prisoners forever and ever so the second time second night of marching in the morning I see the other half charge for air coming around and talking to us and he says I'm going I'm not gonna leave I'm gonna leave you here but if you want to come with us you can anyway so they left and we were trying to figure out where to hide because there were other Germans there one of them even fooled his gun I was going to shoot me but she changed his mind and we went in the woods to sleep and it was March it was very cold and wet so he came he came out in the morning and look the thousand women you know split up a naturally you don't stay together and there was we were like 15 of us together and we slept in a hay rack and then here and there and finally next morning it's clear there's no Germans and we were so hungry we haven't eaten for heaven knows how many days so we were marching towards a little village and we arrived there and 15 hours or so we knock on the door and the German woman opens the door and we say very nicely we haven't eaten could you please give us something to eat so she went in and you know this beautiful peasant bread she cut nice pieces of peasant bread put some light on it and handed it to us but most of the women the girls threw up ran out because it was - it flies they couldn't eat they didn't them that kind of thing so I didn't however I ate it and I was happy so the woman is standing has a baby I'm standing by the window and she's such muttering ah the amerikanische pan church pizza the American can tank or and we run to the window and by God there are the Americans so we ran out and he's happy to see us he has seen more of us and he says I would like to give you something to eat but I really only have a few I don't know what it was and he threw a few things out I never caught anything I was a bad catch and there we were in this village was called sone time and a lot of American troops were going through because the war wasn't over yet was end of march and we we slept in a schoolroom and Suzy and I were Suzy was still very close she said why don't we go and see our friends they must be in some other village so she goes to the Burgermeister you know that's the mayor and she says to him we got to have a horse and a buggy because we got to go to this village okay can you right drive it I said yeah I can my grandfather's farm I always did so there is the horse and buggy and I'm driving I'm going out to the to the sort of freeway you know and there's the American army coming and the horse is scared to death it goes takes off in the fields and overturns the buggy and here we are standing anyhow and we met a man comes over pretty soon and it was one of the French prisoners of war who was also liberated and he takes us back in there so there were American troops going by and they heard that there were girls here you know Jewish girls that they need some help so one of there was a Jewish captain and he went to the Burgermeister ordered him to - to give us a the house they had Nazis house we stayed there for quite a while and then we decided to go back to go back home shall I tell you how I got the scholarship we went we decided where we were in that house and then we decided that we want to go back home to Hungary to see who is still alive well it just it was you have to wait we were involved we waited three weeks and all transportation we were in many many under Danube you know woman and passed out and many other towns finally we get to we get a train and we go up to to Czechoslovakia the Czech Republic to to Bruno and he sees all these nice young girls and he says you know he said we just got rid of the Germans and and we would like you to establish here in Czechoslovakia and we said what we have to go home and see who is alive so we left you know we left on the train and we arrived to Budapest and we get on the streetcar and we said we'd the man the Hungarian conductor says but you have to pay I said well we just got here we don't have any money yeah well everybody just got here and they don't have money so Suzie it looks around and sees a couple of Russian officers sitting there so he goes out she goes out there and tries to explain to them well here they got off and you know very strict face so we didn't need to pay well we didn't find anybody at home you know everybody was gone so soon as he decided that we'll go back to Germany and try to get to the United States well we got some paper you know they didn't let you out of the country at that time when we got some papers that we were we were nurses who are looking for displaced persons who are still left in Germany in Austria and we had this beautiful papers with photographs and it was in Russian in German in Hungarian we get on the train and it's filled with Russian soldiers and his dark and I had a duffel bag filled with clothing and it's by my feet and the susi system your three of us and pretty soon I said Susie somebody stole my bag Susie strike some matches she goes around she finds it and she's shaking her hand at the other man honest to god he was scared of her we arrived to Vienna and from Vienna we decided to go to Germany but at that time there were already four I mean there was French occupation British occupation Russian is an American and you couldn't go through from one from American zone at any rate we took the train and and the MPS invaded the train and said where you going we're going to Germany why you can't you're going to climb I mean will they took us to a camp thanks thanks a lot they took us to a horrid camp and so somebody says we should walk around and see who is in that that barrack way back there so we go to the barrack and you know who was very back there they were they were Nazis they were German officers and they locked us out with with the same bunch so some of us who were not wasn't me some of us who were pretty knowledgeable as to what to do they said we're gonna go on a hunger strike and we'll see what happens so we refused the food for about three days and on the fourth day that was a an American already in Linz was the American Joint Distribution Committee they were the ones who took the those who were liberated and alive and helped them so this gentleman comes and he says he says who's who can speaking can somebody speak English so I raise my hand I speak English he said oh good you're fat you're hired already so I was working in the land house a very fancy place well a general I don't know Mark Clark's office was and and since I spoke English very well I could do the correspondence and pretty soon they transferred me to immigration oh and also we got papers from the Hillel foundation in Chicago saying that we should find a hundred young people had high school diplomas and they can find them places and at different universities well we couldn't find anything like a hundred because if you were a Polish Jew you never graduated so we found some Hungarians and we were transferred to Stuttgart and for Stuttgart oh I found out that I was admitted admitted to the University of Washington so we took the that was the SS variant either from Bremerhaven and we arrived to - to New York in about 14 days it was the worst winter in early 1948 we couldn't even see the Statue of Liberty but my happy life began I I traveled marca and I buy cousin and I both through acceptor and we travel to to wash it to the University of Washington but she wasn't one for the sorority and I was in the other Jewish sorority those pictures well I want to show you this home I want to show these two pictures one of them is as a Jewish elementary school in Debrecen that has about 62 students in it and this the teacher I remember her as a blessing after I'm almost 85 years old but I still remember her as a very best teacher I ever had I mean school was just something that we have absolutely adored everybody learned and she was our teacher for four years from the first second and fourth grades and then my dad my father who was in charge of my education decided that I should go to this Protestant in nauseum and that's where I went and this other picture as my father here this was in 1941 42 as a New Year's Eve party and you see the confetti and I'm here and all these kids all these young people most of the boys did not survive and I can tell you that and of course our mothers and fathers didn't survive but one two three girls survived from this group in fact we're because my cousin and I live on Mercer Island but this this little blonde she lived in Budapest and she stayed that she was actually she never went to Auschwitz she went on the first transport to Vienna and her whole family survived there well every everything I say is the absolute truth when it's good I'm telling you and it's bad like I tell you

Channel: Holocaust Center for Humanity

Views: 5,514

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Id: kGgXE86TgAc

Length: 38min 5sec (2285 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 03 2018