Protocol Nr. 137
Name: S. E.
Gender: female
Place of birth: Munkács
Date of birth: 1910
Place of residence: Munkács
Occupation: housewife
Concentration: Munkács ghetto
Camps: Auschwitz, Lipstadt
Gender: female
Place of birth: Munkács
Date of birth: 1910
Place of residence: Munkács
Occupation: housewife
Concentration: Munkács ghetto
Camps: Auschwitz, Lipstadt
The person in question has given us the following information: In general, Jews lived well in Munkács, and they had no financial problems. My brothers and sisters sustained me and we did not lack anything. In the middle of May 1944, they took us into the ghetto. We lived in constant terror because gendarmes and Germans kept coming and going, and plundering. We were still at home when Hungarians and Germans searched our flat and people were regularly beaten up and we heard shootings. Later, they went to the temple, where they found five people hidden and they right away shot them to death. Closing people in the ghetto was managed by Lieutenant Colonel Serlei. Gendarmes escorted us into the ghetto. There were also gendarmes who guarded the ghetto from the outside, while Jews kept order inside. We stayed 29 of us in a room and slept on the floor, which shows how we lived here. It was not easy to get a hold of food. Women did not need to go out to work – only men. Soon they entrained us. There were 80 people in our freight car and we got no water. Germans took over for the Hungarians in Kassa, from where they took us directly to Auschwitz. When we arrived, they led us into the baths, where they grabbed everything we had, even our clothes, and we remained naked until they cut our hair. Later, they gave us a piece of rag to put on, but we could not cover our heads although it was pouring with rain. After the bath, they marched us into Camp C. There were 1,000 people in a block. Our rations became less and less day by day, and we starved a lot. The woman block leader kept beating us. Once, she gave such a blow to a person that she collapsed. We did not work in Auschwitz, we only drew and carried water all day long. At selections they looked for mangy, thin and weak people, and Dr Mengele took these people to the crematorium. Everyone knew what was going to happen to the people Dr Mengele selected. I saw that fire was burning in the crematorium everyday; these lights were awful. A black truck took the old and the sick away, and they burnt people everyday. Mortality was around 100 daily. These people died from natural death, if starving to death, freezing to death, etc. can be called natural. Twins had to report because they had to give blood for the purpose of different experiments. I also know of a woman prone to gaining weight. She was fattened in an unnatural way and they made experiments on her, too. If someone gave birth, the child was immediately taken away and this way she had a chance to survive. Living people were always carried into the crematorium naked, together with dead bodies. The Russians liberated us the 23rd of April 1945, and then we had a good life. We got clothes and food. These were my own experiences.