The next order came that everybody has to go, to move.
There was a brick factory outside the city,
and at the brick factory there were trains coming in, where they delivered things.
And there, we were going to be congregated.
And from there, we would be transported as families and go to work.
There were rumors spread by the Germans and by the Hungarian army,
that we would be relocated where we want to work, that we were going to have houses,
that they were going to take care of our families, that nothing will happen to us.
And we believed it - as least, we wanted to believe it.
The Hungarian policemen with their bayonets and other people were waiting for us,
and we started marching through the streets, toward the brick factory.
On the way, the population gathered. You could see the happiness in their faces.
Now, they have the houses of the Jews. Now, they have the furniture of the Jews. They were taunting us.
And on the way, we got hit, if somebody got stopped by the police.
We were kicked, spat at, cursed.
I remember the look of my mother each time. She only wanted to absorb.
She wished that any stick that fell on her children should fall on her.
She always put herself out. She should get the beating instead of us.
We marched with our great-grandfather. Can you imagine? An 86-year-old man.
We were supporting him, the great-grandchildren and the grandchildren, on the march.
We knew that, the next day, it was our turn.
Our house, part of our yard and our house, was the Ghetto, one of the ghettos,
and we had I don't know how many people living there.
And we knew the night before that they are coming.
So my mother collected us: my grandfather, my grandmother, my dad,
my aunt (the one that lives in London now), my sister, and I.
All the others were in labor camps.
I'm sorry.
And she says to my dad and to my sister, myself, and my aunt:
"I got poison from Dr. Weinberger. I want to administer it to Grandpa, Grandma, and myself.
You people are young, healthy, and strong, and you'll be able to live through whatever there is to live through".
We carried on. We didn't let her do it. Now we wished that we did, because she wouldn't have to go through...
Sorry.
So the next morning came. We were taken.
That was the first time we found out what it is to go five-by-five. Five people in a row. We had to line up.
And we placed my father and grandfather in the center,
because on the sides, the gendarmes with their whips were hitting everybody,
and we wanted to shield Dad and Grandpa, so they wouldn't get hurt. We told them to put their collars up.
And my grandfather, since I remember, didn't go by foot to the factory, always by car.
He walked. he had angina pectoris. My grandmother had diabetes and liver problems.
My mother had heart problems. We all walked.
We got there. I'll never forget it: my grandfather looks up to the big chimneys,
where the kilns for the bricks were, and he says:
"If I had known what this factory is going to be used for, I would never have established it".
These were his words in Hungarian.
I was a young, strong girl. I got myself a Red Cross band, and with that I was able to move around.
Before they put us on the cattle cars, they went through us, in the factory:
jewelry, money, anything made of gold, anything you had.
I remember Lou giving me...In those days, we had friendship rings. He got half, and I got half.
I didn't want them to have it. We had a big lake in the factory.
I managed to drop it into the lake. I'd rather the fish have it than the Germans.
Finally, we got through, and we got into these cattle cars. We were 80 people in one of those cattle cars,
young and old, together.
Our family was together. We got two barrels, smaller than barrels, for waste, human waste.
And we were told to take food for three days.
But water was not enough, so, whenever...
So we all got into the wagons, I mean, the cattle cars. Of course, we didn't know where we were going.
We were squeezed together. There was hardly any air, because the gate was closed,
and there were two little windows on each side, covered with barbed wire, and there was very little air.