Essay by Janos Strauss

My name is Janos Strauss. I was born in 1928 in Nyritass, Hungary and moved to Budapest, Hungary in 1938. In 1944,1 was notified to report to the district headquarters along with many other Jewish boys. We were told we would be transported to a farm where all of us would work. We were treated quite well having three meals a day. A few weeks into our stay at the farm we were all gathered noticing two Gendarme men ordering us to line up. These men had bayonnets at the end of their rifles and we were all ordered to march to the town of Monor. When we arrived in the town , we were ushered into a school, and one by one we were called up to the desk and questioned. If an incorrect answer was given, we got slapped and kicked. We were screamed at and called dirty Jews. Our next stop was to be the ghetto filled with the Jews of Manor. The ghetto was a horrible sight, an open field, no shelter and only one outhouse. The first night there we were hit by a thunderstorm. The next morning large puddles were everywhere and people were forced to urinate and defecate wherever . Because of the rain all of the human waste was washed to the lower grounds creating horrendous sights and smells and mixing with the peoples belongings. After a few weeks, we were ordered to walk out of the ghetto, with the gendarmes accompanying us. We arrived at the railroad station, where there was a long line of cattle cars waiting for us. There was barbed wire on the top and sides of the cars. People started to scream sensing the horror which was to follow. We were surrounded by SS guards and snarling dogs and 80 people were forced into each cattle car. Inside each car were only two pails of water and a bucket for human waste. We were warned that when we arrived at our destination if the prisoner count was off we would all be shot. It was suffocatingly hot inside the car, people were fainting, no place to move. By the next morning, the waste bucket over flowed with human waste and the smell was horrendous. Our eyes were burning and the water was almost empty. At the border, the Hungarian guards were dismissed and the SS guards took over the train. By this time it was very quiet in the car. One woman was rocking her dead mother in her arms. We traveled through Poland and stopped at the railroad station in Krakow. The guards got off the train and suddenly our door slid open and a man was ordered to get off to fill the water pail. I jumped off with two pails and instantly I got swiped with his cane, but I ran to the water spouts and filled the pails and put my head under the spout to drink . All this time I was being whipped, but did not care. Once again the train started on its way and we arrived at the Auschwitz rail station. Later that night we moved backwards and arrived at a blindingly lit Birkenau. I was on the rain for four days. I survived Birkenau and was then moved to Mulhdorf concentration camp. I was then transported to the Tyrolean mountains to be machine gunned. We were fortunate, the locomotive ran out of fuel and in May 1945 American troops liberated us. I immigrated to the USA in June 1951.