Essay, Journey to Hell and Back, by Rudy Horst

JOURNEY TO HELL AND BACK MY STORY BY RUDY HORST I lived 15 of my 16 years in Kolojvar, a very nice city in Hungary with a large Jewish population. Hungary allied itself with Germany and in February 1944, the Germans arrived in Kolojvar. In 1943, the Hungarian Army picked me up and put me in a forced labor camp until 1944 when the S.S. Elite unit of the German Army hauled me back to Kolojvar and threw me into the ghetto that was established in the brickyard factory. My whole family was displaced from our home by the Hungarian civilians who became stooges for the Germans, some of them were friends of my family and more than happy to help the Germans take our house and possessions. From the ghetto, we were all transported in jammed to over capacity box cars intended for cattle and taken to Aushwitz, in southwestern Poland and notorious as an extermination center, where the fate of our lives as to who would live or die was decided. I was assigned to a transit barracks where I worked with a group of other people who were called the Canada Commando, which I never understood because all we ever did was separate the belongings that remained in the box cars; gold in one bin, clothing in another bin, shoes in another and all currencies in another. Some in the group who were working in the Commando were called heroes, because they were sabotaging the Germans by putting the gold on the railroad tracks so the trains running on the tracks would bury the gold in the gravel. The gold was needed by the Germans to support the war effort. They also burned the dollars and other currencies while boiling water for tea. After working for a week in this Commando, I was transported to Warsaw, Poland to the ghetto where the Polish Jews bravely fought the German Army in an uprising. In July of 1944, the Russians were very close to Warsaw and so the first Death March began July 27, 1944, when the camp on Gesia Street 2 in Warsaw was evacuated. The camp was in the ruins of the Warsaw part of the Majdanek Camp. The camp held approximately 4,500 Jews. Most of the Jews were from Hungary and Greece, and also some German and Polish Jews. I don't know exactly how many of us began the march, because there were a few hundred left in the barracks who were too sick to march and they were left in the camp. Later we heard that they were all killed. We started marching without any food or water in the direction of a town called Kutno, approximately 135 kilometers or 85 miles away. Anyone whose strength gave away was shot on the spot. One night we stopped in a field, and remembering working on a farm in my earlier days in life, I decided to use my spoon and started digging a hole in the ground. After half an hour or so and digging down about 20" deep, I hit water. It was dirty, however, it tasted like sweet honey for I was so thirsty. We immediately starting spreading the news and by morning the whole field was full of water holes. Over a thousand of us were killed by the time we arrived in Kutno. They loaded us into box cars and the train started for Dachau near Munich, Germany. We arrived at Dachau early in August of 1944. I cannot remember the exact date. There were less than 2,000 who 3 survived this march. On August 15,1 was transported to Muldorf, another camp outside of Munich. The work was very hard. We had to carry 50 kilograms (110 lbs.) cement bags up steps made out of wood that ran uphill. There the cement was mixed with water and poured through wire mesh at the top of the hill to camouflage hangars built into the hill where the Germans were trying to hide their planes from the American Air Force. I was in this camp at Muldorf until the war was over and the American Army liberated us. During the liberation, we were herded into trains as the Germans were trying to transport us to the Bavarian Alps for liquidation. Fortunately, we were liberated before the trains left the station. I came to the USA in 1948, married an American and have 2 children and 2 grandchildren. At the present I am searching for survivors of the Death March from Warsaw to Dachau. So far I have located 2 survivors in Los Angeles. I presently live in Las Vegas, Nevada, and I am still searching for survivors of the Death March. 4 We, the survivors, have an organization called the Holocaust Survivors' Group. Some of the survivors are invited to speak in colleges, high schools and elementary schools to tell young people about the Holocaust that happened before they were born. All of the survivors will never forget the horror of this great tragedy. We live in pain and have emotional scars. Even after all these years, we cannot understand how something like the Holocaust could have happened, in a country whose people were admired by the countries of the world for their intelligence, music and technology. I came to the United States in 1948, sponsored by an uncle who lived in Ohio. I'm proud to be an American citizen, where everyone has the protection of the Constitution, liberty and the opportunity for the pursuit of happiness, and justice for all. 5