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Auschwitz
The horrors of Auschwitz are so often described and yet unfathomable to those
of us who live in the comfort of civilized life. These testimonies give us
only the tiniest inkling of what those terrible final days must have been like
for the proud and dignified Ferenc.
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Kato BREUER
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Kato-neni: "Bring Back Ferenc BREUER!"
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We don't know what happened to my husband...just afterwards we heard the news
about Auschwitz. We heard they gave them the gas. We don't know what
happened to my husband, my brothers. and father. We went to a small
town where my father had a house. We
didn't have food. Me ... my sister, and Gyjurika. We went to Újfehértó
where my parents had a house.
We asked for the house, but they didn't want to give it back. They [said
they] would
give it back to Ferenc BREUER, my father. So I said okay " bring back Ferenc
BREUER". My parents were at Auschwitz and they killed them.[8] |
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Agi's Story: "I imagine my Grandparents
... selected to die"
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Agi's Story
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My Grandparents were taken to Auschwitz in one of the infamous cattle
cars and were murdered in the gas chambers. ... I imagined my grandparents, Amalia and
Ferenc, in
Auschwitz when they were selected to die. They
were ordered to take off their clothes and
they were told they were going to take a shower.
They were locked into the gas chamber, the gas hissing as it filled the
air and killed them. I could
imagine the stink from the fires of the furnaces which burned their poor broken
bodies. Where was their God, the
God of Israel they loved, respected, trusted and obeyed?
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One day we
received a telegram from my Grandparents: “Immediately send
documentation to prove that George is a war orphan. Otherwise
they are taking him with us...” We had no idea of what this
telegram referred to. I remember I had my period for the first
time when I went with my mother to obtain the “War
Orphan” document. By this time my father had been officially
declared dead, although we held on to the hope that he was a
prisoner of war somewhere in the Soviet Union. The wife and young
daughter of a family friend were also staying with my
Grandparents in the country. Her husband, Mr. Bornemissza, took
the train to Újfehértó to retrieve his family, and he rescued my
brother George from certain death in a concentration camp by
bringing him back with his wife and daughter. He was a gentile and
he risked his own life and the lives of his family members for a
little Jewish boy. ... My Grandparents were taken to Auschwitz in
one of the infamous cattle cars and were murdered in the gas
chambers. They were both in their seventies at the time of their
deaths. My Grandfather, Ferenc Breuer, had been a citizen of the
United States. When he returned to Hungary he took steps to
repatriate. But in any case, he did not keep in touch with the
U.S. Embassy, his [former] American citizenship did not help my
Grandparents when the gendarmes came and loaded them into the
trains destined for Auschwitz.
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Ida GABOR: "A Bitter
Journey" |
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Ida Gabor
A Bitter Journey |
Ida GABOR, daughter-in-law to Ferenc's sister
Fani wrote in "A Bitter
Journey" a moving account of how
the Jews were rounded up from Újfehértó. Her stirring account
gives paints a painful picture of what Ferenc & Mali BREUERs
last days must have been like: |
| "It was with horror that this
Jewish community awoke, on March 19, 1944, to find that the
Germans had occupied Hungary.... After a few days came the new
measures. 'every Jew must wear the yellow Star of David on his
clothes!' announced the town crier. ... Around April 10 another
announcement came from the town crier: "Jews are forbidden
to leave their homes!" ... At dawn, April 17, our gate was
kicked open by gendarmes who pressed forward with rifles and
bayonets. They acted swiftly - the whole family was out in the
street in a matter of seconds, joining others already on the
march. The house was locked up and sealed. One of the civilians
knew my husband and whispered benevolently: "Dress up well
and prepare a light pack, you're going a long way". ...
The next morning a long row of horse-drawn carts lined up in
front of the temple. At shrill commands from the gendarmes we
packed up and climbed on the vehicles. ... There lived a
landowner by the named of Neubauer in the village. He was
responsible for executing this inhuman measure. He issued his
orders from horseback, with a leash in his white-gloved hands. As
we were being driven out of the temple an elderly Jew was unable
to keep up with our pace; he kicked the old man, who collapsed
from the affront. ...It took us between four and five hours to
make the 16 kilometer trip to Nyíregyháza. ... Sixteen of us
were crowded in an apartment which consisted of one room and a
kitchen. ... On May 4 [1944] the carts appeared once again.
The people in the ghetto were rounded up and we were taken to Nyírjespuszta, where we were accommodated in the tobacco shed.
The Jewry of the whole of Szabolcs County had been transported
there. From here events took a fast turn. The deportations began.
... From time to time names were read out, lists were pinned on
walls and those not on them were told not to leave the shed.
However, those on the list were taken away. It was said that they
were being taken to work, but we found this hard to believe as
the elderly and the insane were among those led away. We never
saw them again with the exception of one or two people whom we
encountered at one or other of the notorious concentration
camps." |
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A
Visit To Auschwitz Delayed A Half Century |
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In May 2002, my Uncle George visited
Auschwitz for the first time. 58 years earlier he came within a
hair's breath of accompanying his grandfather Ferenc to the gas
chambers. (Click here for
full text) |
| "I
have been preparing myself for this visit for decades. I felt a strong
urge to see that incredibly evil spot of earth where 2 million people
were murdered in less than 3 years. ...
no
amount of study fully prepares one for the actual experience. It is
powerful beyond any comparison. ... The
buildings are now full of exhibits, documents, pictures, explanations
and remnants of those who were killed there. ... Imagine walking into
a huge room that is full of human hair: cut off the heads of 40,000
Jewish women before (or, perhaps, after) they were gassed. The room is
full! This was the first time that the number of people killed began to
fully make an impact on me. ...
There
are many photographs of the victims. I kept looking for familiar faces.
... Approximately 450,000 Hungarian Jews were brought here during the
Summer of 1944. 17 members of our family were among them. I escaped by a
few hours when a friend smuggled me out of Újfehértó the day before the
deportations started. The journey took 3 days and 3 nights from Hungary
to Auschwitz in incredibly crowded cattle cars, with little or no food
or water. ... As the train stopped, they were ordered out and sent
through a selection process. The young (under 14), the old and the sick
were immediately sent to the gas chambers. I was 6 years old then. I
know that I would have been killed within the hour.
The
Hungarian exhibit included a listing of most of the victims. It was a
shock to find the names of my uncles, aunts, cousins and my grandfather
(but for some reason, not my grandmother) on the wall. ...
Our
visit was on a beautiful spring day. The sun was warm, there was grass
and flowers, birds and insects, peace and calm all around. As we stood
by the memorial built for the Hungarian victims, we lighted a candle and
prayed for the dead. I could barely say the words of the
Kiddush - I don't think I cried like this ever in my life.
It
took a couple of weeks to recover from this experience. I am glad we
went there and I feel stronger for it. Stronger, yet more sensitive and
conscious of all the pain, cruelty and hardship I observe every
day. I think that is perhaps the final lesson of Auschwitz: the fact
that we're all one. That we need to understand and help each other. That
we must work so it does not happen again. And the knowledge that it
could happen again. Evil exists in all of us and it takes constant
vigilance and hard work to overcome it." |
Sources:
[1] Frank BANYAI
[2] George SARLO notes (taken from Cila SARLO)
[3] Kato BREUER (oral)
[4] Braunschweig ships manifest for 27 Feb 1893
[5] 1891 Industry & Trade Directory
[6] Újfehértó Jewish
birth/marriage/death register 1852-1895 (LDS Film)
[7] Taped telephone interview of Kato done by Paul on April 12, 1998
[8] Video tape interview of Kato done by Agi & Peter on October 10, 1992
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