I was born in Mukacheve (now Mukachevo), in the Carpathian region, in 1930.[1] The Carpathian region became part of Czechoslovakia after World War I.[2] Before 1938, we lived in Czechoslovakia and life was not so bad. Our little town had about 35,000 people and half of them were Jewish. My father was a farmer; he bought and sold cattle.

      In 1938, the Magyars came to power and life was changed.[3] It became a Fascist regime. Very soon after that, Jews were not allowed to have businesses. Signs on store windows encouraged people not to buy anything from Jews. In 1940, the Hungarian police began taking away Jewish people who didn’t have Hungarian citizenship.[4] We were born in Hungary and had Hungarian citizenship.

      All Jewish men between 18 and 55 years old were taken away to dig tranches in labor battalions. Women, the elderly and children stayed at home. My father, Sholomon Katz, was in a labor battalion. Our family had eight children and I was the second oldest. My sister was 16 and I was almost 14. In order to survive and provide for us, my mother, Honey Krause, sold our cattle and our land, piece by piece.

      At the start of 1944, all Jewish people were taken to ghettos right from their homes. We were allowed to take some belongings and we stayed on the territory of a brick factory. Approximately one or two months later we were taken to a station and put on a train. We were in closed carts, dark inside with only little windows. We were told the train would take us to a dessert in Hungary where they were going to build a city for Jewish people. People were very naïve and believed what they were told. Besides, no one could do anything about it; all that was left were the women, the elderly, and the children. There were a lot of people in the car, which was very stuffy. As we were moving, the older people realized that we weren’t going to where they’d promised, but to Poland.

      The trained stopped at Košice. Our father was still in a labor battalion, but somehow he found out that we would stop in Košice. He came to the station guarded by two Hungarian soldiers and found us. He brought us a bucket of soup and a few loaves of white bread. He also brought a little bottle with some liquid in it, which later on saved my life. He was taken back and we moved further on.

      We were taken to Auschwitz Concentration Camp, and got off the train in the evening. They forced us to throw away any belongings we’d brought, but I took the little bottle of liquid my father had given me, opened it, smelled it once and then once more, and I was immediately drunk. I don’t know why I did it.

      I remember very little as to how we walked; they pushed us forward and beat us with sticks. Mengele was standing nearby, selecting the people who would go to the left or the right.[5] I was still walking with my suitcase. The guards were yelling at us to leave all of our belongings, and my mother was screaming too, but I kept walking with my suitcase. My poor mother told me then, “Remember, I am yelling at you for the very last time.” Unfortunately, she was right. I don’t remember quite well what happened next. My mother and all the children disappeared. I was all alone.

      They pushed the people forward, thousands of us. I never saw my mother and siblings again. A prisoner came up to me and asked how old I was. When I said I was 14, he suggested that I not tell anyone that was my age, but to say that I was 16 instead. He said the same thing to the other boys.

      When I got to the place where people were selected and said that I was 16, I was told to go to one of the sides. But I saw people on the other side and went there trying to find my family. One of the guards noticed it and chased me back to the other side. I later learned that the group of people on the other side were sent to the crematorium.

      We were taken to a huge room and forced to take off our clothes. They shaved and disinfected us, and then they tattooed us. On the ground in front of us as we walked were piles of clothes and shoes. Later, they gave us striped uniforms to wear and sent us to the barracks.

      Nobody had their own bed in the barracks; we shared bunk beds. There were three or four people sharing one bed. On the second day we figured out what was happening around us. We learned about the crematorium. I found out that my mother and siblings were burned there.

      Sometime later they transferred us to Fürstengrube.[6] It was a coal mine. They gave us wooden boots to wear in which we couldn’t run and couldn’t even bend our feet. In the first week they taught us how to march and run in these boots. Fürstengrube had a rule: cleanliness. Once a week we had to cut our hair and our clothes had to be clean and neat.

      There were numerous roll calls that would occur at any time, day and night. When they did, we had to quickly get out of the barracks and get in line. Everyone had to know their place. They would then allocate us to different jobs. I got lucky: they needed someone who could take care of two young horses. I had experience and they chose me. I cleaned and fed the horses, and I ate the same food too.

      The first couple months doing this weren’t so bad. I once had to take the horses out on a big platform to clean them. One of the horses threw me into the air. I couldn’t calm it down. The horse began running around the camp, but luckily nothing happened. The camp was enclosed by a high brick wall, with a barbed wired fence that was electrified. There were four watchtowers, and if someone came close to the fence they were immediately shot without any warning. If the horse would have come close to the fence, it would have been killed by the electric shock and that would be the end for me. They caught the horse and I got suspended from the job.

      I was sent to work in the mines. We worked three shifts, day and night. I had to process twenty-two trees in one shift by removing the bark so it could be used as a crutch in the mine. In order to get the bark off, we had to have a very sharp knife with two handles.

      We were always counted as we went into and out of the camp. They played music as we walked, and we had to walk cheerfully. If you were tired and couldn’t walk cheerfully, you would be beaten with sticks. After work we had to change into clean clothes, and every evening there was a roll call where we were inspected for lice. If an inmate had lice or was too thin and exhausted to a point where he could no longer work, he was taken to the infirmary and then to a crematorium. We never complained that we were not feeling well.

      For those who disobeyed there was a punishment instrument called the Baum.[7] It was used to stretch a person’s body/skin while getting hit with a loaded wire. Getting hit two or three times was painful enough, but some got twenty-five or more hits. Many people couldn’t survive that.

      We had Kapos, prisoners who were assigned to supervise a large number of workers, and Vorarbeiters, who were in charge of a small group of twenty to thirty prisoners. They watched how others worked, checked whether the work was finished, received and distributed meals, and they chose who got more or less food. Some would only get liquid from the top of the bucket; some got thick soup from the bottom. Our Vorarbeiter was a Polish man. Every day he took away somebody’s food, either soup or a piece of bread. We knew that if we didn’t eat we wouldn’t have enough energy to work. He started taking away my food too. People wanted to complain, but everyone was scared. I couldn’t take it anymore and decided to go to the Lagerältester .[8] I figured it couldn’t get worse; I would have either been beaten or killed, or things would get better. I had no other choice.

      The next day, during roll call, they called our Vorarbeiter to come out; they took his arm band and put it on me. I couldn’t believe it. At that time I was very glad. I could get double rations. The guys that I worked with were happy, and I was happy too. Now we worked without rushing, and even then we would finish our work earlier. Someone was always on the lookout, however, in case a guard came to check on us.

      Winter started, and we were sent to work on a factory construction. We worked through very low temperatures. We had enough coal and every three meters we had coal pots. We burned coal so that the construction mixture made of sand, water and calcify wouldn’t freeze. I worked as a mason; I took five or six bricks at a time, walked them up the stairs, and put them together with the mixture. Because of the coal pots, I was able to stay warm. We also had heat in our barracks. In the evenings, after work, we brought coals into our barracks (it was allowed) and burned it.

      By the beginning of January 1945, the Russian front was getting close. We couldn’t stay in the camp any longer. Those who didn’t want to leave stayed in the Revier, but it didn’t save them.[9] As soon as we left, the Revier was set on fire. Some escaped the fire, but those who couldn’t burned to death. Every one of us got a blanket and a loaf of bread. We walked a long time, I don’t remember how long. I felt like I was in a dream, it was awful. I didn’t feel anything; neither cold, nor hunger, nor thirst. All I wanted was to sit, but it was not allowed. Those who couldn’t walk anymore got shot. It seemed like we walked forever.

      Between five or six of us, we dragged and helped each other. We didn’t let each other sit because we knew that if we did, we wouldn’t be able to get up. We wouldn’t have any energy or strength of will. It was snowing all night long, but we kept walking. At some point I fell or sat and couldn’t move any further. Suddenly, I saw a rifle barrel pointing right at me. I heard a command, “get up,” but I couldn’t. I don’t remember if I got up myself or if someone helped me, but I walked a little bit more and fell again. It was in the middle of the night, very dark, I couldn’t see anything. When I opened my eyes, I saw light from a fire. I knew our group had stopped to rest. I still don’t know how they allowed us to rest, because again I heard the order to get up and keep moving.

      We walked and walked, and then we were loaded onto a train. I slowed down while getting on the train and got hit really hard. I woke up on the floor and someone was already sitting on me. There were so many people in the train that I could hardly breathe. Finally, I tossed the person down and crawled out to the corner. I felt sheltered on both sides and started to feel a little better. We got a small amount of water and bread, but only in the beginning. Then the doors were closed and we didn’t get anything. It was still winter; the cars were open and it was very cold.

      The first two days were very difficult, we had no room. Later, we moved and piled up all the dead bodies so we had more room. We took off their blankets and used them to cover ourselves. We had so much room we could even lie on the floor. When it snowed, we collected the snow flakes and drank water when the snow melted. We traveled 6-7 days without water or food. We were constantly thirsty, not so much hungry. The train was moving back and forth. The rail lines were under constant bombing and we couldn’t get to the destination.

      We finally arrive at Nordhausen, where the Germans built the first rockets they used against London.[10] We were transported on stretchers. We were very weak. As soon as we got there, we were immediately sent to a washroom. They were changing the water rapidly from hot to cold, done on purpose so people couldn’t drink it. The people who drank that water died of diarrhea. They put us in a big building with hay on the floor, which we lay on.

      Every morning we had to go outside for roll call, even if we had no energy. While we were lining up outside, others who couldn’t get up anymore, both alive and dead, were piled on carriages and taken away. This lasted about four to five days. Then we were put into barracks with large bunk beds, three people to a bed. They fed us well and it felt like heaven. We would lie on the bed and do nothing but dream about home and what we would do after we returned.

      Within three weeks we were stronger and were sent to work inside a huge granite mountain. There were thousands and thousands of people before us who’d died working there. There was a factory there that was well disguised. They were putting something in our food that made us foggy and kept us from being able to think of anything. Those who made even the smallest mistakes were hanged. I worked in the warehouse handing out tools. I worked there for about three weeks. It was already spring when, once again, they put us on trains. They gave us a ration of salted meat and bread. Two days later, we arrived at a big camp called Bergen-Belsen. They put us in a large barracks there. Nobody asked us anything, nobody fed us. We didn’t do anything. We were very weak. Many people in the camp had typhoid.

      Soon after, we could hear shooting not far away from the camp, and the German officers began to leave. On April 15, the camp was liberated. Thousands of us came out of our barracks. I remember a car driving through the camp, warning people in different languages not to eat the food from the kitchen because it might be poisoned. I don’t remember those first two days. I was very weak and passed out. We received bread and canned goods, then we were transferred to the barracks in Celle.[11] There, we were given our liberation documents.

      The first thing I did was begin to search for my older sister. I hoped she had survived. I found a women’s camp, but they didn’t let me in. I found a young woman in the camp I knew, but nobody had seen my sister. I decided to go home. I got on a train that went to Budapest, traveling for a week. There was food at every station. Someone helped me find the right train to the Carpathian region, and when I saw the castle that exists near Mukachevo I jumped off the train. I was afraid it might not stop. I walked home, and found my father there. He’d started a business already, and I started working with him. He eventually married a woman 22 years younger than him, and later I married her younger sister. My wife, Helena Katz, is also a Holocaust Survivor. We have two sons.

            We left the Soviet Union in 1975, traveling through Italy to get to America.[12] On the second day after our arrival, I started working for a Kosher Butcher in New York. In 1994 we moved to Tucson.

[1] Carpathian Ruthenia is a historic region in Central Europe. It is mostly located in western Ukraine’s Zakarpattia Region.

[2] The borders in this area were extremely fluid in the first 40 years of the 20th century. In 1920, Mukacheve officially became part of Czechoslovakia, but in late 1938 it was re-annexed by Hungary.

[3] Magyars are ethnic Hungarians.

[4] Large numbers of Jews who’d lived entire lives in the area but couldn’t prove their citizenship were deported to Ukraine. On August 27-28, 1941, they were murdered by the Germans in the Kaminets-Podolskiy massacre.

[5] Josef Mengele was a German officer and physician at Auschwitz. He was part of a team of doctors who selected gas chamber victims and who used prisoners for deadly experiments.

[6] The Fürstengrube subcamp was organized in the summer of 1943 for the Fürstengrube coal mine. It was approximately 30 kilometers from the Auschwitz concentration camp.

[7] Baum was an instrument of torture in which prisoners were hung up with their hands tied behind their backs. The German word baum literally means “tree.”

[8] Lagerältester – Inmate who was responsible of the discipline in the camp, most of the time a criminal.

[9] Revier – A camp’s infirmary. The infirmary was always a very dangerous place because the SS often sent sick inmates directly to the gas chamber.

[10] Nordhausen was a sub-camp of the concentration camp Dora-Mittelbau. This camp was created by the SS for prisoners too weak or too ill to work in the tunnels of Dora on the fabrication of the German V-1 and V-2 rockets.

[11] Celle is a town and capital of the district of Celle, in Lower Saxony, Germany.

[12] The Red Army stormed Carpathian Ruthenia at the end of 1944. The area was first given to Czechoslovakia, and the Soviets soon after began to expel Hungarians from the area. In 1945, under full communist control, it was given to Ukraine.