Ayesha

Holocaust Speech Hello, I am Gabor Hirsch and I am a Holocaust survivor. I was born in 1929, in a little town in Hungary. After the German occupation in 1944, about 2,000 Jews were forced to live in 100 houses near the synagogue. Soon after, we were sent to a ghetto to work at the tobacco drying factory nearby. Our transfer to the camps was almost immediate upon arrival. On June 29, 1944, I found myself at Auschwitz. My mother and I were separated because I was placed in a gypsy camp while she was placed in BIII, but we saw each when we collected sod. My mother and other women of our village were murdered when they did not pass the selection for the BIII (Mexico) camp. I was stuck in Block 11 for a while but then I was a gatekeeper at Block 24. It was at Block 24 where I experienced a very nerve-wrecking selection. I passed the first selection which was just walking under a yardstick. A few weeks later, another selection happened and I failed. I was filled with fear and I knew I would be gassed. I was sent to be locked in Block 13. Fortunately, my cousin, who was a piple (orderly) of Block 11, was able to organize something and I was transferred to Block 11. He tried to comfort me by saying there would be a reselection, which eventually happened. They had one final selection, to see who was fit to work. We undressed and out of all of us, 51 men were deemed fit to work. We were allowed to dress up while the 600 other men marched to their death. The 51 remaining men were in Block 25 of the gypsy camp. We were transferred to another camp soon because there was an incoming transport. Many young children and disabled patients came; none of which would survive the selection. I got ill and while I was at the hospital, I was tattooed. My number was B-14781. When I returned, our block was being evacuated, but I was too weak to march and was sent to a hospital camp. The Germans evacuated Auschwitz in January of 1945, but I hid under my bed so I did not have to go. Three days later, the Russians liberated the remaining prisoners of Auschwitz. I was 15 years old and only 27 kilograms. I spent 7 months in various different camps like Katowitz and Chenowitz until I finally made it back to Hungary in September of 1945. In 1956, I immigrated to Switzerland. media type="file" key="Interview 2.mp3" width="240" height="20" My mother, Ullasini Sahoo, survived immigrating from Orissa, India to America.