Description
Object description
Hungarian Jewish civilian in Hungary, 1939-1944; inmate of Debrecen Ghetto, Hungary, 4/1944-6/1944; inmate in Strasshof Labour Camp, Strasshof and der Nordbahn, Austria, 6/1944-5/1945; civilian in Hungary and Hungarian People's Republic, 1945-1956; escaped from Hungarian People's Republic to GB via Austria and France, 1956-1957
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Debrecen and Budapest, Hungary, 1932-1944: family; education; problems of father obtaining employment; listening to British Broadcasting Corporation and family's cultural influences; details of education. Recollections of period as inmate of Debrecen Ghetto, Hungary, 4/1944-6/1944: memories of German forces' entry into Budapest, 19/3/1944; underground Communist concierge who saved family possessions; entry into Debrecen Ghetto; job making yellow stars; religious nature of Debrecen; reaction to jeering crowd on deportation of Jews from ghetto; relatives who paid to go to Switzerland who were then sent to Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp; failure of attempts to bargain Jews for lorries.
REEL 2 Continues: Recollections of period as inmate in Strasshof Labour Camp, Strasshof and der Nordbahn, Austria, 6/1944-5/1945: escape from United States Army Air Force bombing of railway sidings, 2/12/1944; nature of train journey from Budapest to Strasshof Labour Camp, 6/1944; composition of family group; dependence of family on work to obtain rations; farm work undertaken; character of camp commandant and his assistant; occasion when Schultzstaffel (SS) man fired at her feet; problems harvesting sugar beet; problems with footwear; Austrian civilians giving aid to camp inmates; information her father received from Austrian civilian; role supervising children's work team; Allied bombing of transmitter near camp; obtaining office work in camp; grandmothers role clearing a midden; transfer to factory area of camp, 11/1944.
REEL 3 Continues: reaction to Allied air raids in Vienna; conditions in factory camp; character of rations and outbreaks of food poisoning; making clothing from blackout curtains; construction of stoves; effect of bombing on factory area; relations amongst inmates of camp; father's accident in factory; job assembling anti-aircraft guns; character of her workmates; short-changing of rations by distributor; clearing rubble from Vienna, c1/1945; gifts of food from Viennese housewives; return to main section of Strasshof Labour Camp.
REEL 4 Continues: food given to inmates by Italian prisoners in Strasshof Labour Camp; condition of family at end of the Second World War; suffering of her baby cousin with an ear infection; abortive plans to remove inmates by train. Recollections of liberation and return to Hungary, 5/1945: disappearance of guards from Strasshof Labour Camp; discovery of food in railway wagons; occasion when she was pushed into jam barrel; importance of discovery of wheelbarrows; further Allied air raids; effect of food fantasies; fate of male relatives; illnesses contracted in Strasshof Labour Camp; behaviour of Soviet Army troops towards deportees; incidents on trek towards Budapest; Soviet method of killing chicken; obtaining food supplies.
REEL 5 Continues: encounter with Dutch refugees in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia; train journey to Hungary; reception on crossing Hungarian border. Recollections of period as civilian living in Budapest, Hungary and Hungarian People's Republic, 1945-1956: conditions in family home in Budapest; attempts to settle down in Ujpest; first encounter with her future mother in law; resuming education; anti-Semitic persecution during education; resumption of Jewish cultural and religious life in Ujpest.
REEL 6 Continues: social activities amongst Jewish children; question of effects of period as forced labourer; personal ambitions; effect of Hungarian Communist Party political takeover on family, 1948; example of supremacy of status over individual merit under Hungarian Working People's Party regime; rigging of elections; father's attitude towards Hungarian Communist Party's political takeover, 1948; character of university education; marriage to fellow engineering student; atmosphere under Hungarian Working People's Party regime; reasons for her being suspended from university.
REEL 7 Continues: military training she received under Hungarian Working People's Party regime; memories of her wedding, 1952; study companion system; avoiding joining Hungarian Working People's Party; character of regime's Peace Bond Scheme and role of students in its implementation; desire to leave Hungarian People's Republic. Recollections of the Hungarian Uprising in Ujpest, Budapest, Hungarian People's Republic and escape to GB via Austria, 1956-1957: effect of Hungarian Uprising in Ujpest; danger of anti-Semitism; employment in factory at time of the Hungarian Uprising; discovery of personal notes kept on employees; arrangements to escape to Austria.
REEL 8 Continues: journey to Sopron, Hungarian People's Republic; aid received to cross border; crossing Austrian border; arrival in Vienna, Austria; move to Paris, France and loss of refugee status. Recollections of period as civilian living in GB from 1957: problems encountered getting to GB; problems of finding lodgings in Cambridge; problems refugees faced with bureaucracy; reaction to working conditions in GB; problems of getting professional qualifications recognised; reaction to being able to own private property; sending food parcels to parents; arrival of parents in GB.
REEL 9 Continues: father's friendship with local vicar; lack of comprehension of British to plight of refugees; problems obtaining a different employment; question of her need to prove herself; question of lack of discrimination faced in GB; degree of contact with Hungarian People's Republic since 1956. Reflections on period living in Hungary and Hungarian People's Republic, 1945-1956: question of anti-Semitism during Hungarian Uprising, 10/1956-11/1956; anti-Semitism in post-Communist Hungary.
REEL 10 Continues: regime in her school in Ujpest; tolerance of non-Jewish Hungarian intellectuals during Hungarian Working People's Party regime; lack of university autonomy under Hungarian Working People's Party regime.