Item 13: Holocaust survivors from Hungary ; Susanna Demeny interviewed by Herta Imhof, 1992

MLOH 500/128-130

item

15/01/1992

Nonmusical Sound Recordings, Oral Histories

997184

Sound Recording : CY MLOH 500/128-130

3 sound cassettes (3 hrs.)

Susanna Demeny, nee Schwartcz, was born in Szolnok, Hungary in 1916. Her family moved to Budapest, where she studied at business school and worked in her uncle's warehouse. Susanna was married in 1938 and in 1939 had her first child. Her husband was a chemical engineer and Susanna had a small shop selling his products.

In 1942 Susanna's husband was called to work in a labour camp in Budapest, but was allowed to come home every week. The couple had another child in 1944. They moved into the ghetto and shared two rooms with seven other people.

At the end of the war Susanna weighed 38 kilograms. She was reunited with her husband who had been taken to a Russian prisoner of war camp in Szolnok. They lived in her parents' flat and prospered because a Swiss chemist who had died in the camp left her husband the formula for DDT.

Problems arose later because Susanna's husband was not a member of the Communist Party. With her husband, Susanna made an unsuccessful attempt to flee Hungary in 1946. They were mprisoned, but managed to escape to Vienna in 1956. Susanna and her family arrived in Australia in 1957. Her husband died one year later and Susanna subsequently remarried.

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Log of interview available in the Mitchell Library Reading Room -

Original Mitchell Library allocated tape number 71.