Item 15: Holocaust survivors from Hungary ; Jean Fabian interviewed by Tom Keleman, 1989

MLOH 500/135-136

item

May, 1989

Nonmusical Sound Recordings, Oral Histories

997224

Sound Recording : CY MLOH 500/135-136

2 sound cassettes (2 hrs.)

Jean Fabian, nee Somogyi, was born in Pecs, Hungary in 1921. Jean came from a well established family which was part of the reform community. In 1940 Jean's father was taken to a forced labour camp by the Hungarian army. A ghetto was set up in May 1944 after the Germans arrived, to which all of Jean's family were moved. In July 1944 all the Jews were transported from the ghetto to Auschwitz-Birkenau, in Poland.

As they came out of the wagons on to the platforms at Birkenau, selections were made for the gas chambers. Jean's sister was selected to join the sick. Jean stayed at Birkenau until she was taken by train in August to Lippstadt, Germany. There she worked in an armaments factory, welding land mines. After the bombing of the town, the camp inmates were made to clear up the rubble in Lippstadt.

In April 1945 the camp was evacuated and the inmates were marched for days until they were liberated at Kaunitz by the Americans. Jean returned to Pecs via the Austro-Hungarian border. She emigrated to Australia in June 1957.

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Log of interview available in the Mitchell Library Reading Room -

Original Mitchell Library allocated tape number 73.