Item 17: Holocaust survivors from Hungary ; Susan Gerofi interviewed by Nora Huppert, 1992

MLOH 500/143

item

04/05/1992

Nonmusical Sound Recordings, Oral Histories

997245

Sound Recording : CY MLOH 500/143

1 sound cassette (1 hr.)

Susan Gerofi, nee Laslo was born in Debrecen, Hungary in 1916. In 1922 her family moved to Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. Susan studied medicine in a Slovak university, but discontinued her studies due to growing anti-semitism. Susan was married in 1937.

In December 1944, Susan and her mother were deported to the labour camp at Sered (Czechoslovakia) and then to Ravensbruck concentration camp in Germany. Susan worked for six months in the camp hospital carrying corpses and the sick on stretchers. During this period Susan's mother died at the camp. At the end of April 1945, as the fighting got closer, the Germans left Ravensbruck, taking all the inmates except for the sick and hospital workers like Susan.

The camp was liberated by the Russians. The Czechs provided trucks for the women to return to Czechoslovakia. Susan returned to Bratislava and met up with her husband. She was the only member of her immediate family to survive the war. Susan was subsequently divorced and remarried, migrating to Australia in 1948.

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Log of interview available in the Mitchell Library Reading Room -

Original Mitchell Library allocated tape number 75.