Item 39: Holocaust survivors from Hungary ; Helen Lowinger interviewed by Irene Stanbrook, 1992

MLOH 500/189-190

item

13/05/1992

Nonmusical Sound Recordings, Oral Histories

997442

Sound Recording : CY MLOH 500/189-190

2 sound cassettes (2 hrs.)

Helen Lowinger, nee Erdos, was born in Nagyatad, Hungary, in 1908. She lived in Budapest from 1923 and became a dressmaker. She was married in 1931 and had a son in 1933. In 1940 Helen's husband was called up for forced labour for three months. In 1944 the Germans occupied Hungary and Helen moved in with her mother whose house had been designated a "Jewish house" and then was part of ghetto.

In October all Jewish women under the age of 40 were called up and marched for two days to Isaszeg where they dug trenches for three weeks. Because the Russians were getting closer, they were forced to march from Isaszeg to Sopron, and then in December, they were marched to the village of Kophaza, again stopping to dig trenches. From there Helen was transported to Lichtenwort labour camp.

This camp was liberated on 2 April 1945 by the Russians. Helen was sick with typhus and spent six weeks in the emergency hospital set up for Jewish people in Lichtenwort. Helen then returned to Budapest where she was reunited with her son, her mother and her two brothers. She migrated to Australia in 1957.

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Log of interview available in the Mitchell Library Reading Room -

The sound starts a few minutes into the recording and the introduction is hard to hear. The interview is conducted in Hungarian

Original Mitchell Library allocated tape number 98.