Item 41: Holocaust survivors from Hungary ; Magda Malik interviewed by Irene Stanbrook, 1990

MLOH 500/194-196

item

31/07/1990

Nonmusical Sound Recordings, Oral Histories

997453

Sound Recording : CY MLOH 500/194-196

3 sound cassettes (3 hrs.)

Magda Malik, nee Kraus, was born in Sarvar, Hungary, in 1927. She wanted to be a writer but as a Jew was unable to finish high school and instead learnt to be a dressmaker. Magda's brothers were called up to labour camp in 1943.

After the Germans occupied their town in March 1944, Magda's family were sent to live in a factory which was converted to a ghetto and in July 1944 were transported to Auschwitz, Poland. In August Magda and her mother were taken via Berlin to Ravensbruck concentration camp, and after two weeks they were moved on to Altenburg, a sub-camp of Dachau, to work in a munitions factory.

In April 1945, the camp inmates were marched to a camp at Waldenberg where they were liberated by the Americans. Magda remained in Waldenburg until August, when she and her mother left for Prague and then went by train to Budapest, where they were met by the American JOINT Jewish aid organisation.

They then returned home to Sarvar, where Magda and her mother were reunited with Magda's brothers. The family left Hungary together in 1946, spending two years in Vienna before travelling to Canada. After her mother's death Magda and her husband and children migrated to Australia in 1971.

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Log of interview available in the Mitchell Library Reading Room -

Original Mitchell Library allocated tape number 100.