Item 44: Holocaust survivors from Hungary ; George Reich interviewed by Anita Fisher, 1990

MLOH 500/201-202

item

06/10/1990

Nonmusical Sound Recordings, Oral Histories

997856

Sound Recording : CY MLOH 500/201-202

2 sound cassettes (2 hrs.)

George Reich was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1921. He learnt a trade as a handbag maker. In 1942 he was called up by the Hungarian army to the garrison at Nagykata. After a month he was sent to Szentkiralyszabadja to work on the building of an air field for the Hungarian air force. In September he was marched to the Ukraine via Galicia where he worked on building bridges under the control of German soldiers.

In October George was injured and was put in hospital. He was sent back to Budapest, and was issued with a paper stating he was unfit to serve in the labour force. After the Germans invaded Hungary George's status as unfit was no longer deemed valid and he briefly joined a battalion moving towards Vienna. He escaped and returned to Budapest. In November 1944 George was rounded up for deportation, but managed to join others with Swedish passes who were pulled from the crowd by the Swedish diplomat, Raoul Wallenberg. He was issued with a Swedish pass that enabled him to take refuge in a safe house.

After liberation George helped to clean out the ghetto and returned to his work making bags. He was married in October 1945 and left Hungary for Australia in 1949.

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Log of interview available in the Mitchell Library Reading Room -

Original Mitchell Library allocated tape number 103.