BIOGRAPHY: Eva B.

The occupation of Hungary by German troops in March 1944 marked the start of the deportation of the Jewish community in Sombor, a small town in northern Yugoslavia previously occupied by Hungary. The 17-year-old Eva B. and her mother were taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. “First we had to wait all night until we were given numbers, which were then tattooed on us. Then they took everything away from us, everything. We were sent naked into the baths, the so-called sauna. There we were washed for a few minutes and then given rags and so-called shoes to wear.”

In autumn a festering wound on her leg caused Eva to pay a second visit to the infirmary where Dr. Mengele carried out a “selection” on 13 October. The Jewish women had to undress and parade naked in front of him and his team. Eva tried to read the expression on his face. Would he allow her to live? What was this man thinking? Eva’s mother did not survive Mengele’s selection process. At the end of October she was gassed in Auschwitz.

Eva B. was then transferred to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and, shortly after, to the SS riding school at Salzdahlumer Strasse in Brunswick. The some 600 women held in this concentration camp were deployed to clear the ruins in the town inflicted by bombing. They all slept on the concrete floors of the former stables, lying on only a thin layer of straw. On their arrival the women were given thin coats in lieu of clothes. There were no striped prisoners’ uniforms left, let alone any change of clothing. Eva recalls their illegal encounters with members of the Brunswick population: “Once a woman rode by on a bicycle carrying a basket full of apples. She tipped out the entire contents of the basket and cycled on. Or an encounter with some Hitler Youth boys: one of them threw us a small packet containing 2 or 3 biscuits. Another time it wasn’t biscuits but stones.”

At the end of February some of the women were herded into lorries. After a short ride the transport reached Watenstedt concentration camp. A female Polish doctor and Polish nurses attended to those who were ill. By then the women were incapable even of getting up or going outside the barracks except to wash or go to the toilet. On 8 April the camp was “evacuated”. The women were loaded into cattle wagons and first transported to Sachsenhausen concentration camp - but there was no room at this camp either. The convoy of half-dead prisoners was finally allowed into Ravensbrück concentration camp. After that, the so-called “Death March” headed northwest through the last remaining corridor between the war fronts. “You couldn’t call that marching, we were half-unconscious. Of course, the SS men and the SS women and their dogs came with us. They shouted and screamed at us and goaded us on. (...) We weren’t allowed to stand still. We were told that anyone who stopped would be shot.” On the morning of 2 May 1945, having marched for about four days, the prisoners were finally liberated in Malchow by the Red Army.

Suffering from a lung infection, Eva B. was very weak. She was kept in medical care for several months and gradually recovered. Ten days after her return to Sombor, Eva’s father also appeared. Bereft of possessions and without a roof over their heads, Eva and her father had to start their lives again from scratch. In spring 1946 Eva B. decided to study economics in Belgrade, where she lived in a Jewish students’ hostel on a scholarship.

Today Eva B. lives in Belgrade with her husband. She has two children and four grandchildren. After a visit to Auschwitz and Ravensbrück in the mid-1990s, in 1997 she saw Brunswick and Watenstedt again for the first time since the war. She attaches great importance on keeping past events alive as a constant reminder, consciously offering her own recollections to ensure history is not forgotten.