Holocaust Survivor: Eliezer Shimoni

Born 1928 in Feldebro, Hungary. Antisemitism in Nyirbator. Problems because of lack of Hungarian citizenship. News from BBC and refugees from Poland, and Jews' reaction. March from Nyiregyhaza to Auschwitz and selection before entering camp. Attitude to religious precepts in Auschwitz. Death march to Gleiwitz camp, January 17, 1945. Travel in open freight wagons via Czechoslovakia to Buchenwald. Czechs' friendly attitude. Special selection for Jews in Buchenwald, April 1945. Joins transport; last-minute escape. Liberation, May 1945. In uncle's home at Nyirbator. Zionist training camp in Budapest. To Eretz Yisrael, 1946. News of father's fate.

Trapped

From Weimar we travelled to Buchenwald. The Buchenwald main camp branched off into many sub-camps, to which many prisoners were sent. When I arrived in February 1945, there was a tremendous number of prisoners there of various nationalities. I was in the children's camp, far from the entrance gate, behind the adults' camps.

My big brother had been with me all the way until we were separated during the journey to Buchenwald. He was about two years older than me, but he was weak, and I had helped him along during all that period. I had given him moral support, and had tried to share with him every day whatever food I was able to get hold of.

In Buchenwald we were not put right to work, and I used the time to try to find him. I was overjoyed when I located him in a barrack of older youth. After about a month I was sent to Holzen camp, a Buchenwald sub-camp not far from Hannover. It was in a marshy area, and conditions there were rough. Every day we had to march several kilometers to work in underground factories in the Hannover area.

With the U.S. Army approaching, we were evacuated to Buchenwald. During the journey back, we saw a lot of German military. Our intuition told us that the war would soon end. But the Germans made the prisoners work right up to the end, as if nothing was happening.

As soon as I got back I went looking for my brother and was happy to find him in his barrack. There were thousands of new prisoners in the camp, who had been evacuated there from other camps, and things were becoming chaotic.

On April 4 we suddenly heard an announcement in German over the loudspeakers: "All Jews to the assembly area!" The Jewish prisoners were in a panic and they started rushing about looking for places to hide. The Germans tried to force the Jews to assemble, but to no avail. Then they withheld the regular food rations and promised bread and sausage to those who would go on the transports. The hunt for Jews went on for several days.

I was in block 66 in the children's camp. The block chief was a Czech. He knew what those transports meant, and he did everything he could to save us. Once or twice he couldn't get out of it and our whole barrack had to report to the assembly area. Twice we were saved thanks to the sudden appearance of Allied bombers and the sirens that sent everybody rushing for shelter.

At one point I broke. This was shortly before the liberation. I had lost my brother and didn't know where he was. Apparently he could no longer take the hunger and had gone on one of the transports. I also told myself that I had to eat. I informed them that I was leaving the block and going on a transport.

The transports were arranged in a large hall used as a movie theater. Those caught were placed between two barbed-wire fences leading to the hall's door. I went in, got the food, and instead of going out again with the streaming crowd I did an about-face and went back in. At the far end of the theatre there was a corner that led outside. There was a fence there, and, holding the food, I climbed the fence, threw the food down, and jumped. I hurt myself, but I made my way back to my camp, to block 66. That is how I was saved.

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