Watch how Gábor Verő, Erzsébet Becker and Pál Bárdos remember the liberation and Soviet soldiers.
Gábor Verő (born Weinberger) was born in 1925, in Békéscsaba, in an Orthodox Jewish family. From the age of 6 he attended Jewish and state schools simultaneously. When he was 16, he moved to Budapest to take the final exam and to start working. After the German occupation of Hungary in 1944, he was forced to the Kistarcsa internment camp with his brother. Six weeks later they were deported to Auschwitz - Birkenau, and then they were transferred to Falkenberg and Ebensee concentration camps. There, he was liberated by the American Armed Forces. His brother and mother did not survive the Holocaust. In 1945, he joined the Hungarian communist party, but he quickly became disillusioned with the new system. He served in the Hungarian Army, then studied History at the university. He taught and then worked for the Cultural Ministry. He is married and has two sons. His interview was recorded in 1999, in Budapest.
Erzsébet Becker (née Winkler) was born in 1929, in Vásárosnamény, Bereg county, in a Neolog Jewish family. During the Holocaust she was deported to Auschwitz and then to the Stutthof concentration camp. At the end of the war Soviet troops liberated her in Koronowo, Poland. After the war she studied accounting and got married. She could not have children due to heart problems she developed in Auschwitz. From her second husband she had three stepchildren. The interview was recorded in 2000, in Budapest, Hungary.
Pál Bárdos was born in 1936 in Makó, where he attended the local Jewish school. During the Holocaust most of his family members were murdered in Auschwitz, while Pál was liberated in an Austrian labour camp by the Soviet armed forces. He graduated from university with a degree in History and Hungarian Literature. After spending some time teaching, he started working at the national Hungarian Radio. He became a writer and a dramaturg. Many of his writings reflect on his childhood memories and the fate of the Hungarian Jews. His wife Judit Fenákel (Bárdos) is also a writer. They have two sons. Pál Bárdos passed away in 2017. The interview was recorded in 2001, in Budapest, Hungary.