George Stein

Born 1 February 1927, Hungary

My family spent three weeks in a ghetto.

We were twenty to a room and they gave us nothing. 

We tried to help each other but had no resources.

On 11 April 1944 we were taken from the ghetto by train.

Hungarian Gendarmes warned us we would be shot if we tried to escape.

We had no water, no toilets, nothing. 

Thirty or forty people died on the way.

The disembarkation… it’s almost impossible to describe.

It was night. All of a sudden the doors were opened.

The floodlights, the screaming in German, “Everybody out!” 

With no steps we had to jump. The elderly broke their legs. 

That was the last time I ever saw my family. 

We were in Auschwitz.

I was selected to work on V1 and V2 rockets in underground tunnels.

It was terrible. Icy cold and noisy.

As liberation grew close, Jews were sent by train to Bergen-Belsen.

At the camp, with no food for twelve days, I collapsed. 

One day some people came in masks and protective clothing.

They put me on a stretcher and took me to a hospital.

I was washed and put in a bed. For the first time in years, I slept.