Mira Grossberger, Magdalena Berger's stepsister

This is my half-sister Mira Grossberger. The photo was taken in our home in Sombor on 1946 or 1947. My family remained in Sombor through 1944 when the Hungarian fascists took control of the region. When the Jews from Sombor were captured and held hostage, my father put up one million of the required two million Hungarian pengo ransom to have the Jews released. My stepmother and I were deported to Austria, were we were held in a labor camp. In 1944, while in the camp, my stepmother gave birth to a baby girl. I was given the honor of naming the baby and I called her Mira Ruth Grossberger. As an infant she was quite ill and my stepmother wanted her to have two names to protect her from death. We were liberated on the 8 May 1945 and immediately left Austria. We returned to Sombor, where we learned that my father had been killed on May 2, 1944, in Auschwitz. I finished the last year of high school in Sombor and then moved to Belgrade. In Belgrade, I lived in the Jewish dormitory and studied at the Faculty of Technology. In the meantime, my stepmother and half-sister went to Israel. Mira still lives in Israel and my stepmother died in Israel in 1989.

Photos from this interviewee