Vera’s mother in the yellow-star house

My mother in the yellow-star house during the war.

My father was drafted into forced labor. First he was called in but came back after one or two days. Then he wasn't taken any more, and they [my parents] were together in a yellow-star house.

So they saw it through together. Back in 1944, not long after my wedding, women began to be gathered up, just as the girls had been. And then I went there [to the shop], and the strohman hid me.

In November we had to leave the yellow-star house, and I said I would go home for a day to help mum to pack, and then I would come back.

The Arrow Cross men came just then, so I couldn't go back. I was deported. It was the regular route: brick factory, Kophaza, Waldhausen, Gunsekirchen, I was liberated in Wels.

I came home. Thank God, I found both of my parents. They had managed to get another apartment in the same building and they were there.

The Centropa Collection at USHMM

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