Young Bedrich Hecht

This is me after the war in 1946 or 1947.

The way my life continued after the war was that my mother, who'd returned, lived with me. Aunt Cilke [Cecilia] had one son return [Tibor]; they lived together, and my other aunt [Gizela], who'd lost her husband and son also lived with them.

In May of 1945 I returned, and again got a job in the fund; later I worked in agriculture as a superintendent of state property. Then came the year 1949, and they confiscated our property and house [14], and demolished the house. Later we did get things back in the restitutions [restitution: a law regarding the return of property - Editor's note], but everything had been demolished. I got a job in a sugar refinery, where I worked for 37 years.

The Centropa Collection at USHMM

The Centropa archive has been acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. USHMM will soon offer a Special Collections page for Centropa.

Academics please note: USHMM can provide you with original language word-for-word transcripts and high resolution photographs. All publications should be credited: "From the Centropa Collection at the United States Memorial Museum in Washington, DC". 

Please contact collection [at] centropa.org (collection[at]centropa[dot]org).