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The actual war began on 30thAugust 1944, when the Hungarians and Germans came in and reached Nagyenyed [Aiud, 37km south of Torda]. After the Hungarians came in, we had to wear the yellow star [10] for 37 days and a curfew was imposed on us. There were no such things before. That period was very tense.People feared each other. First we didn’t know who these cock feathered people were, but we feared them very much, and always ran away from them. They were very nasty, if they didn’t like something, they immediately began to beat and hit people.
When the Hungarians came in, and the Romanians blew up the Aranyos Bridge, the bridge gave way and the Hungarians built a pontoon bridge. An enormity took place there. The Hungarian authorities sent a squad of forced laborers there to build the bridge. They cut down stumps for the bridge from the park nearby, and one time a big stump tumbled on two forced laborer boys. One of them was 18, and the other 25. And they weren’t dead yet, when the commander, who was probably an ensign, ordered immediately to put them in sacks and they were buried right there. They weren’t even dead yet. Then, in March-April 1945, a few young men from Torda exhumed them, and took them to the cemetery and buried them there.
When the Hungarians came in, and the Romanians blew up the Aranyos Bridge, the bridge gave way and the Hungarians built a pontoon bridge. An enormity took place there. The Hungarian authorities sent a squad of forced laborers there to build the bridge. They cut down stumps for the bridge from the park nearby, and one time a big stump tumbled on two forced laborer boys. One of them was 18, and the other 25. And they weren’t dead yet, when the commander, who was probably an ensign, ordered immediately to put them in sacks and they were buried right there. They weren’t even dead yet. Then, in March-April 1945, a few young men from Torda exhumed them, and took them to the cemetery and buried them there.
Period
Year
1947
Location
Torda
Romania
Interview
Jozsef Farkas