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At the end of 1939 I signed up in Budapest for munkaszolgálat [22, 23] in Nagykaty. There was an army assembly point there. We got a yellow armband, but no uniform. I walked all over Erdely [24]. We did all sorts of farm work.
I even took care of pigs for some counts. Finally in 1940 they sent me home, because by error they had me registered as having been born in 1915, and was born in 1916. I didn't go home, but straight to Budapest.
There I at first worked in a konzervgyár [cannery] on the outskirts of Csepel for 20 hellers an hour. I worked there along with one boy who I'd graduated with. We carted garbage in a wheelbarrow to the garbage dump. By the dump there was a fence, in which we made a hole and hid food there.
You weren't allowed to carry anything out, because when we left the factory, they'd check us. We lived off that. Things were rough there.
After two months, as soon as I got my bearings a bit, I left the factory and began teaching German and French. I taught both children and adults, from better-off Christian families in Budapest. Unfortunately, at this time almost all building supers were informers for the state police. Our super informed on me, that as a Jew I was illegally avoiding the labor camp, and on 15th December 1942 the police arrested me.
I even took care of pigs for some counts. Finally in 1940 they sent me home, because by error they had me registered as having been born in 1915, and was born in 1916. I didn't go home, but straight to Budapest.
There I at first worked in a konzervgyár [cannery] on the outskirts of Csepel for 20 hellers an hour. I worked there along with one boy who I'd graduated with. We carted garbage in a wheelbarrow to the garbage dump. By the dump there was a fence, in which we made a hole and hid food there.
You weren't allowed to carry anything out, because when we left the factory, they'd check us. We lived off that. Things were rough there.
After two months, as soon as I got my bearings a bit, I left the factory and began teaching German and French. I taught both children and adults, from better-off Christian families in Budapest. Unfortunately, at this time almost all building supers were informers for the state police. Our super informed on me, that as a Jew I was illegally avoiding the labor camp, and on 15th December 1942 the police arrested me.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Singer Alexander