Tag #136656 - Interview #78463 (Bela Muller)

In fall 1943 the situation of the Jewry got even worse. The men able to work had been summoned for forced labor. I received my summon in October 1943 and I was enlisted at the 10th battalion. The 10th battalion was at Nagybanya. I was assigned to the fourth company, the 10/4. The people from Kolozsvar were usually assigned to the 10/2, but I got my summon in Kolozsvar with eight to ten days of delay, probably due to an administrative error. Thus I ended up in the 4th company. It was a famous company because the battalion commander, a general called Reviczky [24], was extremely nice to the forced laborers. He helped many Jewish families with numerous children, from which older people were summoned. The wives of the enlisted forced laborers used to go and have an audience with Reviczky, and he granted their husbands leave. He even discharged several men with large families.

From Nagybanya they took us to Oradna and to the nearby Rotunda – this is the name of a place in the vicinity of Oradna – to build fortresses. We had to do some very hard work, and the alimentation was poor. The company commander was called Morzenyi, and he was very harsh.