Object numberM2012/043:012
DescriptionLetter written by Olga Rosenberger to her maternal Aunt Irene, Uncle Charles and their children in Palestine, dated 15 October 1945. Irene and her family managed to escape to Palestine before the war.
The trauma experienced by Olga is evident throughout the letter; “You can never imagine how much we have suffered and how terrible it was.” She gives news about others who have returned, though they are few.
She writes that she would like Irene to come to Bratislava to help her sort things out. However Irene was unable to go as she was pregnant.
Olga writes that she is staying with Aunt Freda who is a distant cousin of her mothers who had returned from Terezin. She is taking good care of Olga. The Rosenbergers, her father’s family, does not help her at all. She writes that they have taken the estate without giving her anything which she claims she has right to.
Olga Horak (nee Rosenberger) was born in August 1926 in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia to Hugo and Piroschka Rosenberger. She was 17 when first deported to Sered, then Auschwitz- Birkenau, Kurzbach, Gross Rosen and Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated. She immigrated to Australia in 1949. Olga received an OAM in 2014 for service to her community.
Olga witnessed the Nazi Regime turn Czechoslovakia into a 'puppet republic'. The government agreed to laws that restricted the lives of Jews. They weren't allowed to go to school, be out after dark, go to the movies or sit on a park bench.
In 1942, Olga's sister Judith was taken in a roundup of 16-year-old Jewish boys and girls to Auschwitz. She never saw her sister again. Out of fear, her parents made plans to escape; they illegally crossed the border into Hungary, but Budapest wasn't easy because they didn't have papers or a home. When bombings began in 1944, Olga and her parents couldn't take refuge in the shelters without being caught. They returned to Bratislava, crossing illegally over the border again.
Back home, Olga's family had false papers. But a cousin was found out and these documents were no longer secure. The family went into hiding with the help of a family friend, but the same friend denounced them two weeks later. The family was taken to a collection camp in Sered before being put in cattle cars to Auschwitz. During the selection process, her father, grandmother, aunts and cousins were taken away and murdered. Olga and her mother were stripped, shaven, registered, and sent to Germany into a camp where they had to carry logs and dig trenches. One morning, the women were evacuated on a Death March, walking through the snow until reaching Gross Rosen. After three days, they marched again until they arrived in Dresden, eventually ending up in Bergen-Belsen. On 15 April 1945, they were liberated by British and Canadian troops. Inmates were registered as survivors, but just as her mother received her card, she collapsed and died. A day that was supposed to be celebratory turned out to be one of the saddest of Olga's life.
Olga was taken to a German hospital where she was left to die. A Catholic Padre from the British Army came to give her last rites. Instead she asked for a Rabbi who arranged for her to be returned back to the sick bay at the camp. She stayed there until late August and was then transported to a hospital in Pilsen, Czechoslovakia, weighing 29 kilos. She was placed next to a Catholic woman named Bozena. When Olga was discharged, Bozena took her home with her. Soon, Olga found distant relatives in Bratislava who survived and she lived with them for two years before she met her husband, John Horak, a survivor who had trained as a textile engineer in Brno.
They were determined to leave Czechoslovakia. Eventually they got a tourist visa for Switzerland and then landing permits for Australia. They arrived on the TSS Cyrenia on 16 September 1949 where they established a business manufacturing blouses, Hibodress, within two weeks after arriving.
The trauma experienced by Olga is evident throughout the letter; “You can never imagine how much we have suffered and how terrible it was.” She gives news about others who have returned, though they are few.
She writes that she would like Irene to come to Bratislava to help her sort things out. However Irene was unable to go as she was pregnant.
Olga writes that she is staying with Aunt Freda who is a distant cousin of her mothers who had returned from Terezin. She is taking good care of Olga. The Rosenbergers, her father’s family, does not help her at all. She writes that they have taken the estate without giving her anything which she claims she has right to.
Olga Horak (nee Rosenberger) was born in August 1926 in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia to Hugo and Piroschka Rosenberger. She was 17 when first deported to Sered, then Auschwitz- Birkenau, Kurzbach, Gross Rosen and Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated. She immigrated to Australia in 1949. Olga received an OAM in 2014 for service to her community.
Olga witnessed the Nazi Regime turn Czechoslovakia into a 'puppet republic'. The government agreed to laws that restricted the lives of Jews. They weren't allowed to go to school, be out after dark, go to the movies or sit on a park bench.
In 1942, Olga's sister Judith was taken in a roundup of 16-year-old Jewish boys and girls to Auschwitz. She never saw her sister again. Out of fear, her parents made plans to escape; they illegally crossed the border into Hungary, but Budapest wasn't easy because they didn't have papers or a home. When bombings began in 1944, Olga and her parents couldn't take refuge in the shelters without being caught. They returned to Bratislava, crossing illegally over the border again.
Back home, Olga's family had false papers. But a cousin was found out and these documents were no longer secure. The family went into hiding with the help of a family friend, but the same friend denounced them two weeks later. The family was taken to a collection camp in Sered before being put in cattle cars to Auschwitz. During the selection process, her father, grandmother, aunts and cousins were taken away and murdered. Olga and her mother were stripped, shaven, registered, and sent to Germany into a camp where they had to carry logs and dig trenches. One morning, the women were evacuated on a Death March, walking through the snow until reaching Gross Rosen. After three days, they marched again until they arrived in Dresden, eventually ending up in Bergen-Belsen. On 15 April 1945, they were liberated by British and Canadian troops. Inmates were registered as survivors, but just as her mother received her card, she collapsed and died. A day that was supposed to be celebratory turned out to be one of the saddest of Olga's life.
Olga was taken to a German hospital where she was left to die. A Catholic Padre from the British Army came to give her last rites. Instead she asked for a Rabbi who arranged for her to be returned back to the sick bay at the camp. She stayed there until late August and was then transported to a hospital in Pilsen, Czechoslovakia, weighing 29 kilos. She was placed next to a Catholic woman named Bozena. When Olga was discharged, Bozena took her home with her. Soon, Olga found distant relatives in Bratislava who survived and she lived with them for two years before she met her husband, John Horak, a survivor who had trained as a textile engineer in Brno.
They were determined to leave Czechoslovakia. Eventually they got a tourist visa for Switzerland and then landing permits for Australia. They arrived on the TSS Cyrenia on 16 September 1949 where they established a business manufacturing blouses, Hibodress, within two weeks after arriving.
Production placeBratislava, Slovakia
Production date 1945-10-15
Subjectsurvivors, loved ones' contact, liberation
Object nameletters
Materialpaper
Dimensions
- length: 320.00 mm
width: 210.00 mm
Language
- German My dear Aunt Irene, Uncle Charles and children,
I have written to you already and sent a telegram as well but with no reply. Maybe you have not received my letter? Therefore I am writing to you again via the contact of Aunt Sidonia. I heard that you have found my name on a list of survivors in Hannover. I’m happy to have returned home but it’s not as I imagined it.
Unfortunately, I am all alone. After so much torture we should have expected a better situation. You can never imagine how much we have suffered and how terrible it was. I was lucky to be together with my dear mom. She became very sick when we were liberated by the British. It is horrible to think about it much worse to have been through it. But I can’t ever forget. I don’t want to put it on paper as I know how much it will affect you. I hope and believe that I could be together with you shortly. It would be best if you come here. There is a lot to put in order. In many things I can’t help myself without advice. Thank goodness I feel better and put on weight. At the moment I can do with a few more kilos. I really look like a dead body and I’m surprised that I recover. At the moment I’m with Aunt Freda who is wonderful. They do their upmost for me. Tommy comes there to eat but lives in his own villa on Zrinyi Street. The Rosenberger family doesn’t look after me, not at all. The only thing they gave me was a litre of milk from the estate which is active, where part is rightfully mine. I heard that Uncle Lipot and his son Andrew returned but I have had no contact with them yet. From others unfortunately no hope at all. The two brothers Dezider and Lewis Holzer returned home but there has been no news from Jozef and Nelly. I believe I’ve given you extensive information and anxiously wait for a reply. Hopefully it won’t be too long.
Fondly kissing all of you
Olly
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Mrs Olga Horak