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رقم الكائنM1993/028:002
المنشيء Ida Benko
الوصفThe second of two diaries written by Ida Benko in Hungarian, recording her experiences of discrimination in Budapest, transportation to and experiences in Bergen-Belsen and the tumultuous months that followed the liberation of the camps and her torturous journey back home.
When antisemitism flared in the late 1930s Ida Benko (nee Alter), born 25 February 1919 in Budapest, was employed by a clothing company. Her dress designs were sent abroad for manufacturing. When new laws came into effect which no longer allowed Jews to be employed in well paid jobs, her boss taught her how to work as a cutter. The wearing of yellow armbands and yellow stars became compulsory. Jews were restricted to a few hours in which they could be on the streets, and had to live in ‘Jewish Houses’ set up in Budapest. Ida lost her job. Her brothers Aladar (19) and Erno (18) were conscripted into the Hungarian army as forced labourers and never came home; her father had a stroke shortly after they left Budapest and died; her oldest brother Bertalan was sent home from service due to illness and died shortly afterwards.
Her older sisters Helen, Susi and Rosa hid successfully throughout the war, whilst another sister Shari worked in an SS house. An older brother Oscar managed to avoid the atrocities which were to follow. Together with her mother and sisters Dusy and Rosa, Ida was forced to live in a Jewish House. Dusy's husband, Sandor Klein had already been taken away, never to return. Rosa, pregnant at the time her husband was taken away never to return, had a stillbirth. Ida’s fiancé Gyuri Vaszony was also taken away, never to return.
On 3 December 1944, an armed Arrow Cross recruit “herded” Dusy and Ida to the railway station, “where many of those detained had their belongings confiscated. Some people even lost their shoes and coats.” They were given no food for the entire journey and “only the occasional bucket of snow relieved our incredible thirst. After 14 days of desperation and stench we arrived finally at Bergen-Belsen”. They spent five months in Bergen-Belsen and the rest of the time in various villages until liberated by the Soviet armed forces in Trobitz, Germany. She recalls her mixed experiences with the Russians, on the one hand, some soldiers and officers were decent, on the other they were threatening. Although she never spells it out, it is fairly clear from the context that she was raped.
Her diaries tell of her experiences in Bergen-Belsen and what followed after their transportation from the camp. “I washed and sewed and did anything I could to obtain the paper on which I wrote my thoughts, and did not know at the time that my children and grandchildren would someday read these books … There are now pages missing, but I hope the words contained will be a reminder to prevent such atrocities from ever happening again. After my return to Hungary, I was unable to laugh and any attempt at laughter turned into uncontrollable fits of crying.”
Ida married Charles Benko and they migrated to Australia in 1956. Her husband also had “horrendous experiences during the war”. His father had been shot into the Danube; his sister Magda Oser had been gassed at Auschwitz and her husband Nando killed leaving only their son Robert alive. His mother had taken her own life, thinking all her family were lost.
When antisemitism flared in the late 1930s Ida Benko (nee Alter), born 25 February 1919 in Budapest, was employed by a clothing company. Her dress designs were sent abroad for manufacturing. When new laws came into effect which no longer allowed Jews to be employed in well paid jobs, her boss taught her how to work as a cutter. The wearing of yellow armbands and yellow stars became compulsory. Jews were restricted to a few hours in which they could be on the streets, and had to live in ‘Jewish Houses’ set up in Budapest. Ida lost her job. Her brothers Aladar (19) and Erno (18) were conscripted into the Hungarian army as forced labourers and never came home; her father had a stroke shortly after they left Budapest and died; her oldest brother Bertalan was sent home from service due to illness and died shortly afterwards.
Her older sisters Helen, Susi and Rosa hid successfully throughout the war, whilst another sister Shari worked in an SS house. An older brother Oscar managed to avoid the atrocities which were to follow. Together with her mother and sisters Dusy and Rosa, Ida was forced to live in a Jewish House. Dusy's husband, Sandor Klein had already been taken away, never to return. Rosa, pregnant at the time her husband was taken away never to return, had a stillbirth. Ida’s fiancé Gyuri Vaszony was also taken away, never to return.
On 3 December 1944, an armed Arrow Cross recruit “herded” Dusy and Ida to the railway station, “where many of those detained had their belongings confiscated. Some people even lost their shoes and coats.” They were given no food for the entire journey and “only the occasional bucket of snow relieved our incredible thirst. After 14 days of desperation and stench we arrived finally at Bergen-Belsen”. They spent five months in Bergen-Belsen and the rest of the time in various villages until liberated by the Soviet armed forces in Trobitz, Germany. She recalls her mixed experiences with the Russians, on the one hand, some soldiers and officers were decent, on the other they were threatening. Although she never spells it out, it is fairly clear from the context that she was raped.
Her diaries tell of her experiences in Bergen-Belsen and what followed after their transportation from the camp. “I washed and sewed and did anything I could to obtain the paper on which I wrote my thoughts, and did not know at the time that my children and grandchildren would someday read these books … There are now pages missing, but I hope the words contained will be a reminder to prevent such atrocities from ever happening again. After my return to Hungary, I was unable to laugh and any attempt at laughter turned into uncontrollable fits of crying.”
Ida married Charles Benko and they migrated to Australia in 1956. Her husband also had “horrendous experiences during the war”. His father had been shot into the Danube; his sister Magda Oser had been gassed at Auschwitz and her husband Nando killed leaving only their son Robert alive. His mother had taken her own life, thinking all her family were lost.
التاريخ 1945 - 1945
الموضوعHolocaust, concentration camps, discrimination, adaptation, survival
اسم الكائنjournals
مادةpaper
الأبعاد
- width: 100.00 mm
height: 160.00 mm
depth: 10.00 mm
اللغة
- Hungarian
Please note: Hungarian does not differentiate between male and female (ie. he and she) in third person, so it is only my conclusion.
PG1
(start of page)… came here to Doberlug(?), because from here the transport is easier if he gets the orders. Well, it is a step towards home, but it is very annoying that he likes me and we moved here. I got flowers from already in Trobitz(?) when he asked me what nationality I am, cause he thought I was German(?). From then on, I am not happy with the whole thing, it annoys me…
28/08/1945 Saturday Doberlug(?)
In the morning at 9 according to Russian time, his lackey (maybe scout is a better word) rang the doorbell that we should go for breakfast, took a while to understand what he wanted. We bathed in a beautiful bathroom, it even had scales. I am 57 kilos, I wasn’t even this much ever in Pest (refers to Budapest – probably home?). I am glad, (something or someone) didn’t succeed…(end of page)
PG2
(Can’t make out words, parts of words might be German, but even in German I can’t make sense of it – I speak pretty good German, should understand)
PG3
(is this continuation of PG1?)
… ruining (me) these damn Germans. (Would make sense with PG1, the whole sentence being: I am glad these damn Germans did not manage to ruin me.) When we asked where Maximo is, we got a relieving answer, he went to work. Well we thought we dodged this one, there is a train to Trobitz at 2 we will go home with it. (It) was nice, it was comfortable, but this is now over.
We had soup (with something – not readable) for breakfast in the restaurant, we had good laughs about my great success in the evening, were glad that (something) worked out so well, we just calmly wait for the departure time. All of a sudden we saw (him), whistling, with roses in his hands that he brought me (there is one more word I can’t make out). Well, it won’t be easy to get rid of this one after all. He said how badly he slept, us three upstairs, him downstairs alone, that is not good. After breakfast, he came into every shop with us, he bought … (end of page)
PG 4
...at least we cook the way you like it. (S)he was here all morning we had such a great chat. He's been living this roaming life since 1937 since he was a Slovakian citizen. Suffered a lot escaped many times and got caught again before finally managed to get to Budapest. For him Bergen was a child’s play after all the suffering. Today we only got milk for one of the tickets, the B one. 1/3 of a litre, but how handy that was. In the afternoon we went down to the village to the store, on the way back we heard that Ilonka Sólyom died. The news affected me terribly, I almost got cold shivers. Poor Ilonka, I am really sorry for her, although this was to be expected, we still good she would get home in time and could be cured in a sanatorium. Her sister Margit mud suffer terribly...(
PG 5
... a bunch of Greek and Dutch women almost beat me but a Yugoslavian man held my hand and told me to stay put. This way I was one of the first to go in and to Dany's(?) delight I got a very nice fatty piece of meat. I got the milk and the spices to, but for that I had to go in again. Altmorm (?) was looking out to see when I would come back so he could walk me home. Came in handy as he carried my bag and had cigarettes waiting for me. The poor thing is always escorting me. Dany is not well today but (s)he got up to make lunch which was great. I agreed with a company that in the afternoon we go to the forest to pick strawberries. After lunch we laid down to sleep, there was a terrible storm, thunder and lightning bigger than I ever saw. Was scary...
PG6
... , are very pretty and very kind. According to them, the Red Cross cars will come for us soon too. They drove the cars too and they are Negros, there are some half bloods too, those are really pretty. They took many photos of Daisy and I, they really fancied us, they gave us 24 cigarettes and 2 packets of real chocolate. They wanted to take us to Leipzig with the others but we did not go of course. One of the half bloods was called Doris, she complemented my eyes all the time saying she has never seen such beautiful ones. So they really liked us, many wanted to come to join the photos, but they only took photos of us, from left and right and all sorts of poses, with and without them. The chocolate was heavenly after lunch...
PG7
... then what can be done? In the morning milk arrived in unusually large quantities. They announced that even those who did not have milk tickets will get today by giving your name. Daisy went there, I was waiting for her at Armi Sroger's (?), ....., I make a bag for the food from a thread. Mrs Katona went with our yellow ticket for milk again, if she can get we can share that too. She managed to bring another litre, this was 1/2 litre extra. I got greedy and went with their three tickets, we split that too and ended up with 2 and a quarter litres of milk. True, by cheating, but if I don't do it, someone will, I thought once we can cheat too. So we had milk for lunch, 3 cups each and the cookies for the trip, that have almost run out now...
PG 8
... for me, but once I was in I started to cry. Mrs. Somlo D. (Somlo is the first name of the husband) lent me some napkins and said that little Ida is only crying cause she is used to be the first with everything, but this is not such a drama. I just kept shaking from the outrage. In the meantime, the meat ran out. I was walking out still crying, when Blaureisz thought I cried because I did not get meat, grabbed my hand, varten bizhein (warten bisschen - wait a little in German) s/he said and gave me meat from the hidden stock. I was still crying and feeling ashamed that I could not stop. The comments did not feel nice either, "cause she has her lips painted nicely", etc. Though I have not spoken a word to Blaureisz before, by the afternoon the news spread that there is something between Blaureisz and I....
Pg9
... they said that they should go ahead on this road with the bicycle, then have a rest and wait for us. Of course we went home the other way, so got rid of them easily. It wasn't nice of us as we had their canned food and bread for lunch, they picked the fruit too, but at least we needed not worry about them being brazen. I can imagine how angry there were. Olga speaks Russian, one who is called Vikolay asked if I would go with him to Moscow (?) cause he would really take me. Of course I said yes, have promised it to a few of them, why say no to this one? He said now they will escort us home, see where we live and he will bring me every day all sorts ....
PG10
... hand hurts from the baggage. Most likely we go to another village tomorrow too. Maybe we really go this week, we shall have some food for the road. Just see it is 11 o'clock, Dasy is asleep, I should be too. Just also, Zaussi (?) and his/her mom were really hercig (hertzig - nice in german), they knew that Dasy is not well and I am not home. They were here till late and picked up our spices for us. Seems like some quite nice people can be found here, the problem is only very few. They actually belong to the very few people I would be quite happy to chat to in Pest (Budapest - probably home) too.
Dobritz(?) 26/6/1945 Tuesday
I woke at 7:30, have not slept this long for a while, Looks like the 20 kilometres yesterday did some good...
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Mrs. Ida Benko