Frida Milder

Frida Milder, born December 1, 1924 in Bunkovce, Czechoslovakia, discusses her family background; changes after the Fascist takeover; living right on the Hungarian/Slovakian border; having soldiers billeted at her house; her disbelief upon hearing about pogroms and disappearances; instability on the border; hearing about men being deported to labor camps or work projects; her brother moving to the US; the Sudetenland invasion; being sent away to school; not fitting in with other Jewish students; being forced to leave normal school; having to get identification documents in Budapest; how almost all Jews were deported by 1943; living part time with her future husband’s parents; meeting her future husband, Emil; the 1944 German invasion; the SS occupying their house and putting her under house arrest as they were the only Jewish family on the border; her family living in Sobrance, Slovakia; hearing that her family was forced to move into the Uzhorod ghetto; bringing food and other supplies to her family; being transported to Auschwitz; becoming separated from her family and future husband; realizing that her parents had been incinerated; her determination and actions taken in an effort to survive; working in the food store; contracting typhoid; marching 40km then riding in wagons to Ravensbrück, then to Taucha; being liberated by Russian troops; receiving medical care; a chance reunion with Emil; marrying in 1945; moving to Košice, Slovakia; and immigrating to Australia.