Resources: The Holocaust in Hungary

These resources on the Hungarian experience are available for free loan from MCHE’s resource library.

The Auschwitz Album

By: Yad Vashem

The Auschwitz Album, a collection of photographs taken in spring of 1944, documents the arrival and selection process at Auschwitz-Birkenau of Hungarian Jews from Carpatho-Ruthenia. Many of the Jews came from the Berehov Ghetto, which was a collection point for Jews from several other small towns in Hungary. The photos in the album show the entire selection process except for the killing itself. To view the album visit http://www1.yadvashem.org/exhibitions/album_auschwitz/index.html.

The Last Days

By: Steven Spielberg and the Shoah Foundation

This powerful documentary, produced by Steven Spielberg and the Shoah Foundation, traces the compelling experiences of five Hungarian Holocaust survivors. The film records each survivor’s return to his or her hometown and to the ghettos and concentration camps in which each was imprisoned. The Last Days is a beautifully constructed film that takes its viewers through an emotional journey that illustrates the systematic process of the Holocaust. The MCHE Resource Center has this film in both DVD and VHS format. Note: graphic material included.

Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account

By: Dr. Miklos Nyiszli

Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, a Hungarian Jew who was transported along with his wife and daughter to Auschwitz in 1944, recounts his experience working as a physician under the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele. Hoping his knowledge of forensics would make him useful to the Nazis and therefore ensure his and his family’s survival, Nyiszli volunteered to work in the crematoria and dissecting rooms. This book is his eyewitness account to what he saw. In his memoir, Nviszli writes, "As chief physician of the Auschwitz crematoriums, I drafted numerous affidavits of dissection and forensic medicine findings which I signed with my own tattoo number."

I Have Lived A thousand Years: Growing Up in the Holocaust

By: Livia Bitton-Jackson

As Jewish girl born in 1931, Livia Bitton-Jackson spent her early childhood years as Elli in a small farming town in Hungary. At 13, she was forced to move into a Jewish ghetto with her family. Shortly thereafter, Elli and her family were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. In an exceptionally well-written story, Bitton-Jackson recounts her childhood under Nazi occupation as she experienced the increasing mistreatment of Jews and her eventual deportation to Auschwitz where she struggled to keep herself and her mother alive. I Have Lived a Thousand Years is appropriate for both young readers and adults.

Memoirs: All Rivers Run to the Sea Volume I

By: Elie Wiesel

Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel chronicles his life from childhood to his time in Auschwiitz-Birkenau and Buchenwald to his eventual liberation and the subsequent post-war years up to 1969. Throughout his memoir, Wiesel wrestles with issues of doubt and faith, despair and trust, rage and love, eventually reaching a better understanding of the ultimate wisdom that came from his experiences.

Hungary: The Nazis’ Last Victims: The Holocaust in Hungary

By: Randolph L. Braham

This work explores both the uniqueness and the universality of the Holocaust in Hungary. The Nazi's Last Victims analyzes what Hungarians knew of their impending fate and examines the heightened sense of tension. Reflecting scholarship from a number of different disciplines in Hungary, Israel and the United States, the contributors present a variety of analyses and insights into the Hungarian Jewish experience during World War II.

Upon the Head of the Goat: A Childhood in Hungary 1939-1944

By: Aranka Siegal

The author, who is called Piri in the narrative, describes her experiences as a Jewish girl in Hungary during World War II. Unable to escape Hungary, Piri and her family experienced the slow but ever increasing persecution of the Jewish people by the Nazis. As persecution intensified, Piri and her family were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau where her and her sister survived by working in the kitchen. A winner of the Newberry Medal, this book allows young readers to see how the Holocaust began in Hungary and how it progressed.