“The doors open, and in front of us, people with the Uniform stand and begin to shout:”! Out! Out!” My father is first cracked, then I will. It fear ruled the visible Chaos.” Giselle Cycowicz remembers every Detail of their arrival in the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau on may 25. In may of 1944. With her parents Hannah and Wolf, Friedman, and her sister, Helene, you had a three-day journey by cattle car from Khust.
Chust is located in the territory of the Carpatho-Rus. Up to the First world war, the town was part of the Habsburg monarchy, then the Region belonged to Czechoslovakia, was occupied by Hungary, finally, the Soviet Union incorporated and is now on Ukrainian territory. At the time, around 20’000 inhabitants, approximately 8,000 Jews, who were subjected to hostility were.
As the business of the father “” has been linearized, impoverished the family, apparently.
“When I for the first Time in a Hungarian school went, has thrown me someone a piece of paper. On death: “the Jews!” Then the teacher came and asked: “Who are the Jewish children? All Jewish children, out!”” Giselle was twelve years old and wanted nothing more than to learn that she had to do alone.
As the business of the father “” has been linearized, impoverished the family, apparently. After the invasion of the SS, at the 19. In March of 1944, were driven all the Jew first in the synagogue. In the meantime, the Nazis established a Ghetto, where about 7,000 people were crammed together.
“Watch out for the mummy!”
On the 23. In may of 1944, were driven all the inhabitants of the ghetto towards the train station and into cattle cars. The train stopped after three days. “Then we saw a sign: Auschwitz-Birkenau. From this place we have never heard of it.” Immediately after the arrival of the father of his wife and the two daughters were separated. Giselle has seen him once again: “He stood in the middle of the ramp in the middle of a group of strong men. I imagined these men to take to Work. This is good.”
she remembers her second thoughts, what had given the father to the daughter: “take Care of the mom! And take on any work required of you! This can save your life.”
the life of The father, at least, has not saved it. The then 49-Year-old was sent after several months of working in the coal mine, Buna-Monowitz in Auschwitz in October 1944 in the gas chamber. To the memory of him she has set up recently candles in their Jerusalem apartment.
“people want to kill us Jews. I don’t feel good when I’m not surrounded by Jews.”
in Spite of her age of 47 years, the mother to stay with the daughters and to land in a Labor gang, which consisted of women under the age of 35. Immediately after arrival, all showers had to – there was water, but no soap or towels. “We have to cut off the hair, and only a dress and shoes. We had no underwear, no toilet paper, no spoons, nothing.”
The Friedman-women came in the Block 16 in C-stock. “We were a total of 30’000 Jewish women, we had to share two toilets and two washing rooms,” recalls Cycowicz.
“My mother has not had time even to say good-bye.”
Because of the inadequacy of the diet was, for many women the period, what they felt, in view of the States as a relief. “You can’t even imagine what unimaginable Hunger we had. So hungry!” Cycowicz tells the story of a girl who had stolen three onions and brutally was beaten.
the worst are the frequent selections. “The selection was brutal, absolutely brutal. The selection was the worst word in the camp,” says Cycowicz. In the case of a selection they had the first luck, because the Giselle, her sister and mother, a cousin and an aunt were among the 200 women who were selected for work. But then, three SS-men came in and showed to a total of eight women, including her mother and aunt. “My mother has not had time even to say goodbye. My sister, my cousin and I have said: “We will not talk about them. God will do what he needs to do.””
forced labor in the armaments factory
The three young women had to perform forced labour in an armaments factory, a factory for aircraft parts in the lower Silesian town in Central stones: 12 hours of work per day, one hour walk from and to the factory.
The day of the war in may 1945, went for you to the end, started like the days before with a roll call of the SS-men: “they said to us: “you are free and you can get what you want. We have stayed to protect you. We hope that nothing Bad does.”” Her voice swells today in front of outrage. This is one of the few moments during the three hours of talks, in which Giselle Cycowicz. “That was ten minutes after the liberation. Ten minutes before you have not regarded us as a people!”
The two sisters found themselves the question: What now? “This is my Trauma. We had no place where we could go.” Because, actually, you don’t want to go back to Khust, where you had done to your family all of the. But after a few days in the forced labour camp, she decided to but in March. The majority of the approximately 800-Kilometer-long track, the two went for a walk, it lasted two weeks.
studies in psychology as a child’s dream
mother and aunt had survived. They had been sent from Auschwitz to a labour camp for forced labor in a brick factory at Gross-Rosen. As a “death March” decency, they hid. Three days later, the two were found by soldiers of the Red army. Also sister Edith survived her concentration camp stay. “My sister was put in a concentration camp on the day that the Nazis came to Hungary. We were together, she was alone.”
The Friedman-women had survived, but would not stay on. So they decided, in the United States to emigrate. Giselle married, took the family name of her husband, Cycowicz, and had three children. The oldest was 11 years old, and you, yourself, 44 years old, she began to study psychology. Thus, she fulfilled a dream she had as a young girl in Khust.
About their Holocaust experiences, she has spoken but in all the decades with anyone, not even with her psycho-analyst who was himself a Jew. A Film about the trial against Adolf Eichmann was the trigger. “It all came out of me like a geyser.”
“in addition, many are lonely because they have lost relatives.”
But publicly she could talk until she moved to 44 years in the United States to Israel. “I could say for the first Time: I am a Holocaust Survivor, and I’m not ashamed of it. That was 50 years after the Shoah.”
But there was another reason to emigrate to Israel. “People want to kill us Jews. I don’t feel good when I’m not surrounded by Jews. I just feel with a Jew. After all, who is not a Jew, is for me a threat. Always.” She is Orthodox Jewish. The well-groomed lady wearing long-sleeved clothes, thick stockings and keeps your hair under a chic medium blonde wig covered.
In Israel, she was looking for a job and came to Amcha, the National center for psychosocial support of Holocaust Survivors. Cycowicz’ first assignment was to go to a care center for senior citizens. “I told you that everyone was faced with a personal Shoah, and that you can talk about it.” This afternoon, two groups were formed, because the Holocaust Survivors, wanted to finally talk about their memories and did so for 14 years, twice a week.
Although Cycowicz “has already been adopted a few times of Amcha in the Pension”, she is still patient. These people had all the problems that you have in old age. “In addition, many are lonely because they have lost family members. This is often only aware of now. And the memories that torment you and someone who has experienced this, too, can better understand. You have no one, really understands it.”
losses and humiliations
Therefore makes the sprightly psychologist: “I have a Motto: I do not treat people until they die. I want to take care of you as long as you are alive. We can give for losses and humiliations suffered by these people something in return: listen.” Because you know what the Holocaust Survivors participated. “What the man feels? This is the most powerful feature of a people. It can hurt a bit.”
you had to be forced to make their first visit to Auschwitz 18 years ago. “My daughter has said at the time: “You have to go.” I have explained that I’m not putting a step to Poland, the largest Jewish cemetery.”
in the Meantime, it is several times with school groups to Auschwitz-Birkenau returned. She sees it as her obligation to speak about their experiences. A picture in her Jerusalem living room shows one of their 21 grandchildren with the Israeli flag in Hand, on the tracks of the camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she threw herself in front of almost 74 years, from the wagon in the middle of the Gray. “We went through hell. No, it was worse than hell.”
(editing Tamedia)
Created: 24.01.2019, 19:48 PM
