Ibolya´s House in Pápa

kz-aussenstelle27_gr
Ibo­lya im Gebets­raum der jüdi­schen Gemeinde von Pápa, Ungarn Auf­ge­nom­men von einer Schü­le­rin der Bertha-von-Suttner-Schule, 1997.
Ibolya bedankt sich nach dem Gespräch bei einer Schülerin der 12. Klasse. Aufgenommen im Rathaus von Pápa, 1997.
Ibo­lya bedankt sich nach dem Gespräch bei einer Schü­le­rin der 12. Klasse. Auf­ge­nom­men im Rat­haus von Pápa, 1997.

Ibo­lya is one of the 1.700 young Jewish women who had been impri­soned in Wall­dorf. In 1997 she tells the 12th gra­ders of Ber­tha von Sutt­ner School:

“I grew up here in Pápa under rather hum­ble cir­cum­stan­ces. There were six bro­thers and sis­ters in the house. I had defi­ni­tely not been spoi­led. Our small town had a popu­la­tion of 20.000 at that time, about 3,000 of them Jews.At the bein­ning ever­y­thing see­med to be nor­mal. I was born here in 1921, atten­ded school, was even able to receive a trade edu­ca­tion and then work in a law firm. Then, gra­dually, the time came when a Jewish girl was not worth much any­more. We were hum­bled (aba­sed?) in public. We were spat at in the street. In March 1944 the Ger­mans came here. We could not do anything about it. We had to go to the ghetto alto­ge­ther. We were sepa­ra­ted from the rest of the town by a woo­den fence. Many, many people were all of a sud­den crow­ded toge­ther in one lod­ging. There was only one hour a day we could leave and go shop­ping. There were sen­tries all over the place, they were Hun­ga­rian coun­try con­s­ta­bles. From the ghetto we came into a bri­ckyard. There were no hou­ses for us, just roofs wit­hout side walls. The Jews of the ent­ire town of Pápa laid there on the floor, close toge­ther. It was then when it star­ted for us.… some com­mit­ted suicide.”

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