ABSTRACT
Abraham was 13 years old when the Nazis forced the Jews in Hungary to wear the Yellow Star and prohibited Jewish children from going to school. Abraham's father was taken to a labor camp near the Russian border, never to be seen again. Abraham and his youngest brother had to support the family by trading in the black market in the nearest city—a risky business that endangered their lives. In 1944, they and the rest of the Jewish community were assembled for 3 in a swine house, then were deported to Auschwitz. The brothers were assigned to work in the crematorium, loading and sorting out the dead from their belongings (clothes, shoes, etc.). Abraham saved his brother, who was often ill, by hiding him among the corpses. “The smell of death has been in my nose since then … you know how they say, ‘From dust you are born, to dust you will return?' You can say that we actually were reborn out of the ashes.”
