Skip to main content

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
  • Site
    • English home page
    • المصادر بالعربية
    • Πηγές στα Ελληνικά
    • Recursos en español
    • منابع موجود به زبان فارسی
    • Ressources en français
    • Gyűjtemény és tudástár magyar nyelven
    • Sumber Bahasa Indonesia
    • Materiali e risorse in italiano
    • 日本語のリソース
    • 한국어 자료
    • Recursos em Português (do Brasil)
    • Материалы на русском языке
    • Türkçe Kaynaklar
    • اُردو ری سورسز
    • 中文参考资料
  • Events
  • Plan Your Visit
  • Support the Museum
  • Connect
  • Donate
  • Learn About The Holocaust
  • Remember Survivors and Victims
  • Confront Genocide and Antisemitism

  • Home
  • Museum Information
  • Exhibitions and Collections
  • Online Features
  • Collections Highlights

Personal Histories

  • Contents
  • Aftermath
  • Camps
  • Children
  • Deportations
  • Ghettos
  • Hiding
  • Individuals
  • Liberation
  • Refugees
  • Rescue
  • Resistance
  • Survival

ghettos

Back to Ghettos theme

Cecilie Klein-Pollack

Born: 1925, Korosmezo, Czechoslovakia

Describes deportation from Huszt [Interview: 1990]

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

— US Holocaust Memorial Museum - Collections

Transcript

They told us the day before that we can pack one small suitcase and we should be ready to leave the ghetto. When we came to the, it was a, um, at one time a factory for, um, bricks, and there they started to search us again. The SS was there also, and every woman had to, and every girl had to undress, naked, and we were searched internally for valuables. My mother was a very religious person, and all I could think of was how terrible this is for my mother to go through something such, such a terrible ordeal. When we were finished my mother took the baby from my sister, she, because she was holding the little boy, Danny, and she had a bottle of milk for the child. And the SS grabbed the bottle of milk and said, "Let's see, you cow, what you have there." My mother pleaded, "Please, this is, the child needs the milk. Please don't take the milk from, from my grandson." He started to beat her with a horsewhip, and when I saw that she was being beaten, so I screamed, so at least I got away the attention from my mother. So my mother ran into the, because the trains were, were right there, we were just, you know, going into those, uh, cattle trains. So I took away the attention from my mother, and he started to beat me with that whip and finally, um, I was able to run away also, and we were finally in the cattle train.

Cecilie was the youngest of six children born to a religious, middle-class Jewish family. In 1939, Hungary occupied Cecilie's area of Czechoslovakia. Members of her family were imprisoned. The Germans occupied Hungary in 1944. Cecilie and her family had to move into a ghetto in Huszt and were later deported to Auschwitz. Cecilie and her sister were chosen for forced labor; the rest of her family was gassed upon arrival. Cecilie was transferred to several other camps, where she labored in factories. Allied forces liberated her in 1945. After the war she was reunited with and married her fiance.

  • Previous
  •  
  • Next

Copyright © United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

Museum Information

  • Today at the Museum
  • Plan Your Visit
  • Exhibitions and Collections
  • Traveling Exhibitions

Resources for Academics and Research

  • Ask a Research Question
  • Research in Collections
  • Research about Survivors and Victims
  • Academic Programs

Resources for Educators

  • Teaching about the Holocaust
  • Programs for Teachers
  • Teaching Materials
  • Holocaust Encyclopedia

Resources for Professionals and Student Leaders

  • Law Enforcement
  • Military
  • Judiciary
  • Faith and Interfaith Communities
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW
Washington, DC 20024-2126
Main telephone: 202.488.0400
TTY: 202.488.0406

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google Plus
  • Youtube
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram
  • About the Museum
  • Contact the Museum
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy
  • Accessibility
  • Legal
×

#USHMM #AskWhy

FirstPerson

Conversations with Survivors
of the Holocaust

Watch Now

Join us right now to watch a live interview with a survivor, followed by a question-and-answer session.