Györgyné Papp came from a family that did not bring her up in a particularly religious way. Nevertheless, as a Jew in Hungary in 1944, she first had to perform forced labour for the National Socialists before being deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and then to the Reichenbach and Hausberge subcamps.
"That was what kept us alive. It meant we stuck together, and even and even if it was only small things, each one tried to convey strength to the others, to tell something good, something beautiful."
Györgyné Papp in an interview with a contemporary witness in 1992, Archive of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial. Quote translated from German.
Biography
Györgyné Papp, born Zsuzsa Polgár, grew up in a middle-class home in Budapest. She had three siblings. After her father lost his job due to anti-Semitism, which was already rampant in Hungary, Györgyné also had to help ensure the family's financial survival as a young girl. Immediately after leaving school, she began working as a factory labourer.
read moreAfter the occupation of Hungary
Following the invasion of Hungary by German troops in March 1944, the persecution of the country's Jewish population intensified. After a short time, the first deportations to Auschwitz took place. For Györginé Papp's family, this initially meant moving to a so-called "Jews' house". Shortly afterwards, she and her sister were deployed as forced labourers. They assembled armaments for a company and were housed on the factory premises. After a few weeks, they were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where they remained for three months until autumn 1944.Reichenbach and Porta Westfalica
In Auschwitz-Birkenau, the sisters were selected for a transport that was to take Jewish women to the Reichenbach subcamp of the Groß-Rosen concentration camp as forced labourers. Various armaments companies were active around the camp. Prisoners for example had to produce radio tubes for the Telefunken company. At the beginning of 1945, as the Red Army approached, the women from Reichenbach were to be transported to other subcamps. The journey initially took several days in the middle of winter over the Owl Mountains to Trutnov, where the group was put on a train and driven westwards. The transport arrived in Hausberge at the end of February. Györgyné Papp's fellow prisoners also had to produce radio tubes in the Hausberge subcamp, this time for Philips and its German subsidiary Valvo. She herself was so badly injured during the transport that she remained in the camp on Frettholzweg for most of the time.The evacuation
When the evacuation of the subcamps at Porta Westfalica took place on 1 April, Györgyné Papp and her sister were first taken to Fallersleben and then to Salzwedel. They were liberated by American troops on 14 April. However, it was almost two months before they were able to return home.Back in Budapest
read less
Back in Hungary, Györgyné Papp began studying economics. She joined the Communist Party and became involved in it in the years that followed. During her professional career, she held various management positions in different areas, both in industry and in the public sector. She retired in 1980 and in 1992 she gave an interview to the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, on which these biographical notes are based.
