Family portrait in Satu Mare

Group portrait of the Herskovits cousins. In 1940, Satu Mare became part of Hungary, and in March 1944 Germany invaded the region. Despite these hard times, the Herskovits family decided to stay together in their home. In 1944, the heads of households in the town were required to report to city hall and register their families. One week later, the Herskovits family along with many others were gathered and transported to the Satu Mare ghetto. For ten days, they shared a single room in a house with the Waldman family. At the end of April 1944, the Jews of the ghetto were loaded into cattle cars with 100 people per car. Gizelle spent three nights and two days on the train before arriving in Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Gizelle's parents were sent towards the gas chambers while her siblings were sent to the barracks. Gizelle and her sisters were chosen as part of a group of 1,000 girls who were sent to Geislingen an der Steige to work in the factories with 20,000 POW men. The factory was closed, and at the end of March 1945 the girls were sent on a train to Dachau. Soon after the 1,000 girls were sent from Dachau on cattle cars again. The train moved back and forth on the tracks for eight days before finally ending up exactly where it started and liberated by American forces.


presentation Section: Life Before The War
Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum