Hellah Muller

RelatioNet  HE MU 22 NO CZ

Interviewers:

Nitzan Weinshenk NitzanWeinshenk@gmail.com
Tair Atias tair_atias@walla.com


Survivor:

Code: RelatioNet HE MU 22 NO CZ
Family Name: Muller
First Name: Hellah
Year of Birth: 1922
Town In Holocaust: Nove Zamky
Country In Holocaust: Czechoslovakia
Address Today: living in Kfar Saba, Israel



Interview 

I was born in 1922, and named Hellah. We lived in a small village called "Preverta", next to Nove Zamky, Czechoslovakia. In the village there were a few Jewish families. We were a religious community, orthodox Jews. Our families were well-united. We kept kosher, and we also kept the Shabbath. I am one of seven siblings, of which only one survived apart from me.

Before the war, my father was the Chazan of our community. I remember that we used to have a meal every Shabbath, and my father always told us about the weekly portion. He kept connecting it to "Aliya" and Palestine. He said that we didn't have the right to live among the Goys.

We were Zionist too, and all of us were members of a youth-movement which was called "Bney Akiva" and which still exists today. We had a great passion for Israel, and ever since I was young I have cried when Jerusalem was mentioned. It happens even today.

We were taken in 1944, and till then Czechoslovakia had been a democracy. My family was taken before me from Nove Zamky. The farmers needed some workers, and due to our desire to get away and escape from our village, the family went to work there. We thought that this way we would manage to escape the expulsion. However, they were taken three weeks before me.

Before the trains came, all the Jews were concentrated in the Ghetto "Komarno". Everything was very organized. We were ordered to take only minimal property, for instance some warm clothes and blankets, about 12kg for a person.

We knew the Germans were meant to come a few days before their arrival, however, even though the idea of escaping came up, it was impossible because we were a big family. My father made us swear that the minute the war ended, we would go to Palestine. He consistently repeated that there was no future for the Jews of Europe.

After a few days in the Ghetto, the trains arrived. We were all made to go on the train, without knowing where it terminated. It was crowded in the carriage. There were no basic hygiene conditions. There was one bucket, which we hid behind when we went to the toilet, men and women together. We were very thirsty and there weren’t any water supplies. We were badly treated and they were cruel from the beginning. From that point the purpose of every action the Germans did was to threaten and scare us. They were yelling and shouting all over, and they had big, frightening dogs.

After a very long journey, the train stopped at Auschwitz. There were violent dogs which barked loudly, and the Germans, who were very cruel, beat us and kept yelling at us. There was a selection, and the SS looked for people who were able to work. I was very lucky to be chosen to work in the kitchen, with a few other young girls. Everyone who hadn’t been chosen was fated to live a grueling life, full of hunger, thirst, disease and death.

When we arrived at the camp, our clothes were taken away from us. The SS took our good shoes too, and gave us big, clumsy shoes made of wood, without any socks. We wore old clothes, and we had no underwear. On that day our heads were shaved, even the girls'. They did this to make us feel like animals and cancel our humanity.

As I said before, the Germans separated me from my family before we were taken to the concentration camps because I worked in agriculture.  We thought that if we worked they would not take us.

On my first day in "Auschwitz" I asked where I could meet my parents, and they answered that they were all killed. On this day I discovered that my parents were burnt and their smoke left "Auschwitz" through the chimneys immediately on their arrival in "Auschwitz". My heart was broken, and from then until today it's bleeding.

My father was 46 years old and my mother was 42 years old when they were murdered. My sister came to "Auschwitz" earlier than I and she worked, so I met up with her there.

We lived in a "block" with about 1000 people. I was still very naive and I was waiting for the beds and the blankets for everyone to arrive. The evening arrived and all of a sudden we were ordered to go to sleep. There were no beds and no blankets. We slept on the floor head to foot. Many people cried and there was mess everywhere, it took a long time until it was quiet. In the night of course it was very cold.

I remember that we were waiting for the "selfer"- the roll call. We stood in rows of five and the "graza"-the person who counted us came. It is impossible to describe what was going on. We felt hopeless, we didn’t know what was going to happen and there was nothing we could do. We felt lost, and we could not expect anything.

Due to my luck I came to work in the kitchen, where it was warm. The workers had blankets and good conditions. Today I understand that compared to the other prisoners, we were living well. My work was pretty good because it was not cold near the oven.

Because we worked near the kitchen, we had more food than the other prisoners. We lived near the officers living quarters, and I remember that I couldn't understand how they could lead so many people to the gas chambers without any hesitating, and then come home and play with their children like nothing had happened.

Another detail that I remember from my life close to the officers was that sometimes I talked with Mengele himself. He was very nice to us and he wasn't a snob. We talked with him several times.

The S.S soldier woman who guarded us didn't have a lot of food either, and therefore she knew what hunger felt like. One day she even shared a sandwich with me. I knew German very well and that's why I managed to speak with her. She wasn't that cruel to us.  I also remember how she used to tell us how difficult the war was for them, I even think that her husband died in combat.

As a religious observer I had difficulties from the first day in the camp. I used to pray every evening the "Shamay Isreal" blessing and washed my hands before eating. Since there weren’t any hygienic conditions, I decided to pray even with tainted hands. During the war we were ordered to cook and light a fire even on Shabbat. This act was as hard for me as knowing of the death of my parents.

I worked in the kitchen as a cook from June till January, and after that we were taken to "Bergen Balzen". It was a concentration camp which was build late in the war. It's population was made up of French P.O.W (prisons of war) and other Germen enemies. It really was like a jail for many families. We had to deal with hunger, disease and lack of hygienic conditions.

I didn't work while I was at "Bergen Balzen" and I stayed there till the war ended. At the end of the war, the English took me to a field hospital. I was weak, very sick and thin, and weighed only 28 kg. I stayed in the hospital for two months, and for two weeks I was with an IV in my arm for fluids.

At the end of this period I tried to go home. I was alone and I didn't know what had happened to my sister who had been with me in Auschwitz. She tells she was in "Theresienstadt", next to Czechoslovakia. After the war, she wandered until she reached Prague. In the city there was a list of all the survivors who had passed through there. My sister looked for familiar names, but she couldn't find any. All of a sudden someone tapped her on her shoulder, and told her he had met me. That was the way my sister discovered I was alive.

On my journey I reached the capital city of Czechoslovakia. Because it was Saturday I didn’t want to keep wandering, therefore I stayed in a "Joint" office. This organization permitted many Jews to sleep in its buildings and provided them with food. I met a woman there from my village, and she told me my sister was alive, and that she was at my parent's home, there we met each other.

As a woman who grew up in a Zionist home, during the whole war I was hoping to come to Israel. At no time did I think that everyone was going to be murdered, I was sure it was impossible. I kept believing that God would help anyone who survived, and that we would all come to Israel. In 1949 I made "Aliya" with my sister. Here I met my husband.

Today, I can say that I have satisfaction from my children and my big family. I have a great family, with married grandsons who have children themselves. I am in touch with my sister till today. We talk and meet every single day.

Nove Zamky:

The town Nove Zamky was considered a part of the kingdom of Hungary, from the 10th century until 1918. That year Austria-Hungary collapsed, and as a result Nove Zamky was attached as a part of the territory of the new country Czechoslovakia.

In the second half of the 19^th century, there was a conflict between the orthodox and the progressive people in the community. The conflict was started because of a process of modernization, and as a result the congregations split into two parts. The orthodox, who were more traditional, stayed in Nove Zamky and established a school. The other community left Nove Zamky and opened an independent congregation.

The Jews of Nove Zamky were treated nicely by the Goys. The community was very religious and was led by a chief rabbi. In the middle of the 19^th century the congregation was so well developed that they could build a synagogue of their own. The building was destroyed by the end of World War II.

During 1991-1995 the synagogue was renovated by the remaining congregation. During the Holocaust approximately 45 people from Nove Zamky and other small villages in the area were murdered. They were remembered in a sign hanging on the outer wall of the synagogue. It was donated by the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic. There are 12 plaques like this all around Slovakia, and the 13^th is in Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. The synagogue's building was given the status of a protected memorial site in 1991 by the Slovak republic.