Auschwitz-Birkenau. The ultimate symbol of the Holocaust, where more than a million Jews were murdered. Of the 1,230 elderly Jews we interviewed between 2000 and 2009, nearly 100 managed to survive this hell on Earth—some to be sent on to even worse places. We present excerpts from five of those interviews, one each from Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Czechia, and Poland.
Introduction: Five eyewitnesses in hell. The Auschwitz stories.
narrated by
Edward Serotta
What was it like to find yourself descending into hell on Earth? That is what you’re about to hear in the five episodes in this season of Centropa Stories.
Thank you for joining us, and this program has been made possible, in part by CERV— Citizens Equality, Rights and Values of the European Commission’s Education and Culture Executive Agency.
Erzsébet Barsony. Hungary.
narrated by
Tina Gray
She grew up in a well-to-do family in Budapest, married in 1928 and doted on her only child, Erwin, while running three hat shops with her husband. Then the entire family descended into hell.
Katerina Loefflerova. Slovakia.
narrated by
Jan Goodman
Katarina Vidor grew up comfortably middle class in Bratislava. She worked in an accounting office, spoke four languages. She loved playing tennis and water skied with friends on the Adriatic. She had recently married and her parents lived nearby. Then war came.
Pavel Werner. Czechia.
narrated by
Elliot Levey
In March 1939, Nazi Germany occupied the Czech regions of Bohemia and Moravia. Pavel’s family was called for a transport to Terezin in 1944. Two years later, they were told they would be sent to “the east.” That meant Auschwitz.
Josef Seweryn. Poland.
narrated by
Steve Furst
Jozef trained as a barber and as someone who could repair fountain pens. Those skills first saved his life and brought him into direct contact with Nazi officers in Auschwitz—and led him to testify against them in nearly a dozen postwar trials.
Leo Luster. Austria.
narrated by
Henry Goodman
When Nazi Germany occupied Austria, over 110,000 Jews managed to flee. The Luster family, Moses and Golda, and their 14 year old son Leo, could not find a way out. Leo would endure nearly seven years of hell—in Theresienstadt, in Auschwitz, and in work camps in Germany.
Erzsebet Barsony was interviewed by Klara Lazok and Viktoria Kutas in Budapest in 2005. Her story is read for us by Tina Grey in London.
Katerina Loefflerova was interviewed by Martin Korcok in Bratislava in 2004. Her story is read for us by Jan Goodman in London.
Pavel Werner was interviewed for Centropa by Dagmar Greslova in Prague in 2005. His story is read for us by Elliot Levey in London.
Jozef Seweryn was interviewed by Zuzanna Solakiewicz in Krakow in 2005. His story is read for us by Steve Furst in London.
Leo Luster was interviewed by Tanja Eckstein in Tel Aviv in 2010. His story is read for us by Henry Goodman in London.
Special thanks to Prosonica Studio for sound design and music in Krakow.
Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Educational and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
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