Our New "Home"

May 18, 1944; we had to move into the ghetto. On that very same day my father left us forever. The army called him up and he had to present himself at the army headquarters for forced labor service in the disreputable city of Gyoma. Thus the unimaginable became true. How can a government expel its own innocent citizens without justification and call this "law". God fearing people - infants, children and adults - anyone born to a Jewish mother up to three generations back had their fate sealed. None had ever committed serious crimes against the law of God, government or mankind.

The ghetto compound included our temple, the Jewish school, and some surrounding houses. Conditions were terribly overcrowded, and our family was quartered in the temple's stable area. I sometimes thought about running away, perhaps asking one of our Christian neighbors to me. But I never came to do it. If our neighbors really sympathized with us they would have offered to hide us without being asked. They must have hated their Jewish neighbors, due to the lies of religion on which they were raised. They singled out one Jew to falsely extol and pray to as the Son of the Almighty (can't we all share this claim equally), while hating the rest of the Jews. Why did we have to suffer for two thousand years because of the son of a Roman soldier and Jewish seamstress?

I painted the two small storage rooms that would be our premises two days before moving into the ghetto. We were somewhat fortunate to receive this abode, as some families shared small houses with others. Some had to live in degrading conditions in the temple itself, which was quite overcrowded. The local gendarme decided where each family would live, making sure that conditions would be intolerable.

My father very much hoped that our town of Puspokladany would soon be liberated from Nazi rule by the advancing Russian army (indeed, this happened within three months), so he made sure that some of our property was kept in safe hands. He packed 100 kilograms of natural goose down and merchandise under order by the big machine he invented - separating the down from the feathers. Thus, when he returned home he would be able to begin making a living right away. My father assured us that he would return from the army as soon as our town was liberated, and that in the meantime we would be safe in the ghetto. Before going away, my father bought my mother a white goat, so that she could have milk with her coffee every day!

Thursday morning, May 18, 1944. Dawn came upon us. The beginning of our official expulsion by our own government from our rightly owned homes. We packed our modest belongings - some furniture, a kitchen stove, kitchenware and some pots - and were ready to be transferred to the ghetto. The government arranged our move itself to make sure that no Jew would escape. They brought a peasant with his horse-cart for this task.

© David Muskal, 2001