Barbara Marton Farkas never forgot the moment she realized the Soviet army was closing in on Weisswasser, the subcamp of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp where she was imprisoned
Barbara Marton Farkas never forgot the moment she realized the Soviet army was closing in on Weisswasser, the subcamp of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp where she was imprisoned. "During the night we start to hear all kind of noises: airplane and shooting, and they said that the Russia are starting ... to get closer and closer.”
80 years ago #OnThisDay, Soviet forces liberated Gross-Rosen, but they found only a few prisoners still there. As the Soviets approached, Barbara and tens of thousands of other prisoners were evacuated from the camp and many of its subcamps.
“They evacuate the barracks, and they put us on feet to walk.”
Despite being so close to liberation, it would be months before Barbara would finally be free.
Barbara had been deported to Auschwitz along with her family and others from her Jewish community in Hungary more than six months earlier, in mid-1944. After a few months, Barbara was transferred to Weisswasser. A registered laboratory technician before the war, she was forced to work there in chemistry labs.
She was finally liberated in late April 1945 at the Danish-German border.
Photo: Barbara (second from left) and other survivors after liberation. USHMM, courtesy of William and Barbara Farkas
#Holocaust #History #WWII less
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