Yehuda
Freund

Yehuda Freund

Yehouda Freund was born in 1932 in Hungary to a moderately religious family. He had one sister, and together they attended Jewish school and lived in a lovely neighborhood in Budapest. During the war, his father was conscripted into a forced labor unit to build a railway line. His mother was left alone with the two children; she was pregnant and bedridden when the Germans occupied Hungary in March 1944. Young Yehouda became the de facto head of the family. Schools were closed, and children were forced to wear the Yellow Star. Telephones and radios were confiscated. In May 1944, the Hungarian and German authorities seized a district in Budapest with a large Jewish population and turned it into a ghetto. Soon after, the deportation of Hungarian Jews began at a frantic pace. In just two months, more than 400,000 Jews were sent to Auschwitz and gassed upon arrival. It was during this time that a Hungarian Jew, Rudolf Kastner, negotiated with Eichmann for the lives of a small group of Hungarian Jews in exchange for a large sum of money. Approximately 1,600 Jews would depart on what became known as the "Kastner Train"—a transport supposedly bound for Spain. Yehouda, his sister, and his mother were on Kastner’s list. Many people refused to go, certain the train would take them to Auschwitz. Yehouda, his sister, and his pregnant mother hesitated but eventually boarded the freight cars, not knowing their destination. A small space was cleared in a corner for his mother and her "big belly," but there was nothing to eat or drink. The train eventually stopped, and the passengers were told they were going to take a shower. They arrived at a public bathhouse. "We knew perfectly well that when they said, 'You are going to take a shower,' the gas was coming," he shared with me. There was no escape; the prisoners were surrounded by the SS. Then, to their utter astonishment, the water began to flow. They were later taken to Bergen-Belsen. His mother eventually gave birth in Lausanne—not to one baby, but to two: twin girls. Together with his mother, sister, and the two tiny infants, they managed to return to Hungary. His father had miraculously survived by going into hiding. The family was reunited, and the father discovered, for the first time, the existence of his two youngest daughters. [...+]

My visit to Yehuda

Clips

See

Yehuda

« Tell her to board the train without fail. This saved our lives. »
See

Yehuda

« It's not gas, it's water! »
See

Yehuda

« You're coming to tell me my child is dead. »

Other witnesses

Portrait d'Evelyn - Les Derniers
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Evelyn
Askolovitch
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Daniel
Goldman
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Renée
Borycki
Les Derniers - Flora
Infos
Flora
Eskenazi
Les Derniers - Henri
Infos
Henri
Borlant
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David
Schaecter
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Joseph
Obstfeld
Les Derniers - Jacques
Infos
Jacques
Altmann
Les Derniers - Arlette
Infos
Arlette
Testyler
Infos
Sami
Steigmann
Les Derniers - Guy
Infos
Guy
Granat
Infos
Yehuda
Freund