Collection

Montreal Holocaust Museum

Description Level

Item

Material Type

textual record

Physical Description

Postcard : Cardstock : printed, handwritten : Ink; graphite : beige, green, graphite, purple ; Ht: 5,75 in. x W: 4 in.

Other Title Information

Documentary Artifact

Date

June 1944

Physical Condition

Good

Language

Hungarian

Notes

1 page. Two-sided postcard. Light cardstock postcard with green stamp. On the recto, is a handwritten message and, on the verso, is to the address. Postcard was sent by Arthur Schwartz while working in a Hungarian Labour Battallion in 1944, located near Kosice, Slovakia. He wrote to a gentile neighbour asking her if she could check to see if his parents had sent any postcards from Auschwitz. His parents had been deported to Auschwitz in 1944-05. Narrative: Arthur Schwartz was born on 1923-05-31 in Kosice, Slovakia. The town was at the time in Czechoslovakia. Arthur was the oldest of four children, two boys and two girls. At the beginning of 1944-03, the Jews in Kosice were forced to wear the yellow star badge and a Judenrat was formed. Arthur was sent to a labour camp. He worked at a train station, giving water to Jews who were being deported. According to Arthur, three transports left the station every day for Poland, but he did not know where they went specifically. In 1944-05, his family was deported to Auschwitz (Poland). In 1944-10, Arthur was marched across the country with 400 men. They received military rations to eat. One day, he went into a town to fix his shoe and lost his unit. He slept in a barn and was captured by the Arrow Cross. The detachment took Arthur to an office and tortured him. He was released and sent on another forced march near the end of 1944. He was liberated by Russian Army on 1945-04-01. After the war, he found his two sisters and a cousin who had all survived the Auschwitz camp. Arthur's parents, grandparents, and brother were all murdered in the gas chambers. Arthur immigrated to Montreal in 1948. He worked in a luggage factory and in a clothing factory.

Accession No.

2011X.37.1

Name Access

SCHWARTZ, Arthur

Places

Kosice, Slovakia, Hungary, Europe

Archival / Genealogical

Archival Descriptions

Repository

Montreal Holocaust Museum

Less detail