Strasshof Concentration Camp

[Text: As a child, Janos was deported from Hungary and imprisoned in Strasshof concentration camp near Vienna, Austria. He describes the barracks where he and his mother were kept and the harsh conditions they endured.] 

Janos Benisz: Once we got on the trucks, that trip to the point where they took us took a few hours. Four hours, three hours, five hours. Well, our destination turned out to be a concentration camp called Strasshof. Very close to Vienna, perhaps 15 to 20 kilometres, towards, I think, the Hungarian border. But we’re quite far away from the Hungarian border, I assume. The camp was, of course, alone, there were big fields near it. And there was forest near it. And to me, it reminded me of old army barracks. I went in there, and I recall the floors were concrete, and there were no bunks. It was easy for me but must be hard on the elderly. It seems to me that I was [indiscernible] that I was the only child in ... what you call these bunker[s], no, barracks ... and, in short order, my good friends became mice, which didn’t scare me, but the rats frighten me, I saw one or two rats. And my playmates were body lice and head lice. My mother had this ... and oh, the barracks housed about 30 to 40 people. And it certainly wasn’t ... We were pretty squeezed in. And from later in the winter for warmth, we had hay. But my mother, bless her and may she rest in peace, had this big coat, and it used to bother me why she had been wearing this big coat in the summer. But it became a lifesaver in November and December because there is no heat there that I recall. And I was always hidden under this big coat with her.