My young cousin, Laci Vörös, has come back from the Mauthausen concentration camp. He managed to escape from Ils, near Graz early in April and became involved with deportees and their problems.
The first deportee from Auschwitz arrived on May 4 to Békéscsaba - Jenő Weisz, the tailor, very religious, who practiced Orthodox Judaism. His house on Szív (Heart) street is filled with people, anxious to see him and speak to him. He is smiling again, but his light blue eyes are filled with tears. He thanks God that he escaped from the crematory and is positive that his wife is alive, as he had seen her a few days before the camp was liberated - just for a few seconds. The women were probably being transferred on an other route. There is a deluge of questions - hopes - fears. Jenő tries to spare them from the horrendous truths and does not speak about the atrocities. He tried to imply that there was hope and had seen my father-in-law Imre after the first line-up - but not since.
Seven hundred and seventy families had been deported from Békéscsaba - two thousand two hundred human beings. Only Jenő Weisz's wife survived Auschwitz. Considering that he was much older, surely my twenty-two year old wife and her little sister Ildike would make it through the suffering, hunger and cruelty.
There is no end to one's optimism and hope for one's beloved.
May 6, Sunday. Just two lines: "My darling I dreamt of you last night. You have come home...it was so beautiful..."