Testimony of Margit Becker Rosenberg

2/27/2000 by Cherie Korer

I was born in Humenne in 1922. I am the remnant of 8 children. My mother was 43 and my father was 50 when I and 1,000 young women were transported to Auschwitz on March 20, 1942. We were among the first in Auschwitz. I never saw my family again. I testified for Steven Spielberg for two hours about what I am going to tell you.

I survived 34 months and then the death march. How did I survive? I carried corpses… (see interviewers note below) It is too much for the mind to accept all we had to do to survive. I was overcome with sickness many times. People gave me food and helped me. Many times I thought it was the end. By all odds I wasn’t supposed to survive. My classmate Edita Eichler died in front of me, beaten to death by a Kapo. All around me my classmates were dying of hunger, disease, torture, and gas. I was often overcome with emotion and had to pinch myself to be sure I was still alive. Miracle of miracles!! I am here. It was bashert-destiny!

Why did I survive? I know now I had a mission. My cousin Feige Neiman came to Auschwitz in 1944. I was there since 1942. I helped her survive. After the war we brought her over and got her married off. She married into one of the most prominent rabbinical families from Poland, the Sanzer family. Of 7 children she is the only survivor. Now she has a large family. When she introduces her family she says, "This is all I have left, my family and Margit!" It was my mission to save her so she might have her wonderful family. I myself have 18 grandchildren and many great grandchildren.

Would I go back to Humenne? I had so many nightmares. My doctor said I should go back, that it would ease my mind. I have no desire to go where the soil is soaked in blood. I would be scared to step on that land. How could I bear it?

After the war I heard all the stories of our young people who were murdered. Gabriel Eichler was hunted down in the forests of Humenne, tortured and then shot. I remember his brother Mosha Eichler who had just married Monse Feintuck on a lovely Friday afternoon the week before. They were caught and shot. What was their big crime? They were trying to save their lives.

I remember Salamon's Kocsma. It was over the hill in Kudlovics near the school I attended. His son had a shoestore in Humenne. Another friend of mine was Szarene Eichler and her sister Rose, who survived, I am happy to say, with the help of Christian friends.

I met my husband and married in a Displaced Persons camp after the War. It was in the town where Hitler was born, Braun, Austria. I guess it goes to show they couldn't finish us off.

Interviewer's note: As Margit began to tell how she survived Auschwitz, my mind shut down, my pencil froze in my hand, I no longer heard her words. I couldn't bear to hear and so this interview lacks any gruesome detail of her experience.