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The Jewish Chronicle

Survivor story: Alice Salamon

'I never once thought about if I was going to survive'

January 27, 2011 10:57
Remembering: Alice Salamon

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At the age of 15, Hungarian-born Alice Salamon was in a ghetto in Košice, Czechoslovakia, separated from her family. She was sent on a cattle truck to Auschwitz, then Markkleeberg and Theresienstadt, surviving a 24-hour death march.

Fourteen days before the war ended, she met a family friend who told her that her father was still alive. But it was a false hope. "I was alone. There was nobody."

Now 85, she recalls happy times pre-war. "My mother and my father were such good people, we were a very close family - they were always helping everyone. But when I had to support myself, I could not bear it."

Her year being shuttled between concentration camps has left deep scars and she cannot bring herself to discuss in detail what went on. She does say that "some Jewish women did terrible things. But it was a terrible situation. While I was in the camps I never once thought about myself, or if I was going to survive, or about the future.

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