Helena Citrónová
Helena Citrónová (born August 26, 1922 in Humenné Czechoslovakia ; † between June 3 and 4, 2007 in Israel ) was a Jewish survivor of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp , whose experiences were published several times decades later and became internationally known.
Life
Citrónová was early 20s in March 1942 in one of the first transport trains from Slovakia in extermination camps admitted Auschwitz-Birkenau and worked in Effektenlager Canada . There a guard, the 20-year-old SS-Unterscharführer Franz Wunsch , fell in love with the young woman. On March 21, her first day at work in the Canada department, she had to sing a birthday serenade to the SS man. Wish now tried to help her according to the possibilities available in the concentration camp . It was only after a long time and the greatest emotional resistance that Helena finally returned his love - especially when her sister's wish saved her life immediately after arriving at the extermination camp.
Helena Citrónová's sister Rožinka, who was ten years older than her, was admitted to Birkenau months after her with a small daughter and an infant son. The small family should be killed immediately. Wunsch had Helena give her sister's name and was just able to save her from going to the crematorium, arguing that he urgently needed her as a worker in the securities warehouse he ran. There was no way of saving the two children in Birkenau.
After the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in January 1945, Helena and her sister fled to their Slovak homeland on foot, where - according to her later testimony - they were exposed to the constant risk of rape by Red Army soldiers . Helena could only narrowly escape an actual rape attempt by identifying herself as a Jewish concentration camp inmate to the Red Army soldier by showing the inmate number . Citrónová then emigrated from Czechoslovakia to Israel .
Their fate only became known to the international public three decades later. In the second Auschwitz Trial in Vienna (April to June 1972), the trial of her concentration camp guard Franz Wunsch, she first publicly described her unusual love affair with the accused and the way that her sister could save her life. In doing so, she contributed to its relief. Later publications are based on this testimony. Recently their fate was by 2005 on the 60th anniversary of Auschwitz liberation produced a six-part BBC - documentation Auschwitz: The Nazis and the 'Final Solution' ( Director : Laurence Rees) known to an international audience once again.
literature
- Laurence Rees: Auschwitz: the Nazis & the 'final solution' , BBC Books, 2005, ISBN 0-563-52117-1 and ISBN 978-0-563-52117-4 .
- Wojciech Dutka: Czerń i purpura , Wydawnictwo Albatros, 2013, ISBN 978-83-8125-583-7
Web links
- Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi-State (English, with youth photo)
- Citrónová interview in the BBC documentary Auschwitz: The Nazi and the Final Solution (Minute 6:40)
- Citrónová in old age (photo)
- http://www.communitywalk.com/location/helena_citronova_1971/survived/10204195
- https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-10147-66472240-in-billiongraves
Individual evidence
- ↑ Auschwitz: Ashes and Gold , pp. 61–72
- ^ Auschwitz: Inside The Nazi State
- ↑ Laurence Rees: Raped by their saviors: How the survivors of Auschwitz escaped one nightmare only to face another unimaginable ordeal
- ↑ Franz Wunsch was finally acquitted because of the statute of limitations.
- ↑ Talking to Hitler's lost tribe Stephen Bates: Talking to Hitler's lost tribe
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Citrónová, Helena |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Czechoslovak Jewish concentration camp survivors |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1920 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Slovakia |
| DATE OF DEATH | after 2005 |
| Place of death | Israel |