Nelly Wolffheim

MENSCHLICHE VERSUCHS-KANINCHEN

HUMAN GUINEA PIGS

Name: Miklos Fâbri (formerly Fried)

Born: 30 August 1903. In Ungvár, Hungary

Religion: Jewish

Occupation: Businessman (textiles). Studied in Reichenberg, Bohemia, at the Textile Institute, 2-year course

Parents: Textile business. Perished in Auschwitz.

Mr Fábri’s sufferings started even before Hitler invaded Hungary. He had previously been living with his wife and daughter in comfortable circumstances in Ungvár. When part of Czechoslovakia, to which Ungvár belonged, was transferred to Hungary in 1939 as a result of a pact between Hitler and Horthy, Horthy passed anti-Jewish laws: Jewish assets were confiscated, Jewish employees were sacked and Jewish work camps were opened. Mr Fábri spent about 3 years in the Kosice and Uzok work camps until he was released in 1943. On 19 March 1944 Hitler invaded Hungary and for Jews this was the start of torments which Mr Fábri describes in their entire enormity. All Jews from Ungvár and the surrounding area were herded together in a ghetto, in a brick factory in Ungvár. There were about 30 000 people. The families stayed together in the carriages. All possessions: homes, money (insofar as accessible) and clothing had first been confiscated. Criminals from the prison, sick people from the hospital and even women who had just given birth were put in the ghetto.

Mr Fábri says that only someone who has seen a brick factory can have any idea of what this situation was like. For brick manufacture the air in the buildings has to circulate and the buildings have to be well-ventilated and wet; the barracks had no walls.

There was one barrack which was set apart from the others where people were beaten if they wanted to find out where they had hidden money or gold. Some died in the process.

Once a day the prisoners were given soup, they had to carry the water to the barracks themselves and were often beaten on the way. The prisoners remained in the brick factory until 17 May and were then loaded into carriages and taken to Auschwitz. The transport took place in locked carriages where they had to stand close together. They were given no food, no water; there was one bucket for 100 people. There was no air, as neither doors nor windows were opened. Some people couldn’t stand it, died maybe, went mad. A mother hanged her child to spare it this and what was to come. After 3 days the doors were opened, everyone was let out. The people arriving were met by German soldiers, some prisoners who had been in Auschwitz for longer were there too. Men and women were now separated. Mr Fábri was so agitated and confused that he did not notice this and did not say goodbye to either his wife and child or to his other family members, a sister with a two-year-old child and several cousins. His mother was also amongst them. He saw none of them again despite the fact that, to avoid panic, the prisoners were promised that they would see their relatives again in the evening.

There were cars standing there for the old people who could not walk. They were driven to Reisko [handwritten note in the margin: RAJSK?], an area where open graves were waiting, in which they were buried alive. The old people who could still walk were sent into the gas chambers.

Mengele, doctor and camp commander, was waiting for the new arrivals

at the entrance to the camp.

He pointed at random to people who were to be cremated immediately and those who were to stay alive were directed to the other side. Mr Fábri’s father was also amongst those selected to die. This transport was the last in which a selection was made, from the next transport on all the prisoners were taken straight to the gas chambers.

It should be mentioned here as an aside that Mengele was hanged in Auschwitz after the Nuremberg trial.

In the camp the people had all their clothes taken away. Their heads and bodies were shaved, they were showered and given their convicts clothing and the branded camp number, Mr F’s was A 14086. Then they were taken to the gypsy concentration camp Birkenau. Here they were housed in windowless barracks which had previously been used as stables. 2000 people together, only room to stand, no beds. Mad and dying people amongst them. For 2 days they were given nothing to eat, then a bowl of soup for 4 people but no spoons. Once a day they were allowed to relieve themselves.

After a week a further selection was made amongst those who were under 44 years old. Mr Fábri was 41 and was allocated to Camp No. 1, assigned to agricultural work. To get to their workplace they had to run 10 – 12 kilometres at a fast pace. Anyone who was too slow was beaten by the Kapos (German soldiers or Poles) in charge.

The prisoners had to get up at 4:30 in the morning, then stand for roll call until 6:30, then go to work where they spent the whole day bending down pulling out weeds. Standing up straight was not allowed. At midday there was a break when they were given dried vegetables. One day they were told to take white sand which was standing ready in boxes and scatter it on the fields by hand. The sand was the bone meal of the people who had been cremated.

It burned the prisoners’ hands

which were damp due to the heat and many people sustained deep wounds.

One day, when Mr Fábri could no longer walk fast enough, an SS soldier shot him in the foot. He was then taken to the camp hospital. This was on 10 August 1944. On 30 August a doctor came and picked out 40 patients from amongst those present, amongst them Mr Fábri. The selected men were taken to a secret barrack as guinea pigs for medical experiments. Mr Fábri was given malaria and infected with other substances unknown to him. For this he was strapped to a table and a kind of saw was used to make deep incisions into which the substance was introduced. Pieces were cut out so as to be able to see the effect in the wound better. This was done without any kind of anaesthetic and was of course extremely painful. Even today I was still able to see the resulting scars on his hands and legs. On 16 January 1945, 37 of the 40 men used for the experiments were fetched and gassed immediately so as to not disclose the crime. Only Mr Fábri and two other men stayed behind as the wounds had not yet healed and the experiments could therefore not be regarded as completed. The three were thus the only survivors. Mr Fábri has documents which confirm the events. (see film).

Mr Fábri stayed in the hospital in Auschwitz, where he had been taken from the secret barrack, until the camp was liberated by the Russians on 16 January 1945. The Russians took him immediately to Krakow in Poland. There it was found that Mr Fábri, who had in the past weighted 80 kilos, now only weighted 35 kilos. On 15 July 1945 he was discharged from hospital and, together with another group, made his way to Budapest, travelling on foot (which was only possible with orthopaedic boots, see final remark)

and breaking the journey from time to time. Welfare organisations helped them with this undertaking. On the way they received help and friendly treatment from Poles and Czechs. The Russians suspected them of being spies, which caused problems.

On arrival in Budapest Mr Fábri found his only surviving sister who had spent the time in Ravensbrück. He went to Ungvár to see what had become of his former house and found that the Russians had taken everything that had been left there. Only money that he had buried was still there and this helped him to pay for his subsistence because until 1948 he was too sick to be able to work. Then he began to weave scarves and was able to make a living from this.

On 25 October 1945 he married Ilona Braun from Ungvár, who had also been in Auschwitz. A separate report will describe her experiences there. After outbreak of the revolution on 25 August 1957 the couple emigrated legally to London as they had a passport. As they received some money from the USA this helped them during the initial period. Now Mr Fábri weaves scarves here for sale, using a small hand weaving machine which he himself has invented and which he plans to have patented. Mrs Fábri is currently working part-time.

As his foot is completely crippled as a result of the shot in the foot while in the concentration camp, and the affected leg is also much thinner, Mr Fábri cannot do any work that involves standing. Without his orthopaedic shoes he cannot walk at all and is thus extremely handicapped.

Mr Fábri told me that the reason for their decision to emigrate was that as former capitalists they believed they were again in danger and therefore preferred to go to a free country.

21 October 1958 Fábri Miklos

Statutory declaration

Today Dr Alfred Boris, senior radiologist, resident in Budapest,

XIV. Cházár A. Gasse 16., appeared before me and confirms the following:

In the month of August 1944 he was in Auschwitz in the same hospital as Nikolaus Fábri/Fried/ born in Ungvár on 30 August 1903, resident in Budapest, XIII. Katona József Gasse 22. In this hospital Nikolaus Fábri was given medical treatment because of a foot wound. This foot wound had been caused by an SS guard.

Dr Boris further confirmed the following:

As doctor assigned to the 28th hospital block of the Main Camp I learned on 10 September 1944 that the German SS doctor Dr Kausch was performing vivisection experiments on Jewish prisoners. One day I was able to gain access to a hospital room. To my immense surprise I saw Nikolaus Fábri there and he told me that vivisection experiments were being performed on his feet and arms and also internally. Wounds on his body, feet and arms had been created by infection, which began to fester after a short time. These experiments were extremely painful. Fábri was also inoculated with malaria bacilli. He was given Atebrin pastilles to try to treat the resulting malaria. Fábri had to repeatedly take 25 pastilles.

These various experiments were – to my knowledge – continued until the evacuation of the camp.

Budapest 1 August 1957.

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