It’s What We Remember

Friday, February 2, 2024

Featured Guests: Holocaust Survivor Kathy Gross

Holocaust survivor Kathy Gross (Katalin Steiner) was born June 5, 1938 in Budapest, Hungary. Kathy was the second child born to an upper-middle class family; her sister, Livia, was 6 years older. Their father owned a textile factory and enjoyed a comfortable live due to the family business. Kathy’s mother, Magdolna, employed a housekeeper and a nanny to take care of the household and children. Kathy’s family did not keep a kosher home; however, Kathy’s father prayed every morning and they observed all the Jewish holidays.

Following the Anschluss Kathy’s father, Erno, had to take on a gentile partner to prevent losing his business, as Jews were not allowed to possess valuables, even radios, bicycles, and other personal items, had to be turned in. In fact, Kathy still has one inventory receipt of the items that were handed over. As a young child, Kathy remembers a happy life; visits to the park & spending time with relatives. Although Kathy was too young to remember all the deprivations caused by discrimination, she can recall wearing the yellow Star of David.

Kathy’s family lived on the fourth floor, which was at the top of her apartment building, where she recalls air raids that forced her family to go to the cellar, where she had her crib. Since most air raids occurred at night, she recalls one instance when her building caught fire, due to the American bombing of the ammunition depot next door; they had to escape from the cellar to cellar, by knocking over a loosely built wall between the basements. The air raids instilled fear & trauma of a young Kathy.

Meanwhile, Kathy’s father was taken to a labor camp, and then moved to various concentration camps, ending up at Flossenburg, where he died in Nov., 1944. On March 19, 1944, the German Nazis occupied Hungary, and Jews were forced to move to designated Jewish houses. Kathy’s building was designated and they had to share their apartment with another family, who happened to be our friends. Kathy’s mom found out that her brother was taken to a brick factory near Budapest, so she hurried to take some food to him. However, the Nazis grabbed her and sent her home to pack her belongings as they were going to take her to a concentration camp. She took some fake poison to avoid the camp, and was taken to the hospital to pump her stomach; this time she escaped, but they eventually came to the house soon after, and she & our friend were taken by the Nazis, leaving our friends’ son, alone. Kathy’s sister, Livia, was also deported.

Soon after, a Jewish organization came and collected the abandoned children to hide them in a safe place. Kathy recalls a harsh winter, as she wore three sets of clothing on top of each other and in the dead of winter, and were scrubbed clean with melted snow, once a week. Kathy’s head was shaved; her head/body was covered with lice and she had an infected nail that had to be removed without an anesthetic. After liberation, her mother found her with her arm in a sling, as another finger was infected. Kathy’s mother was taken on a march to the border, but she & her friend were offered to be hidden by a local resident in the countryside; they obtained false identifications and were able to hide at an abandoned place in Budapest. Additionally, after the Russian liberation of Budapest, Kathy’s mom found her & her sister; they all returned to the bombed-out apartment with her grandmother who also survived the ghetto. Livia caught polio and died in June 1945, since the iron lung did not exist at this time. Kathy’s mother was able to renovate the factory and was managing it until the communists nationalized it in 1949. Kathy grew up in the communist regime but was scrutinized because of her capitalist background, and in 1956, after the Hungarian Revolution she immigrated to England. In 1962, she came to the United States, where she became a proud US citizen.