“WE HAD ENTERED HELL”

Auschwitz is a name that symbolises industrialised terror, genocide and sickening evil. Approximately 1.1 million people were murdered at this camp complex, with the vast majority being Jews from across Nazi-occupied Europe. With its gas chambers and crematoriums, Auschwitz epitomised the monstrous reality of the Nazis’ ‘Final Solution’ and the scale of the atrocities remain difficult to comprehend.

27 January 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet forces. Despite the passage of time, the Holocaust remains an indelible stain on humanity and for survivors, the horror remains an open wound. One of those who survived was Mindu Hornick who spent six months imprisoned at Auschwitz before she was transferred to Neuengamme concentration camp. Now a tireless and honoured campaigner for Holocaust education, Hornick lost all but one of her immediate family and barely survived herself.

Her testimony is an unimaginable account of how a young teenage girl endured the unendurable in impossible circumstances.

“Terribly frightened”

Born in Slovakia in 1929 as Margareta ‘Mindu’ Klein, Hornick had an idyllic childhood with her father Morrise, mother Chaya, older sister Baylu and two younger brothers Julius and Samuel, “I have lovely memories of life before the war. We lived in a peaceful town with a nice little Jewish community. My father was a wood and hay merchant and the local area was good for growing fruit. We had an orchard and my father supplied the apples to cider factories. We also had good relations with our neighbours and school friends.”

In 1939, Hornick’s part of Slovakia was given to the Hungarians by the Nazis, “It had been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire before WWI and they imported Hungarian teachers to Slovakia. As a minority group we had to go to Hungarian schools. For my sins, I can still speak Hungarian!”

Despite the commencement of hostilities, Hornick’s family remained relatively safe, until 1941. “Life was reasonable but things started to get very difficult when my father was recruited into the so-called ‘army’. He and others had no uniform and carried just a shovel while they wore the Star of David. They did menial tasks for the Germans such as digging trenches and clearing mines.”

Hornick’s father’s business was confiscated and the situation worsened in 1942, “Lorries came and our community was collected and taken to Galicia and Serebrianka [concentration camps]. However, about eight families whose husbands were in the ‘army’ were left behind. This was because the Hungarian