Oral History Interview with Eva Cutler

Eva Frederich Cutler, born in 1925 in Budapest, Hungary, describes being the second child of a cultured, assimilated Jewish family; her family’s change from being unaware of existing Hungarian antisemitism and of Nazi persecutions of Jews elsewhere to experiencing government imposed restrictions; her family’s attempts to emigrate and their continuing disbelief of the persecution of Jews; the varied attitudes of Hungarians under the German occupation; receiving help from some non-Jews, including a German administrator; the induction of her brother into a work brigade; her father being taken away; being herded out of Budapest along with many other young Jewish women in the fall of 1944; the horrendous conditions and brutality during the death march to Bergen-Belsen; witnessing a mass execution of men; a German army officer helping her to walk so she could keep going; how some townspeople offered food to the marchers and others abused them; her brief encounter with Wallenberg at the Austrian border, where he saved those who had Swiss or Swedish protective passes; arriving at Bergen-Belsen in January 1945 after enduring a prolonged cattle car ride; how survivors suffered from continued deprivation and illness there and also had to cope with hostility from Polish and Czech Jews who were already there; liberation in April 1945; learning that her parents survived in Budapest and her brother was presumed dead; being sent to Sweden for recovery and rehabilitation by the Red Cross; the excellent medical care and kindness she experienced in Sweden; going to the United States in 1946; her parents going to the US via Canada after Eva attained US citizenship; returning to Hungary after 37 years; and her belief in the brotherhood of man.

Date: 07/27/1984
Interviewer: Nora Levin
Interviewee: Eva Cutler
Language: English
Subject: Antisemitism--Hungary.
Death march survivors.
Death marches.
Forced labor.
Hiding places--Hungary.
Holocaust survivors.
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Hungary--Personal narratives.
Human smuggling.
Jewish women in the Holocaust.
Jews--Hungary--Budapest.
Jews--Legal status, laws, etc.--Hungary.
Jews--Persecutions--Hungary.
Massacres.
Women concentration camp inmates.
World War, 1939-1945--Conscript labor--Hungary.
World War, 1939-1945--Deportations from Hungary.
World War, 1939-1945--Medical care--Sweden.
Women--Personal narratives.
Geographic Name
Budapest (Hungary)
Hungary--History--1918-1945.
Lower Saxony (Germany)
Sweden.
United States--Emigration and immigration.
Location: Budapest, Hungary
Hidegkút, Hungary
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Malmö, Sweden
USA
Permalink: https://hoha.digitalcollections.gratzcollege.edu/item/oral-history-interview-with-eva-cutler/