Summaries courtesy of Special Collections and Archives, the UC Irvine Libraries.

Name:                                                  Burke, Edith

Birth:                                                    1924

Birthplace:                                            Hungary

Religion:                                               Jewish

Age Group:                                          Adult

Type of Exp.:                                        Camps

Left Family Home:                                1944

Camps Occupied:                                 Auschwitz; Bergen-Belsen

Parents Survived Occupation?:              Neither

Number of Siblings:                              5

Sibling(s) Survived:                               2

Edith Burke describes her existence in a small Hungarian college town as "sheltered."  Her deportation did not occur until 1944 because of Hungary's alignment with Germany.  Edith notes that one occasionally heard rumors about the concentration camps, but that it was easier to believe the claims that they were going to a "labor camp," even as one was packed into cattlecars.  She recounts the two-day trip to Auschwitz with her parents and three sisters; her parents were exterminated on arrival, along with her oldest sister, and the sister's infant son.  After two months, Edith and the remaining two sisters were chosen to work at Reichenbach, an airplane factory.  They were grateful for this, as conditions there were "a notch better" than at Auschwitz.  The factory was evacuated with the approach of the Russians in February 1945, and Edith and her sisters were taken to Bergen-Belsen.  This camp, she believes, was worse than Auschwitz; "dead people, wandering around, waiting to die."  Typhus killed her sisters right around the Liberation, and Edith believes she would have died as well if medical attention had arrived any later.  Afterward she was sent to Sweden, where she recovered at a resort, then worked in a clothing factory. 

Edith does not give elaborate detail of her experiences, and apologizes for this several times.  However, she is explicit about her feelings.  She says that the hope for freedom sustained her and her sisters, although after their deaths she did not want to survive.  Edith also still wonders why she lived and others died.  Edith hopes that her children and grandchildren will carry on orthodox Judaism, which she has imparted to them.

   Play Video