Ignac Neubauer

(Wywiady dostępne są w językach angielskim i ukraińskim. Prosimy o wyrozumiałość.)

Uzhgorod, Ukraine
Interview conducted in 2003 by Ella Levitskaya

Mr. Neubauer’s story is largely set in Subcarpathia and he gives us great insight into his homeland during different rules (Czech, Hungarian, Soviet; following Ukraine’s independence in 1991, the region became an administrative region under the name of Transcarpathia). Growing up in a very religious family, he vividly recalls the celebration of Jewish holidays, and how he teased his younger siblings, who fell asleep during seder, saying that he saw the prophet Elijah come in while they were asleep. After finishing school in 1938, he began to sell products and became the only breadwinner in the family, as his father was sick and his siblings were still at school. During the Second World War the family was taken to the ghetto in Uzhgorod, then Auschwitz. His grandfather, father, sister and three brothers perished there, while he survived the Gleiwitz camp. Considering emigration to the USA or Palestine at the end of the war, he changed his mind when learning that his mother and sister had survived and returned to Uzhgorod, where he worked as a tailor and founded a family. 15 pictures illustrate his rich account.

Learn more about Ignac Neubauer here on the Centropa website.