Agness Mandel

00:34:19 - 00:39:16 “When the Russians arrived at the place, a few people, there were about a dozen people, who came out of hiding; my mother and Lily found some clothes, underwear, and everything, and managed to take a bath and dress. In the evening, the Russians were drinking, and it got out of hand; one of them wanted to take [sexually assault] Lily, but another Russian Jewish soldier with a higher rank grabbed her and my mother, locked them in a room with him, saying:” these are mine” and protected them. After that, they tried to return to Komarno and met some people who were going to Israel. One man tried to persuade my mother to go with him, but she said she had to go back and see whether her fiancé was alive. It took them weeks; they had to stay in some displacement camps and be repeatedly examined by Russians on their way, but they managed to arrive in Komarno. As they entered the city, they saw a man leaning on a car- it was Laszlo. He was organizing things at the house, helping people to get food; because he spoke Slovak, he oversaw communication with relief workers; survivors were gathered there, and he was just about to leave for Bratislava and had almost missed them. When he recalled this moment, he couldn’t speak at all; 18 seconds of silence were on the tape [from an interview with Agness’s parents]. My parents were married within 8 days of that meeting; they went to his brother and father who survived and somehow put together food [and celebration] for 12 people.”

01:05:10 – 01:10:50 “At eight o’clock, they give Irena one of the bicycles, leave the other one in the woods, and walk towards the gate, which is floodlit; anyone approaching it would be under floodlights. Mom is carrying Ivan; Dad is carrying a little bag and two suitcases. There’s no one there; they push open the gate, which is unlocked; the guard is supposed to be hiding; they don’t know which boat it is from hundreds of boats parked at the port. Finally, someone emerges from the dark and talks to them, and together they walk towards the right boat, enter it, wait for about 15 minutes as they are being watched, and then they are instructed to go into the hold. They will go to an island and wait for a signal that an inspection is happening. After that, they will sail to Vienna. It was a flat boat with a very shallow hold; it wasn’t tall enough to sit on; they received a blanket, a pail of water, a pail for hygiene, and the door was nailed shut. Mother was terrified; they didn’t know whether they’d see the light of the day again. They heard a scream and a heavy crank of the anchor, and they were transported to the island, where they awaited the inspection; after two days, they received the signal (three knocks on the deck) and gave baby Ivan the sleeping pill. When the inspector came, Ivan was not yet asleep; my mother had to hold him very close; the inspection went well, and they again heard the endless terrible noise of the anchor being pulled; they were so elated that they kissed. To their horror, they lit a candle and saw that Ivan was not sleeping but motionless with his eyes and mouth open. Mother was terrified; she thought they’d killed him; they tried everything to revive him, gave him water, etc., and luckily, after half an hour, he started to show signs of life. However, this wrecked my mother, she said; it was emotionally worse than going through the camp; together, they spent five days on the boat, two of them waiting, three traveling.”