Children of Saul

Katalin Rosenfeld

Beregrákos, 1934 – Auschwitz-Birkenau, 1944.05.16-21.

Katalin, 10, was the youngest daughter of a Jewish general practitioner in Beregrákos. In May 1944, the family was deported to the concentration camp set up in the Sajovits brick factory in Munkács (Mukacevo). Between 15 and 18 May, four transports left for Auschwitz-Birkenau. The Rosenfeld family was on one of the trains. After arriving, Katalin and her sister Mira were killed by the SS. They were probably gassed together with their mother, Gabriella Nemes Rosenfeld. Their father, Dr. Béla Rosenfeld, survived the selection. Shortly afterwards he was deported to KL Warschau. Together with his fellow prisoners, they cleared the ruins of the Warsaw ghetto, which was destroyed in the 1943 ghetto uprising. At the end of July they were driven by the SS to Kutno to escape the approaching front, and many prisoners were shot dead on the way. The survivors were packed into wagons, with 90-110 people crammed into each wagon. By the time the train arrived in Dachau on 6 August 1944, there were many dead and dying, all of them completely weakened. Dr Rosenfeld was one of the latter: he was still assigned the number 88213, but died four days later.