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The collection documents the experiences of Susan Beer and her parents, Dr. Max and Rose Eisdorfer, after the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. The collection includes family photographs; records relating to confiscated property and punitive monetary measures against her parents; identity cards; and a memoir,"To Auschwitz and back: an odyssey" describing her illegal emigration to Hungary and her deportation back to Czechoslovakia; conditions inside the Budapest ghetto; Hannah Senesh; Susan's imprisonment in Auschwitz; a death march; her liberation and reunion with her parents; and the family's immigration to the United States.
Susan Beer (née Eisdorfer) was born on 14 May 1924 in Budapest, Hungary to Max and Rose Eisdorfer. She grew up in Topolčany, Czechoslovakia (Topolčany, Slovakia). In 1939 her father arranged for her to be smuggled into Hungary to live with relatives. Her parents later joined her. Susan was arrested in 1943 and sent to a prison in Budapest. She and her parents were deported to Auschwitz in 1944. In January 1945 the camp was evacuated and Susan and her mother were sent to Ravensbrück and then Mecklenburg. After liberation, Susan and her mother were reunited with her father in Budapest. The family moved to Bratislava (Slovakia) and then immigrated to the United States in 1948.
Arrangement is thematic
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Susan Beer collection