United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Pál Szegö (later Paul Szego, 1902-1995) was born in Szentendre, Hungary. He was a master hat maker and owned a hat shop. He was Jewish, but converted to Christianity after marrying his wife, a devout Catholic, in the 1920s. They had one son, Peter. In June 1944, he was drafted into a forced labor battalion under Swedish protection. At the end of November his company was taken by train to the western border of Hungary. In March 1945, they were taken to the Mauthausen concentration camp and later to its subcamps until liberation in 1945. Throughout the months he was imprisoned, Pál kept a diary in the margins of a pocket size New Testament. He reunited with his family after liberation and they returned to Hungary. In 1956, Pál and his son fled Hungary through Austria and immigrated to Canada. His wife joined them several years later and they settled in Montreal.
Copyright Holder: Pál Szegö
oversize box folder 1 1
The Pál Szegö diary is arranged as a single series.
This collection consists of a diary written by Pál Szegö, originally of Hungary, while he was in a forced labor battalion in Hungary and at the Mauthausen concentration camp from 1944-1945. Pál wrote in the margins as well as on blank pages of a pocket New Testament that he kept with him in the camps. In the diary he writes about the horrible living condition while in the forced labor battalion including the lack of food, unsanitary conditions, punishments, and frigid weather conditions while digging trenches and working in the forest. Pál continues his diary while on a tugboat to Mauthausen and during his imprisonment. He describes the conditions on the boat and in the camp, starvation, crowded barracks, forced marches, receiving updates about the war, and liberation. Throughout his diary Pál writes about witnessing death, his religion, and the struggles of being away from his family and not knowing if they are okay.
Pál Szegö diary