Holocaust Survivor: Ladislaus Lob


Figure 1.--One of the children saved by Kasztner was an 11-year old boy named Ladislaus Lob. Ladislaus was born in Transylvania when it was still part of Romania. After the outbreak of Wotld War II, Hitler approved the transfer of Transylvania to Hungary. The photograph taken here we think was for an Hungarian identity card. He had only just 11 years old when he was packed on to the transport, not fully understanding what was happening. Given the number, it may have been taken especially for the rescur transport.

One of the children saved by Kasztner was an 11-year old boy named Ladislaus Lob. Ladislaus was born in Transylvania when it was still part of Romania. After the outbreak of Wotld War II, Hitler approved the transfer of Transylvania to Hungary. The photograph taken here we think was for an Hungarian identity card. He had only just 11 years old when he was packed on to the transport, not fully understanding what was happening. Then came frigtening train odesy throough the Reich before entering Bergon-Belsen. They were held apart from the other inmates. One of the happier menories concerns a Red Cross parcel. He writes, "... a miracle seemed to have happened. From the Red Cross in Geneva we received some 60 cases containing food, medicines, vitamins, and in particular 1,300 boxes of a product called "Starkosan." This was a chocolate powder with added vitamins and nutrients. I have never forgotten the please of stuffing myself with it..." [Lob] In his diary he noted, " "For the first time in five months a cultured flavour: chocolate! Old people and children are truly becoming drunk on it; they are eating it with spoons, dry, on bread, with butter, with water, with jam, mixed with glucose, etc. There has been a change in people. Cheerful, calm faces, chattiness, an optimistic mood ...." Ladislaus finally after 5 months crossed the border into Switzerland. He recalls being cold and hungry, but alive and finally safe. After beung saved in the Kasztner Resuce Mission, Ladislaus grew up in Switzerland. He became a professor of literature and taught at the University of Sussex in Britain. He writes, "I was one of the 1700, rescued from the Holocaust at the age of eleven. Rezso Kasztner was later accused of collaboration and assassinated before he could hear that his name had been cleared. I grew up in Switzerland and in due course became a professor of German in England. It took me many decades to confront the decisive role of Rezso Kasztner in my life and to recognise his importance in the history of the Holocaust. When I finally did so, the result was my book Dealing with Satan: Rezso Kasztner's Daring Rescue Mission and a continuing series of invitations to lecture."






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Created: 12:29 AM 10/26/2012
Last updated: 12:29 AM 10/26/2012