Twice Buried, Still Alive

Book excerpt: Relates the Holocaust experiences of Yitzchok (Beno) Donath, based on interviews and including comments by Weinstock. Donath was born in 1925 in Pressburg, Slovakia, to an Orthodox family, and remained true to his religion throughout the war. In 1942 he travelled to Nitra, where he helped Rabbi Michael Weissmandel in his rescue work. He then fled to Hungary, living first in Nove Zamky and then in Papa, with his parents and three siblings. The entire family was caught and sent to the Sarvar internment camp, and then to Auschwitz. Donath worked in the kitchen and succeeded in keeping his father and brother alive until almost the end of the war. His father died in January 1945 and his brother perished on a transport to Ravensbrück. In that camp, Donath himself was assumed dead and buried up to his face, but was rescued by a Jewish American soldier. After the war he returned to Pressburg and was reunited with his two sisters; his mother was killed in Auschwitz. Donath helped recover ca. 20 Jewish children whom Polish families refused to hand over after caring for them during the Holocaust. In 1948, unwilling to live under communism in Czechoslovakia, he escaped to Vienna.