Scott, George

George Scott was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1930. He had a relatively big and nice family. “Everything should be okay, but experience changes people, “ he said. The Holocaust turned him into a reflective, quiet boy, puzzled by many things. He recorded that in 1943, his life started to change. All Jews in Hungary were disenfranchised, their properties taken away and restrictions imposed on them. His grandfather’s little house was no longer safe for him. People came to Budapest to escape the Germans.   Finally, when Germany occupied Hungary in 1944, several restrictions were placed to against Jews. George could not bear those stringent restrictions, so he and his friend decided to run away. They got rid of the star and got on a train. After this, all the nightmares started.

Unfortunately, the situation was the same after he escaped, and was even worse now that he wasn’t under his family’s protection.  Then, he arrived at the Gypsy camp in Auschwitz, where most of his memories were. George was selected through the third selection. His uncle, who was an influential man in the Gypsy camp saved George’s life by tossing a young boy into his place. “It is not a comfortable feeling to know that somebody had to die so that you could be there. It is not easy to ingest to live with, but it was beyond my control” he said. It was hard for him to live with this memory, but he didn’t have time to think that much. The same uncle helped him to go to another camp called Kaufering. There, George reached the highlight of his camp experience. He peeled potatoes in the SS kitchen. “You know, there was a lot, lot to eat, and I feel much better.” He recorded. At that time, people were easy to satisfy just by more food. After several transfers, George was tortured both mentally and physically. Finally, in a huge camp, the Americans came to release them. That morning, George lost consciousness, not only because of his weak body but also the excitement of long-awaited freedom. It was hard for him to believe that things just melted away. The first thing he chose to do was went back to the orphanage in Budapest to check his family, learning that only his Aunt Bertha, Uncle Henrik, and two cousins survived.

George visited us at Crestwood in October 2015, when he spoke to the American History class.  He was interviewed for this project by Amy Zhu, Owen Salter, and David McCall.