Set of tefillin owned by a Hungarian Jewish concentration camp survivor

Adolf Hausman was born in Vasarosnameny, Hungary, on February 12, 1922, to Shmuel and Gizella Breiner Hausman. Gizella was born in Vasarosnameny. He had one sister, Rose, born on August 21, 1921. During World War One, 1914-1918, Shmuel served in the Austro-Hungarian Army. After the war, Shmuel owned a grocery store and worked as a Hebrew teacher. They were an Orthodox family and attended synagogue regularly. After graduating high school, Adolf trained as a sheet metal apprentice. In November 1940, Hungary joined the Axis Alliance and established anti-Semitic legislation similar to Germany’s Nuremberg laws. Adolf would get in fights with Hungarians because he was Jewish. He heard about concentration camps from escaped Polish prisoners from Auschwitz-Monowitz as well as Hungarian soldiers. In 1943, Gizella, age 64, passed away of natural causes. In November, Adolf was ordered to forced labor service in Kisvarda but contracted an infection and had to be hospitalized. In January 1944, he was transferred to a hospital in Sarospatak and was later sent home. On March 19, 1944, German forces occupied Hungary. In April, Adolf and his family were forced into the Berehove ghetto. In May, the family was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. During processing, Adolf was separated from Shmuel and Rose. The next day, Adolf learned that Shmuel was killed. After four days, Adolf was taken to Auschwitz and tattooed with a prisoner number. A week later, he was sent to Monowitz concentration camp, where he worked in a metal shop. He was always hungry and his gums continuously bled. In September 1944, Adolf was transferred to Gleiwitz I slave labor camp, a subcamp of Auschwitz. He worked repairing railway cars. Russian prisoners of war were hanged for attempting to escape and the inmates were forced to watch. In February 1945, the Soviet Army was nearing the camp and the inmates were forced on a death march to Blechhammer, a subcamp of Monowitz. Adolf was left behind with the other sickly and starved prisoners while the majority of the prisoners continued on the death march. That month, German tanks attacked the camp and the next day the prisoners escaped through a hole in a brick wall. Before he left, Adolf took a microscope from the camp hospital with the intention of selling it. Adolf saw Soviet tanks and they were told that they were liberated. He continued walking with other prisoners and saw many dead German soldiers. He traveled to Gleiwitz, Katowice, and Krakow before returning to Vasarosnameny in March. He learned that all of the family’s belongings had been confiscated and decided to travel to Austria. He paid Russian soldiers to permit him to illegally cross the Austrian border. He lived in Feldafing displaced persons camp in Germany for a few weeks and then moved to Steyr displaced persons camp in Austria. In December 1947, Adolf moved to Wegscheid displaced persons camp in Linz. After the war, he learned that Rose had been deported from Birkenau to Gelsenkirchen slave labor camp in June 1944 and then sent to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and Sommerda slave labor camp in September 1944. She was liberated in April 1945 by British forces and lived in Feldafing displaced persons camp. In spring 1949, Adolf and Rose emigrated to the United States. Adolf Americanized his name to Andrew. Rose, age 72, passed away in 1994. Andrew, age 82, passed away in 2004.

The tefillin was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2004 by Eric R. Neiditz, a friend of Andrew Hausman.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Eric R. Neiditz

Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.