Joseph Wiesner - NNN 2024

“The conditions in the ghetto were terrible. I don't know how many people lived in our apartment. There were no showers, no hot water, nothing. No soap, nothing. There was tremendous overcrowding.

The Nazis asked for a barber. My father's younger brother was a barber and some of his cutting instruments he left behind and I don't know why. What was going through my father's mind? He ended up taking these tools with him when he was deported. So, when the Nazis asked for a barber, my father put up his hand and said, “I'm a barber”.  The Nazi was holding a handgun to my father's head. If he makes a bad move, he's going to kill him right then and there.  And that's how he became a barber of the Nazi officers in Mauthausen.  

My grandmother saved my life. I never was able to sit down with her and thank her for what she did.

Hungary was part of the Soviet influence, and the borders were closed. You could not leave the country at all.  My two sisters and I decided that we are going to leave Hungary. Period. My sisters ended up in a convent, and I ended up at the university dormitory. And, from there we went to the American Embassy and signed up to come to America.  I remember we arrived in Chicago in January and we had a very nice Jewish family who took us in and they treated me like a son.

When I found out about October 7th, I didn't believe it.  It affected me very, very negatively. A lot of memories came up of what the Nazis did to the Jews in the occupied countries, in Poland, in the Soviet Union and in Hungary.  A lot of the memories came back, and it's affected me very, very negatively. I was so sad.”