Names Not Numbers

Lois Flamholz

Munkacs, Hungary

Auschwitz Concentration Camp

Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp

Munkacs Ghetto

1927

Lois Flamholz

Munkacs, Hungary

1927

Lois Flamholz was born in 1927 in Szenna, a very small town near Munkacs, Hungary, close to the Polish border. Her parents had attended a Hungarian school, and Lois grew up in a family with a younger sister and two little brothers. They lived on a small farm, and her grandparents owned a grocery store that her father managed. The town had a complex history; it was first Czech, then Polish,

and eventually became part of Hungary. Lois attended a Czech school, which later became Russian.

In 1943, when the Nazis entered her town, life changed drastically for the Jewish community. Jews were no longer allowed to own businesses, and a man with a truck removed everything from her grandparents’ store, selling the contents at auction. With her father's business gone, he became a glazier to support the family.

Lois's mother was not in good health and could not work, which placed additional burdens on the family. Meanwhile, Lois's father was drafted into the army and stationed near Kiev. Before his departure, Lois learned the craft of glazing from him, enabling her to help the family. At just 12 or 13 years old, she had to negotiate with the owners of a local bar and grill to secure work repairing windows broken by drunken patrons.

In 1944, Lois and her family were deported to a ghetto in Munkacs, where they remained for about six weeks before being transported to Auschwitz. Upon arrival, Lois was separated from her mother and siblings, never to see them again. At Auschwitz, she worked at the crematorium and met a young Russian prisoner of war who advised her to avoid getting a number. This advice ultimately saved her life.

While in Auschwitz, she remained close to two of her cousins.

From Auschwitz, the prisoners were subjected to a six-week death march through Germany, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia to another concentration camp, Bergen-Belsen. There, they were forced to work on railroad construction and in a factory, receiving only one bowl of food per day. Eventually, she and her cousins were liberated from Bergen-Belsen.

Tragically no one else from her immediate family survived, except for two of her mother’s sisters who were rescued at the last moment.

After liberation, Lois began searching for her father but was later taken to Sweden. It was not until she arrived in America that she learned her father had also perished. Her journey to the United States was long and arduous, but her mother's two brothers in America provided support along the way.

Names Not Numbers

Lois Flamholz

Lois Flamholz

The End