Anna Lax Patipa (1924–2007) was born in Perečín, Czechoslovakia (Perecseny in Hungarian; today Perechyn, Ukraine). In 1939, the town and its surrounding area was annexed by Hungary, a future ally of Nazi Germany. Anna's father lost his business as a result of antisemitic laws passed by the Hungarian government. Then, in March 1944, Nazi Germany occupied Hungary. In April, Anna and her family were rounded up and taken to the Ungvár ghetto. In the ghetto, they lived under dire conditions in a brickyard. After several weeks, they were deported to Auschwitz. There, Anna was selected for forced labor. In November 1944, she was transferred to Bergen-Belsen. In December, she was sent to Salzwedel, a subcamp of Neuengamme, where she worked in a factory until her liberation in April 1945. She married Solomon Patipa, also an Auschwitz survivor, in 1947, and they immigrated to the United States.
So we arrived to Auschwitz in the evening. It was second day of Shulitz. And they opened the doors, and they were hurrying, beating us to get out as quick as we can. There were SS men all over and there were some– at that time, we didn't know–that those are prisoners in the striped jackets. And they told us nobody is older than 59–no, nobody is older than 39, and nobody is younger than 16. And they said the young mothers should give their children to grandparents or to aunts, somebody. [Clears throat] They took my parents. First they separated woman from man. Then they said okay. They told my sister–she had three little boys. My niece was 13 years old, and they said nobody is younger than 16, so we took our niece with us and the three boys…my sister didn't want to leave them so she went with them. And when we were… we started walking when–after separation we started walking toward, I guess, toward the camp, and they were yelling and screaming and fires, open fires burning. It was a terrible smell. Excuse me.
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