Edith (Gluck) Kallman was born in Visne Reviste, Slovakia in 1924. In 1943, after receiving a warning of impending detention, she and her sister left their home, traveling at night, to Uzhgorod, Hungary, where they stayed with their older sister. From there they went to Budapest, where they found jobs and lived under false identities. Edith became “Anika Braun.” But when her false identity was discovered, she left in fear to Debrecen, to live with and care for the elderly parents of a cousin.
In the spring of 1944, all the Jews of Debrecen were detained and deported. Edith had the chance to escape but chose to stay with the elderly couple. She was taken by train to Auschwitz along with her cousin, aunt, and uncle. Edith was miraculously saved during the “selection” process by being nudged into the proper line by her brother’s girlfriend, whom she barely recognized. Edith was taken with the other prisoners to be “processed.” Her head was shaved, her clothing taken away, and she was given a striped uniform to wear. After six weeks, Edith was transported to Ravensbrück and then to Oranienburg, where she was forced to work in a munitions factory. In the spring of 1945, she was forced on a “death march” toward Neuengamme, in the northeast, but was liberated by the Soviet army before they reached their destination.
After being liberated, Edith went to Bratislava and then to Budapest to search for her two brothers, Alex and Morris, and one sister who had survived, and they were reunited. Under the sponsorship of her oldest brother, Bernard, living in Las Cruces, New Mexico, whom she had never met, Edith immigrated to the United States in 1948. She married Irving Kallman of El Paso in 1949, and they had three children.
Connecting Stories: Alex Gluck