After liberation, many non-Jewish survivors were able to return to their homes and families, while the Jewish survivors were stateless refugees with nowhere to go. In the majority of cases, their families and communities had been obliterated, and their homes had been appropriated by locals.
Despite these hardships, many survivors did everything in their power to rehabilitate themselves, expressing optimism and the wish to make up for the years they had lost during the war. Rather than seeking vengeance, most sought to rebuild their lives from the rubble and devastation. While in the DP camps, the survivors established educational, cultural, religious and political frameworks in their determination to prepare themselves for their new lives.
Anna Klein née Günsz, the fourth of Shmuel and Charlotte's five daughters, was born in 1929 in Hajduboszormeny, Hungary. Shmuel owned a grocery store, and imported fruit, sugar and chocolate. He moved to Budapest in 1941 for business reasons, and started paving the way for his family to join him there. Several years later, his daughters Borbála, Katalin, Éva and Anna moved to Budapest, while Charlotte and her youngest daughter Vera stayed in Hajduboszormeny.
The family planned to reunite on Passover 1944 and to be together for Seder night, but the German army's entry to Hungary in March 1944 put paid to those plans. Several months after the start of the occupation, Shmuel was caught in Budapest and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau; Charlotte and 8-year-old Vera were deported too, and all three were murdered.
Anna was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto, and survived. After liberation, she traveled to Germany and was sent to the Wegscheid DP camp near Linz in Austria. She sent a postcard from the camp to her home address in Hajduboszormeny in the hope that someone from her family had survived. Borbála and Katalin, who had survived the Lichtenwort camp in Austria, received the postcard and the three sisters were reunited in Hajduboszormeny. Refusing to stay in Hungary, Anna returned to Germany and eventually immigrated to the US with her husband. She passed away in New York in 1991.
Anna received the autograph book from friends in 1946, while living in the Wegscheid DP camp. The book is filled with illustrations, signatures and best wishes for Anna's future.
