Hilda Halpern
Hilda Halpern was born on October 8, 1926 in Munkács, Czechoslovakia to Jacob and Yola Kallust. She was an only child raised in a loving, Hasidic household with many relatives living nearby. Her father, a devout and spiritual man, worked as the manager of a local synagogue while her mother was a homemaker. Hilda often recalled her father’s last words to her: “There’s coming hard times but remember there is God in this world and he will help.”
At home, the family spoke Yiddish and Hungarian (the town was part of Hungary until 1920), and at school, Hilda spoke Russian (reflecting the region’s proximity to Ukraine). She was very creative and loved artistic pursuits including making dolls and clothing, singing, and painting, a hobby that she continued throughout her life.
In November 1938, Munkács was annexed to Hungary, a German ally, and the Hungarian government gradually began instituting anti-Jewish measures. Hilda’s father was no longer able to work so she found a job selling cosmetics in a department store to help support her family. The situation became even more precarious when the Nazis invaded Hungary and occupied the town in March 1944. Around this time, Hilda recalls that a non-Jewish friend of her mother’s offered to hide some of the family’s possessions until after the war but that, as anti-Jewish laws proliferated, these same friends turned on them and asserted that they would never return these valuables.
In mid-April 1944, right after Passover, the Jews of Munkács were relocated to a ghetto in a designated area of the city and, one month later, Hilda and her family were among those transferred to a makeshift ghetto in a nearby brick factory. At that time, between May 11th and 23rd, nearly all of the town’s roughly 10,000 Jews were transported by cattle car to Auschwitz. Immediately upon arrival at Auschwitz, Hilda was separated from her parents and she never saw them again.
Although the experience was terrifying, Hilda recalled how many of the prisoners helped one another. In particular, when Hilda arrived in her barracks knowing no one. A woman named Lilly told her she would be a mother figure to her, and that she hoped someone would similarly look after her son who was around the same age. Lilly shared food with Hilda and slept alongside her. In turn, Hilda also tried to help Lilly in any way that she could.
One day, all the girls were lined up for a selection to determine who was strong enough for transfer to a labor camp. The notorious Nazi doctor Josef Mengele approached Hilda and slapped her across each cheek, breaking her teeth, but she was selected for work, as was Lilly. The women walked all day, finally stopping in a grassy area. Many of them feared they were going to be killed but, in fact, they had arrived at the Markstadt labor camp. There, they were given some warmer clothing from the bodies of dead prisoners, along with shoes and a bowl for daily servings of a watery soup. Hilda was sent to work at a Krupp factory, making ammunition. She was tasked with measuring screws for grenades. She was subsequently moved to the basement where workers often became sick from inhaling smoke while molding iron. Lilly, who worked as a seamstress of clothing for Nazi women, managed to have Hilda moved to that area of the camp.
Hilda was liberated by Russian troops in 1945 and was in a Displaced Persons (DP) camp in Germany for several years. There she met her husband, Meshulam, who survived the Holocaust mostly in hiding. It so happened that he was the grandson of a matchmaker who had met with Hilda before the war and determined that she would be a good match for her own kin. However, Hilda’s father felt that they should wait until after the war given how uncertain life was at the time. It comforted Hilda that, while her parents didn’t survive the Holocaust, they knew about and approved of this proposed marriage.
While still living in the DP camp, the couple had their first son, Jack, on August 27, 1948. The family emigrated to the United States in 1949 and settled in Brooklyn. In November 1950, Hilda and Meshulam had twin boys, Baruch and Avrum.
Throughout her life, Hilda remained deeply religious and believed that she experienced numerous miracles, during the Holocaust and in later years. For example, she was revived after nearly dying during the birth of her twins and regained her health without chemotherapy after being diagnosed with cancer. From their three sons, Hilda and Meshulam had 40 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, including Heschel students David and Max Simpson, and Rose Halpern.