Barbara Kertesz Nemeth

Barbara and her younger sister, Alice, were born to a Jewish family in the town of Hodmezovasarhely in southeastern Hungary. Barbara married Desider Nemeth, a dentist, and the couple settled in the town of Szentes, not far from the city of Szeged.

1933-39: In 1932 I gave birth to a daughter, Maria. I've been busy trying to find a suitable house for us that would double as an office for my husband. I do a lot of volunteer work. I have taken in a young Austrian woman who lives with us and helps us to perfect our German.

1940-44: It's been five months since German troops occupied Hungary in March 1944. My family and I were among thousands of Jews deported to a makeshift ghetto in Szeged's Rokus sports field and brickyards. Most of the people there were children and the elderly, or women whose husbands had been forcibly conscripted into army labor brigades. A month ago, we were sent by train, via the Strasshof labor camp, to a labor camp in the east Austrian farming village of Goestling an der Ybbs.

In April 1945 Barbara and her family were shot to death in Goestling an der Ybbs by retreating SS soldiers, just days before U.S. forces reached the area. Barbara was 34.