Mauthausen-Erinnerungen 8: Sándor Millok

On 13 July 1944 prisoners from Budapest were deported via Vienna to the Mauthausen concentration camp. One of them was Sándor Millok, a former railway employee, socialist and editor at the social democratic newspaper ‘Népszava’ (‘People’s Voice’). As a vocal antifascist, he had been arrested within days of the occupation of Hungary by German forces on 19 March 1944. Marked by almost four months in prison, Millok was forced along the ‘road of tortures’. Greatly weakened, he survived to witness the liberation of the camp. Constant hunger, the wait for the longed-for return home, and the fear of succumbing to the diseases still circulating in the camp shaped his final days in Mauthausen.

Sándor Millok (1887–1959) composed his memoirs in 1945, shortly after the end of the war. That same year they were published in Budapest as a so-called ‘autobiographical novel’. The introduction by the editor, Károly Müller, discussed the necessity of publishing works of this type from a contemporary perspective. This German edition includes a translation of the original version of Millok’s memoirs and the introduction by Müller.

The afterword by historian Regina Fritz contextualises Millok’s literary reworking of his camp experiences and offers a more in-depth look at his biography. The book is available from the Mauthausen Memorial Book Shop or via the website of the new academic press.