“As the Americans closed in on the Germans, we were taken out of camp. I was in a group of 15,000 prisoners on a death march through the Tyrolean Alps.

“Realizing I was getting sicker and weaker each day, I escaped from the death march. I walked through the forest to a house where I could see a light, and I knocked on the door. A small boy opened the door and began to scream. My disheveled and filthy appearance frightened him.

“The little boy’s mother came to the door, and I told her I was a Hungarian political prisoner. Later, when the SS soldiers knocked on the door, she told them there weren’t any prisoners inside.

“On May 2, 1945, the Americans came to the house and let everyone know they had taken control of the area.

“I was 20 years old.”