György Kun

György Kun, who has died aged 93, was one of the last surviving victims of the cruel experiments carried out by Josef Mengele on twins at Auschwitz.

In fact, Gyorgy  –  known as Gyuri – and his brother Istvan, or ‘Pista’  were born 11 months apart, but Mengele’s belief that they were twins probably saved their lives.
Gyuri was born in 1932 in the Hungarian countryside, son of Jewish parents Márton Kuhn and his wife, Piroska. Eleven months later, his brother, István (Pista), was born. The brothers were very close, Gyuri remembered it as “the good life”, playing ourside, eating his mother’s homemade donuts and attending a local school in the village and than a Jewish school in a neighbouring town.

Life became increasingly difficult for the family. Schoolchildren often tried to attack Gyuri on his way home from school. In 1944, his family was evicted from their farm and sent to a nearby ghetto, and from there to a brick factory in Székesfehérvár. “My parents couldn’t imagine where we would end up, so my mother kept repeating that we should always stay together,” Gyuri recalled. “No matter what, the family must not be torn apart.”

Brick factories were the last stop for many Hungarian Jews before deportation, and in May 1944, the family were loaded onto a train headed for Auschwitz. On arrival, “Mom was holding our hands,” Gyuri remembered. “Dad was walking next to us. Then he was separated from us.” Márton Kuhn would eventually end up at Dachau concentration camp.