On her seventeenth birthday, Elisabeth Ilg discovered that after her day’s work in the cabbage fields the worst fear she and her younger sister and the other remaining people in  Bulkes had was about to become a reality.  They were to be transferred to the extermination camp in Gakowa.  Hungry and exhausted from overwork and lack of adequate nutrition they were loaded into ice cold cattle cars at the train station in Futog.  Throughout the night they huddled together for warmth or they would have frozen to death.  The night seemed to last forever and all of them were too cold to sleep. 

  For months now the sisters had no word if their father who had been sent to Jarek was still alive and had every reason to fear the worst.  Their mother, along with other women had been taken to Russia to forced labour.  Fortunately their grandmother and another relative had fled in time.  The sisters were filled with doubts and fear and prayed continually that God would defend and protect them and grant them the gracious gift of a reunion with their loved ones one day. 

  At the train depot in Gakowa, the place which would become the last stop in the life of thousands of Danube Swabians, they were awaited by Partisans guards and herded like cattle through the village.  None of the inmates in the camp seemed to notice the latest increase in the camp population.  The houses were filled to overflowing.  They found room in a kitchen in a house across the street from the cemetery.  What they saw here in terms of hunger and starvation confirmed all of their fears.  Everyone awaited something.  The hungry sought food.  The ill sought healing.  Many simply waited for death.  Living next to the cemetery they saw the daily offering of lives.  There was not enough food, no fuel for heating, no medicine for the sick.  Their every thought was about food and warmth and the haunting question, “Will I ever be able to survive all of this?” 

  On some days the two sisters went to the orphan section of the camp where there were hundreds of children whose mothers or grandparents had died in Gakowa.  They had such pitiful and sad faces.  One day they found Peter Bieber the son of their cousin.  When they called him by name he was astounded that anyone could know him.  He was very thin and could no longer walk and only hobbled around a bit.  They placed him in a wheelbarrow and drove him around which he seemed to enjoy and after that the sisters were frequent visitors. 

  On another day they found a former neighbour who was sick and suffered from malnutrition resting on a straw mat in an unheated room.  When she recognized the sisters she was overjoyed and pressed their hands to her heart and wept.  They could not give her anything or help in any way but promised to visit her daily.  When they visited they talked about Bulkes, their missing family members and tried to encourage each other with a sense of hope.  One day she asked to be remembered by her loved ones and sent greetings to all of them if they should survive and be able to return to Bulkes.  The next day she was no longer there.  Her body had been taken by cart to the mass grave. 

  When spring arrived there was an announcement that all mothers who had children in the camp were to report to the Children’s Home.  A friend they called Auntie Christine was possessed by only one thought and that was how to keep her daughter Traudl out of that section of the camp.  She dressed her daughter in her own clothes and the girl was passed off as an elderly woman with success. 

  Things got worse, hunger was unbearable.  The sisters hit rock bottom.  They decided to attempt an escape but were caught and shut up in a cellar for three days and nights without food or water.  Everyone told them not to try again because they would be shot the next time.  Some people told stories to others to forget their hunger while others traded recipes.  The sisters sang hymns and folk songs they remembered from home and that also met other people’s needs.  One day one of the older women who had befriended them that they called Danu Basl (Auntie) smuggled some horsemeat into their quarters and they made two meals out of it. 

  At the end of March contagious diseases were spreading through the camp and after two years of internment the sisters realized their resistance was low and their survival less and less likely.  It meant a second escape attempt.  Once again it meant a beating and three days in a damp, louse-infested, dirty, water filled cellar. 

  Conditions worsened and on April 14, 1947 the sisters prayed together asking God to help them in their third attempt at escape.  Along with another girl from Bulkes and some other people they met at a designated place at the outskirts of Gakowa.  A man named “Ludwig” was supposed to take them across the border into Hungary.  The sky was cloudy.  The sisters took turns carrying the meagre belongings of an old woman.  They crossed over into Hungary with no difficulty. 

  After an hour they reached a Hungarian farmyard.  They hugged and kissed one another and all of them got down on their knees and prayed the Lord’s Prayer.  They were finally free!  But it did not last long. 

  Hungarian police arrived and took them to Gara and put them in a wooden barracks along with other apprehended border crossers.  They were searched for money and valuables.  On the evening of the second day of their incarceration they had to leave.  They numbered about one hundred and fifty persons!  It was said that the police would take them all to the train station.  They were herded up the road and the Hungarian police simply disappeared.  Barking dogs and Serbian shouts of “Stoj” (halt) told them they were back in Yugoslavia.  Crying, weeping and wailing most of the people were driven back to Gakowa by threatening Partisan guards. 

  A small group, including the two sisters and the other girl from Bulkes lay flat on the cold ground and waited.  How long they cowered there in the darkness no one knows.  Once they could no longer hear the weeping and shouts of the Partisans they headed back to Gara where a kind old woman gave them food and let them sleep in her barn.  Two days later after thanking her they left heading for Budapest.  At the train station they met the Klein Richter (a local official) of Bulkes who was able to tell them that their father was alive in Höflein in Austria.  Their father had survived Jarek. 

  Now they had a destination and they wanted to reach it quickly.  They travelled to Sopron.  Because they had no papers and looked a mess they were arrested by Hungarian police and put in jail.  They told their story but it was not believed.  At night another sentry believed them and felt sorry for them.  He promised to help and brought them to an abandoned house outside of Sopron.  It began to rain.  He told them to keep to the left and they would reach the Austrian border.  Before they could thank him he disappeared. 

  By morning they were in Austria and reached Eisenstadt on foot.  Then they looked for directions to Höflein and found that there father was registered with the police for the purpose of locating his family members.  Following the directions of the police they made their way to the farmhouse where their father lived. 

  As they stood at the front door of the house they knocked loudly.  The farmer’s wife, Frau Rupp opened the door and screamed, “Get out of here.  Get going.  Today I’ve got nothing left for handouts.”  She tried to close the door.  The girls were frightened but Elisabeth said, “We don’t want a handout!  We just came to ask if Friedrich Ilg lives here with you.”  The farmer’s wife was shocked and cried out, “Jesus.  O Jesus.  These must be Friedrich’s little girls.”  Their father came out of the stable and ran to the door and saw both girls standing there.  He could not speak because he was in shock.  And then from out of nowhere their mother appeared who had come from Russia two weeks before who ran into the arms of her daughters. 

  Later they said it was all like a dream.  There were no words to describe what they felt.  As the sisters tell it now, “We will thank God for His grace for all of our lives.”