Prewar Jewish family life in Budapest

Ernö (Ernest) Schiffer, born in Námesztó in 1893, studied medicine at university in Budapest. He enlisted in the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I and was in charge of a medical unit on the Russian Front. In the 1920s, he worked at the Jewish Hospital in Budapest and specialized in the new field of radiology, developing techniques for the X-ray apparatus, various shutters, and cooling devices, and diagnostic dyes and methods. He also found time to study the new field in Vienna, Zurich, and Stockholm. The severe exposure to X-rays he received during this period likely later resulted in his early death from leukemia. He met Erzsébet while interning at the Jewish Hospital in Budapest. They married in 1928 and had János (John) in 1930. The family lived in Budapest next to City Park (Városliget). Ernö bought a car (an Opel) and learned to drive in the mid-1930s. Their daughter Éva was born in 1933.

By about 1941 the Nazi threat was becoming more serious in Hungary. Ernö had a patient who was a Unitarian minister who agreed to baptize the Schiffers into the Unitarian church. Initially, Ernö was partly protected from the changing laws against Jews because of his military service and that he treated many influential persons (including the regent) as patients; there was also a minor distinction between Jews who had recently settled in Hungary and those whose families had lived there a long time. After March 19, 1944 yellow stars had to be worn and the family moved into a designated Jewish apartment. Ernö was able to obtain protective passports for the family from the Swedish embassy (through the Wallenberg initiative). Ernö was taken in a labor brigade in summer 1944 to dig trenches for the defense of the city; many of his family members went into hiding. In October 1944, the Schiffers were briefly moved into a house under Swedish embassy protection, and then back to their apartment at Katona Jozsef utca 23/a where they had kept a hidden store of food. Ernö had been marching with the labor brigade towards Germany but simply walked away from them one day and crossed the Danube by foot back to Budapest where he reunited with his family. The Schiffers remained together in the apartment during the Russian siege of the city until they were liberated in January 1945.

János was born in Budapest in 1930. János learned languages early, and by age seven, spoke Hungarian, English, and German. By about 1941 the Nazi threat was becoming more serious in Hungary, but Janos's father, Ernö managed to secure protection for the family until March 19, 1944 when the German army occupied the country and took direct control of Hungary’s government. Yellow stars had to be worn and the family moved into a designated Jewish apartment. Ernö was able to obtain protective passports for the family from the Swedish embassy (through the Wallenberg initiative). In October 1944, the Schiffers were briefly moved into a house under Swedish embassy protection, and then back to their apartment at Katona Jozsef utca 23/a where they had kept a hidden store of food; János became responsible for collecting information about the people living there. The Schiffers were liberated in January 1945. By spring 1945, János returned to school and got a job with the British Military Mission. He went to the United States in June 1947 on a student visa via Paris where his American cousin, Bob Schiffer, had been stationed for work with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. János lived in New York with his father’s brother, László (Laci), a projectionist by trade who had emigrated to the US in 1921, and he translated his name to John. He later obtained a BA from Oberlin College and a PhD in Physics from Yale University. John is now Argonne Distinguished Scientist at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, IL, and Professor of Physics (emeritus) at the University of Chicago. He married, and has children and grandchildren in the US.

Born in Mohács in 1899, Erzsébet (known as Bözske) was also the first in her family to go on the university track at a gymnasium in Fiume (on the Adriatic), followed by studies at the University of Pécs in Slovakia and the Medical University in Budapest, where she focused on dentistry (the quickest specialty to start earning a living). She met Ernö Schiffer while interning at the Jewish Hospital in Budapest. They married in 1928 and had János (John) in 1930. The family lived in Budapest next to City Park (Városliget). Erzsébet worked part-time for the National Health Insurance and had a dental office in the apartment. Their daughter Éva was born in 1933. By about 1941 the Nazi threat was becoming more serious in Hungary. Ernö had a patient who was a Unitarian minister who agreed to baptize the Schiffers into the Unitarian church. After March 19, 1944, yellow stars had to be worn and the family moved into a designated Jewish apartment; while in Southern Hungary, Erzsébet’s sisters and their families were deported to a ghetto and transported by train to Auschwitz in early summer where they perished. Ernö was able to obtain protective passports for the family from the Swedish embassy (through the Wallenberg initiative). In October 1944, the Schiffers were briefly moved into a house under Swedish embassy protection, and then back to their apartment at Katona Jozsef utca 23/a where they had kept a hidden store of food. Erzsébet and her children remained in the Budapest apartment during the Russian siege of the city until they were liberated in January 1945. Bözske and Éva came to the US in 1957 in the aftermath of the 1956 Hungarian revolution.