Studio portrait of Hungarian Jewish sisters.
Overview
- Caption
- Studio portrait of Hungarian Jewish sisters.
Pictured are Susan (Suzsi) and Georgina (Gyorgyi) Fehrer. - Date
-
1930
- Locale
- Budapest, [Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskun] Hungary?
- Photo Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Anne Reichman Schiff
Rights & Restrictions
- Photo Source
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumProvenance: Anne Reichman SchiffSecond Provenance: Judy Reichman Selby
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Biography
- Susan Feher was born on August 29, 1924 in Budapest, to parents Charlotte Bornstein (b. May 23, 1891 in Tolna, Hungary) and Ferenc Weisz (b. 1890 in Budapest). Susan had a younger sister, Georgina (Gyorgy, b. April 23, 1927). In the 1930s, Ferenc changed his last name to Feher, a Hungarian name which, like Weisz, also translates to "white." He owned a well-known optical store in Budapest called "Feher Optika." The family belonged to the Dohany Noelog synagogue and was observant.
Antisemtic measures started in Hungary even before WWII, and the Feher family attempted to cope with them as best they could. In March 1944, German troops invaded Hungary. In May, the family was forced to move to a designated Jewish safe house with a number of other families, where they stayed for several months. Conditions deteriorated rapidly in October with the rise of the Arrow Cross party, whose members roamed the streets rounding up Jews for deportation or execution.
Ferenc had been fortunate enough to secure a Swedish Schutzpass document issued by Raoul Wallenberg, which declared the family to be Swedish citizens. It enabled the family to leave the "Jewish" house in November 1944 and to move to a "Swedish" house in another part of town. There, the Swedish flag flew over their house, and provided some measure of protection against the Nazis. The family stayed at this house until the end of December. It was during this period that Georgina contracted meningitis, and died at the age of seventeen.
In late December, a six-week siege of Budapest began, with constant bombing, gunshots, and street violence. Ferenc was seriously wounded by a bomb blast, and Charlotte and Susan took him to a makeshift hospital that had been placed under protection by Wallenberg. They acted as nurses for Ferenc and other wounded patients, but the ill-equipped hospital had no windows, electricity, food, or water, and Ferenc died of his injuries. Charlotte and Susan remained in the hospital until Hungary was liberated in 1945.
The following year, on May 14, 1946, Susan married Ervin Reichman (b. July 14, 1915 in Sered, Slovakia). Ervin had left Slovakia for Budapest in 1939, thinking that it would be safer to hide in a larger city, and had met Susan in 1944 when both were taking refuge in a bomb shelter. In 1949, Susan, Ervin, and Charlotte left Hungary due to the communist takeover. They immigrated to Australia, where the couple had two daughters, Anne and Judy.
- Record last modified:
- 2020-03-25 00:00:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1185383
