Janos Mezei was born on March 14, 1922, in Budapest, Hungary, to Henrik and Berta Neumann Mezei. Henrik was born on October 25, 1891, in Munkacs, Austro-Hungary (now Mukacheve, Ukraine) to Maurice and Julia Altman Feldman. Henrik was a decorated veteran of World War I (1914-1918), wounded twice during his four years of wartime service with the Hungarian Army. He changed his name in 1915 to Mezei, a more Hungarian sounding name, and settled in Budapest. Henrik had a brother who immigrated to Argentina during the interwar years. Janos's mother Berta was born February 22, 1897, in Temesvar (now Lugoj, Romania), but grew up in Budapest. Henrik had worked his way up to director of the Goldberg textile factory, one of the largest producers of textiles in Hungary. Janos had two younger siblings, Magda, born on July 18, 1923, and Gyorgy, born April 15, 1936. An older sister, Klara, had died in infancy (April-May, 1921.) The family had a very comfortable life with a live-in maid and a car. They were moderately assimilated, celebrating both Jewish and Christian holidays, often with parties in their music room, where her mother played the piano and her father, the harp. The children attended a Dutch reform primary school. Janos continued at Koelcsey Ferenc Gymnasium for eight years, while Magda attended a Jewish lyceum and then the Commercial Academy of Budapest where she learned business skills.
By the mid-1930s, Hungary had anti-Jewish laws similar to those of its close ally, Nazi Germany. After graduating high school in 1940, Janos got a position as a civil servant. That year, the Hungarian government made forced labor service mandatory for all able bodied Jewish males. In summer 1941, Hungary joined in the German invasion of the Soviet Union, and the labor battalions were placed under army control. In 1943, Janos was sent to a forced labor camp in Kaschau (Kosice, Slovakia) a region of Czechoslovakia ceded to Hungary by the German mediated First Vienna Award in 1938. The family sent him packages and even visited him at the camp. The Hungarian guards were harsh and Janos was thinner, but otherwise well.
In late 1943, as the Germans were forced to retreat from Russia, the Hungarian government sought peace with the Western allies. On March 19, 1944, Germany occupied Hungary. They began segregating the Jewish population into ghettos to prepare for large scale deportations. Janos may have been talen back to Budapest, but on March 15, he was in the custody of the extremist Arrow Cross militia and, on April 19, sent by forced march toward Austria. He sent his family a postcard dated July 10, 1944, from Legenye-Alsomihalyi in Hungarian occupied Czechoslovakia, thanking them for a card he received on July 4, telling them he was fine, and asking about friends. He was interned in Gunskirchen concentration camp, a Mauthausen subcamp in Austria, concealed in the forest near Lambach.
On May 5, 1945, American soldiers of the Third Army arrived in the camp and told the inmates they were free. Janos was hospitalized in the US Army hospital in Wels, Austria. He was transferred to a hospital in Linz where, age 22, he passed away on September 2, 1945. Janos was buried in the American military cemetery in Wegscheid. In 1946, his sister Magda, mother Berta, and brother Gyorgy arrived in Bindermichl displaced persons camp near Linz. They found Janos's grave and had the body exhumed and reburied in the Jewish cemetery in Linz.
Magda Mezei was born on July 18, 1923, in Budapest, Hungary, to Henrik and Berta Neumann Mezei. Henrik was born on October 25, 1891, in Munkacs, Austro-Hungary (now Mukacheve, Ukraine) to Maurice (Mor) and Julia Altman Feldman. Mor was born in 1848 in Ungvar, Russian Empire (now Uzhhorod, Ukraine) and died in Budapest in 1920. Julia was born in Miskolc, Hungary in 1863. Henrik had three brothers. Magda’s mother Berta was born February 22, 1897, in Temesvar, Austro-Hungary (now Lugoj, Romania), to Moricz and Rosa Links Altman. Moricz was born in 1871 in Facsad (Faget) Romania. Rosa was born in 1877 in Zsolna (Slovakia) Austro-Hungary. The family moved to Budapest, where Mor died on April 12, 1920. Madga's father Henrik was a decorated veteran of World War I (1914-1918), and was wounded twice during his four years of wartime service with the Hungarian Army. He changed his name in 1915 to Mezei, a more Hungarian sounding name, and settled in Budapest. Henrik had a brother who immigrated to Argentina during the interwar years. Henrik worked his way up to director of the Goldberg textile factory, one of the largest producers of textiles in Hungary. Magda had two brothers, Janos, born on March 14, 1922, and Gyorgy, born April 15, 1936. The eldest child, Klara, died in infancy (April-May, 1921.) The family had a very comfortable life with a live-in maid and a car. They were moderately assimilated, celebrating both Jewish and Christian holidays, often with parties in their music room, where her mother played the piano and her father, the harp. The children attended a Dutch reform primary school. Janos continued at Koelcsey Ferenc Gymnasium for eight years, while Magda attended a Jewish lyceum and then the Commercial Academy of Budapest where she learned business skills, such as typing and accounting. Magda's maternal grandfather died in 1937.
In 1940, the Hungarian government made forced labor service mandatory for all able bodied Jewish males. In 1941, the forced labor battalions were placed under Army control and large numbers of Jewish men were taken away to labor camps. That June, Hungary joined Germany in the invasion of the Soviet Union. During the summer, a series of Jewish laws were passed to restrict the rights of Jews. Magda noticed downward shifts in her family’s position. Her father’s income decreased, and the car was taken away. The family had to move to a smaller, less expensive apartment and their maid returned to her village. In 1943, Janos was sent to a forced labor camp in Kaschau (Kosice, Slovakia) a region of Czechoslovakia ceded to Hungary by the German mediated First Vienna Award in 1938. The family sent him packages and even visited him at the camp. The Hungarian guards were harsh and Janos was thinner, but not, to Magda, in bad shape.
The long retreat from the Soviet campaign began in spring 1943. The Hungarians had suffered huge losses and sought peace with the Western allies. Magda and her family had been aware of the widespread antisemitism in Hungary, but now, with every change, they became more frightened for their life there. She remembers her father’s worried comments that if the Germans continued into Hungary, it would be the end for them as Jews. On March 19, 1944, Germany occupied Hungary. A series of decrees was passed and Jews could no longer use public transport, telephones, valuables were confiscated, and a curfew was enforced. From April 3, they had to wear yellow Star of David badges at all times and could go out only two hours a day to shop. Her paternal grandmother died on April 8, 1944. Magda and her family had to move into a yellow star, Jews only building and could take no possessions. Her father Henrik went into hiding with Christian friends who supplied him with false papers. Magda, her mother, and her younger brother lived in an apartment crowded with 35-50 people. Henrik came to see them when he could and brought them food. They heard of people being taken away, off the streets or from their buildings, by members of the Fascist, anti-Semitic Arrow Cross. In June, when her father was visiting, Hungarian Arrow Cross guards came and ordered everyone outside. All those fit for work, including Magda and her father, were marched away. Men and women were separated. Henrik was taken to the brick factory in Obuda outside the city. Magda was taken to Zuglo on the city outskirts. The women were held in an empty grass lot. Magda kept to the edge of the huge crowd, saw a ditch with shrubbery, and jumped. She crawled for a while, and when she reached a street, ripped off her star and ran. At one point, she was stopped by three German soldiers who questioned her and let her go. Anna, the concierge at her building, let her in. Anna also hid her a few weeks later when the building was searched for people of working age. The family received a postcard from Henrik telling them he was well and had been marched to Szony, a Hungarian town about fifty miles northwest of Budapest, on the border with Slovakia. They later received a postcard that a friend had sent by an unknown person with a message that Henrik was well and working in the sugar refinery in Nagycnk, near the Austrian border.
One day, when Magda was out trying to find food for her family, she met a professor from the Commercial Academy. He was also Jewish and warned her that soon the Jews in Budapest were to be put into a ghetto. He told her that he was on his way to the Spanish legation to apply for a protective pass and asked her if she wanted to go with him. Once there, she met Javier, a member of the Spanish Army Blue Division that deserted from the Russian front, and, with her fluent, and his limited, German, began the application process. Javier visited their apartment a few times, with food and a comb for Magda. When he brought the Spanish schutzpass [protective pass] for her family, he gave them the address of the safe house, St. Stephen’s Park, House 35, and said he would notify her when to go. A few days later, Hungarian police came to their building to move everyone to the ghetto. As they were being walked there, Magda told an older Hungarian policeman that she had a safe pass and needed help to get away. He offered to get them out. A few days later, he came after curfew, told them to take off their badges, and then to run with him, as fast as they could, all the way there. This policeman later brought them their few belongings, which included a few pounds of flour, their only food. The house was crowded and unsupervised and they lived in the basement. Toward the end of November, the building was visited by Arrow Cross guards who demanded that everyone leave. Men from the Spanish Legation arrived, and eventually convinced the guards that the building was under official diplomatic protection. The next day, Javier came to say goodbye, explaining that the legation had to leave for Switzerland before the Soviets took over the city. By December, there was continuous bombing and they could hear shooting in the streets. They were out of food and feeling the effects of starvation. On January 18, 1945, Soviet soldiers appeared in the building. By February, all Budapest was liberated.
A few days later they left the safe house to stay with friends. They went to their old apartment and found that everything had been stolen and other people were living there. Their friends gave them two beds and a wardrobe and they took up residence in a vacant apartment. Like most buildings, it had no windows because of the bombing. Sometime that year, they received a postcard from Janos, dated July 10, 1944, from Legenye-Alsomihalyi in Hungarian occupied Czechoslovakia, thanking them for a card he received on July 4, telling them he was fine, and asking about friends. In summer 1945, they saw a notice in a newspaper announcing a meeting of the men who had been taken to the sugar refinery in Nagcynk where Henrik had been held. Magda made a sign with her father’s name and went to the meeting. She learned that the refinery had been evacuated and the men marched to Austria, but no one knew anything about her father. It was not until the 1980s that she learned that her father survived this march, but then perished in Felixdorf concentration camp in Austria. In September 1945, the family received a postcard from the Red Cross, dated June 1945, informing them that Janos was alive and hospitalized in Linz, Austria. It had been forwarded through three addresses in Budapest. In 1946, Magda and her mother escaped Communist ruled Hungary and went to Bindermichl displaced persons camp in the American zone in Linz, Austria, hoping to find Janos. They learned that Janos had been liberated at Gunskirchen concentration camp, a Mauthausen subcamp in nearby Lambach, on May 5, 1945, by US troops. He was hospitalized in the Army field hospital in Wels. On July 15, he was transferred to the American hospital in Linz where he died, age 22, on September 2, 1945. He was buried in the American military cemetery in Wegscheid. The family had his body exhumed and reburied in the Jewish cemetery in Linz. Magda’s maternal grandfather’s brother Miklos Neumann and his sister Johanna Neumann Wurmer, her two sons Sandor and Laszlo, and their families were murdered in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. Nearly her entire extended family perished.
While at Bindermichl, Berta worked in the office of the IRO (International Refugee Organization.) In 1949, Magda, Berta, and Gyorgy (later Jorge, and then George) and Magda's maternal grandmother emigrated to Venezuela. George married Irma Velasco and had two daughters. Around 1960, they left Caracas for the United States, settling in California. Rosa, 90, died in 1967. Berta, 84, passed away on December 14, 1981. In 1983, Magda Mezei Reizes, now a widow, married Norman Lapedus (1928, South Africa-2016, California).
