Overview
- Interviewee
- Maria Szalay Berzsenyi
- Interviewer
- Borbála Kriza
- Date
-
interview:
2019 September 18
- Geography
-
creation:
Ráckeve (Hungary)
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, courtesy of the Jeff and Toby Herr Foundation
Physical Details
- Language
- Hungarian
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
- Copyright Holder
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Hungary. World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, Hungarian.
- Personal Name
- Berzsenyi, Maria Szalay.
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- This is a witness interview of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Perpetrators, Collaborators, and Witnesses: The Jeff and Toby Herr Testimony Initiative, a multi-year project to record the testimonies of non-Jewish witnesses to the Holocaust.
- Funding Note
- The production of this interview was made possible by Jeff and Toby Herr.
The cataloging of this oral history interview has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. - Special Collection
-
The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2023-11-16 09:23:23
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn710517
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Oral history interview with Veronika Treszkó
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Veronika Treszkó (Treszkó Gyorgyne Mohácsik Veronika), born in 1926, discusses the peaceful relationships between Jews and non-Jews in Oros (part of Nyíregyháza, Hungary) prior to the war; her father selling milk to the Jewish families; attending school with Jewish girls and having no recollection of discrimination there; lighting candles for religiously observant Jewish families on Shabbat; Jewish family businesses; buying items from Jewish tradesmen in Nyiregyhaza; the lack of Arrow Cross presence in Oros and no memories of local gendarmes harassing Jews; rumors that a son in a nearby family was an Arrow Cross member; seeing Jews wearing the Star of David badge in Nyíregyháza; hearing boys singing antisemitic songs for which her mother scolded them; policemen and gendarmes ordering Jews to pack belongings and gather together; seeing older women crying at the group of Jews were gathered into a school courtyard; the deportation of the town’s Jews without protests or violence from the gendarmes; witnessing family acquaintances being taken away; witnessing the looting of Jewish belongings; the postwar return of one of the deported family’s sons, who reopened the family store and eventually immigrated to the United States; and the return of the sons from another deported Jewish family.
Oral history interview with Márta Kovalik
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Márta Kovalik, born in 1929, discusses her family genealogy and memories of living in Vác, Hungary; the discovery that her paternal great grandfather was Jewish; her father’s service in World War I, joining the Communist Party and then the Red Army in 1919; her father’s work at the Kodak factory; his marriage to a Christian woman and hiding his Jewish heritage; attending a Catholic school that admitted non-Christians; the lack of discrimination against Jewish classmates; seeing SS soldiers during the German occupation; feeling afraid of Jews after watching the Nazi propaganda film Jud Suss; her father’s assertion that she should not be afraid because Jews are good people; working in the summer at the Kodak factory and witnessing a Jewish man be required to perform a low skilled landscaping job; watching Jewish acquintances on their way to the train station from which they were deported; hearing about a local Jewish doctor who committed suicide by lethal injection; hearing about people taking Jewish belongings; the requirement for her father to present his birth certificate at work; his boss Alfred Polster who protected the secret of his Jewish background; referring to Alfred Polster a “humanist fascist” because he greeted people with Heil Hitler but rejected the extermination of the Jews; the postwar trial and incarceration of Alfred Polster during which her father testified that Polster saved his life; seeing Polster thank her father for his testimony; learning from her aunt about her Jewish heritage when she was 20 years old; and never discussing her family’s Jewish lineage with her father.
Oral history interview with Ilona Bártfai
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Ilona Bártfai (Bártfai Imrene Páloji Ilona), born in 1930, discusses her relationship with a Jewish acquaintances and classmates in Hajdúhadház, Hungary; the peaceful relationship between the Jewish and non-Jewish community before the war; the implementation of antisemitic laws, such as the restriction against Jewish children attending the local middle school; hearing young boys sing antisemitic songs; hearing about a separate shelter for Jews during air raids; her memories of Jewish-owned stores closing and being looted; people from the town moving into vacant houses; seeing members of the Arrow Cross and Leventes guarding the ghetto; hearing about searches of Jewish-owned homes and businesses; the escape of a Jewish family; seeing Jews being taken to the ghetto by members of the Arrow Cross; her midwife aunt assisting in a childbirth in the ghetto after another midwife refused; watching the new mother with her baby walk to the train station from which they would be deported; recalling her aunt give care advice to the new mother; seeing a soldier threaten her aunt with deportation if she did not leave the area; her memory of women being forced to undergo body searches for valuables; seeing Jews crying and saying goodbye to onlookers; hearing onlookers voice their opposition to the deportation; her memory of trains full of people looking through windows, crying, and waving; the postwar return of some Jewish survivors; how some of the returning Jews received their belongings, houses and businesses back; hearing about the relocation of survivors to other cities; and learning about postwar trials of Hungarian war criminals in Debrecen.
Oral history interview with Mária Sárközi
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Mária Sárközi (Sárközi Sándorne Csik Mária), born in 1934, discusses growing up in Hungary on a wine vineyard owned by a Jewish family named Kiss; her close relationship with the Kiss family and their comfortable lifestyle in their Jászberény apartment; seeing the Kiss daughter crying and understanding it as a sign of an ominous future; her mother’s explanation that the Kiss family had to wear the Star of David badges because they were Jewish; the expropriation of the vineyard from the Kiss family in 1944; Erno Kiss’ expulsion from practicing law in 1944 and his forced labor in Szolnok; hearing Hungarian soldiers yelling crude comments as she delivered fruit to the Kiss family through the ghetto gate with her mother; going to the train station and seeing Jews from the ghetto being squeezed into wagons; seeing pale, elderly women and children boarding trains; witnessing a woman named Rozsika refusing to give her baby to a German soldier and hearing shots soon after; being ordered to leave the scene by a Hungarian gendarmerie; keeping this story a secret for 40 years; her vivid memory of the incident at the train station; seeing the faces of Jewish children in future generations of her own family; Erno Kiss’ escape from the labor camp; Erno Kiss’ remarriage after the war; how he received the vineyard back and continued to look after Maria’s family; how Erno Enk, a Jewish doctor, traveled a great distance to treat her ill father; and how her grandmother was furious at a priest who did not want to travel to visit her father and threatened to leave the religion.
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Oral History
Károly Bálint, born in 1931 in Nagykáta, Hungary, discusses generous Jewish business owners in town; positive relations between his Jewish and non-Jewish classmates; a Jewish man named Miklos Matolcsi who served as a Nagykáta representative in congress; his memories of delivering food to Jewish manual laborers and gendarmes chasing him away; seeing Jewish manual laborers wearing the Star of David badges when visiting them in Kincsem puszta; witnessing gendarmes taking 30-40 Jews to a house and a seeing a gendarme beating an elderly woman as her sons provided her support while walking; witnessing German soldiers evaluating furniture and valuables in the synagogue; hearing about a veterinarian, Dr. Sandor Sajo, who remained in town to care for horses; hearing about local gendarmes who fled in fear after the war, while others who were not as cruel to the Jewish population remained; apprenticing after the war with Istvan Dudas who married a Jewish woman; and names of survivors who returned after the war, including the wife of a colleague who told him about her experience in Auschwitz.
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Oral History
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Oral History
Mária Tóth (Tóth Laszlone Ambrus Mária), born in 1924, discusses her Jewish friends and the integration of the Jewish community in Kecskemét; Jews who fled to Budapest for safety; saying Hail Mary’s in penitence for accompanying her Jewish friend Borcsa Fleischmann to synagogue; the takeover of Jewish-owned shops; working at the Machinery Shareholders Company of Kecskemét and witnessing the dismissal of Jewish employees; seeing Jewish families being taken out of their homes by local policemen and transported to a brick factory; hearing onlookers say that the Jews deserved their treatment; seeing Jewish friends being deported; hearing how Ivan Hejjas and the Ragged Guards brutally treated Jews; how the Arrow Cross tried to recruit her by offering her belongings that were owned by Jews; knowing supporters of the Ragged Guards and Arrow Cross; guarding a Jewish family’s possessions, which Russian soldiers subsequently looted; the return of some Jewish survivors to the area; and hearing from a survivor about his experience at Auschwitz where his entire family was killed.
Oral history interview with Erzsébet Bényei
Oral History
Erzsébet Bényei (Bényei Józsefné Kindrusz Erzsébet), born in 1935, discusses her memories of two Jewish playmates and their families; the integration the Jewish community in Nyiregyhaza society; the disappearance of her Jewish friends and their families in 1944; her parents’ shock at the disappearance of their neighbors and dismay as people glibly looted the homes of the deported Jews; an incident in which her mother told a teenager to stop singing an antisemitic song while a passerby encouraged the singer to keep going; hearing about Jews being taken to work in a brick factory; witnessing a procession of Jews who were being deported; her lack of memory in regard to Jewish survivors returning to the town after the war; and the impression that a visit to Auschwitz made on her years later.
Oral history interview with Margit Tirpák
Oral History
Margit Tirpák (Tirpák Jánosné Kerchner Margit), born in 1934, discusses her prewar Jewish neighbors in Olaszliszka, Hungary; positive relationships between Jews and non-Jews; memories of her mother nursing a Jewish baby whose mother lacked milk; her three Jewish classmates; her memories of Jews wearing Star of David badges; the order that any citizen with a horse cart must provide it to transport Jews to the train station; witnessing the deportation of Jews, including her friend Edit Jakubovich and her family; the participation of local policemen in the deportation; the emotional reaction of bystanders who cried and waved goodbye; her mother giving homemade bread to a Jewish family during the deportation; the looting of Jewish belongings following the deportation; keeping books which belonged to Jews and returning them to their owners after the war; individual Jews who returned after the war; her uncertainty as whether ownership of their homes was returned to them; the Friedlander sisters who told her mother how they found their hidden belongings in the attic wall after the war; and Erno Lefkovich who she recalls as the only Jew living in the village after the war.
Oral history interview with Julianna Kassai
Oral History
Julianna Kassai (Kassai Bertalanne Bihari Julianna), born in 1934, discusses her childhood in a Protestant family in Olaszliszka, Hungary; her Jewish classmates; her uncle’s Jewish friends and patrons of their milk business; witnessing a procession of Jews from Bodrogkeresztur being take away in horse carts; the participation of gendarmes on horseback during the deportation; the deportation of one Jewish family that had converted to Christianity; the disappearance of her Jewish classmates; her mother’s offer of walnuts to Jewish laborers in a large group traveling from Satoraljaujhely to Szerencs; Jehovah’s Witnesses among the forced labor group; her neighbor who took food to a Jewish family in the ghetto in Satoraljaujhely and reported on the terrible living conditions there; the return of the Friedman sister after the war; and the sisters' refusal to discuss what had happened to them during the war.
Oral history interview with Géza Takács
Oral History
Géza Takács, born in 1928, discusses the mutual trust and friendship between Jews and non-Jews before the war in Olaszliszka, Hungary; his mother’s domestic work for a Jewish family; the Jews in town and their professions which included butchers, wine merchants, and grocers; living in a Jewish-owned house; being taken in by another Jewish family, the Lowys, after the house burned down; antisemitic songs sung by villagers; seeing the terms “Jewish House” and a Star of David painted on the exterior of Jewish homes; witnessing the deportation of Jews from the town and nearby villages; the participation of gendarmes who gathered Jews into carts and prevented local citizens from interacting with the deportees; seeing a family acquaintance, Dezso Biro, being led into the carts; witnessing local leaders and villagers looting and destroying belongings from Jewish-owned homes; and his memories of some Jews returning to the area after the war.
Oral history interview with Ilona Vitányi
Oral History
Ilona Vitányi (Vitányi Belane Kassai Ilona), born in 1918, discusses her friendships with Jewish neighbors and classmates during her childhood in Olaszliszka, Hungary; her neighbor who used a scarf to cover up her Star of David badge; seeing horse carts carrying bags and bundles on her train ride back from another town; seeing local Jewish women and girls being taken away in wagon carts; a Hungarian civilian who was guarding the carts; delivering a basket of eggs to her Jewish friend, Aranka Kohn, who was not allowed to leave her home; Aranka’s gift of three red scarves in exchange for the eggs; the threat from a gendarme who had witnessed the exchange; hearing about the looting of Jewish belongings; one of the Kohn children who returned after the war and reopened her father’s store; and Jews who returned to the area after the war and demanded the restitution of their homes.
Oral history interview with Mária Pozsgai
Oral History
Mária Pozsgai (Pozsgai Vidane Aradi Mária), born in 1927, Győrszentiván, Hungary, discusses events and changes in Győrszentiván during the Holocaust; the Jewish families in her town with Szusz, Vogl, Deutsch, and Wittmann surnames; the Szusz family’s textile store; Mrs. Szusz, who was the only one of her family to return after the war; Mrs. Szusz hiding textiles in the walls of the store before the family’s deportation; a mason who betrayed the whereabouts of the textiles to local authorizes; Mrs. Szusz’s donation of her house to the state years later; playing with children of employees of the Wittmann farm; hearing that the Szusz family was taken away by the Arrow Cross; the names of young Arrow Cross members and their activities; the Arrow Cross leader Agoston Boroczki’s sentence to 12 years in jail after the war; hearing Arrow Cross propaganda slogans; witnessing the deportation of columns of Jews from a village near Gyor; how the group of deportees was guarded by gendarmes and members of the Arrow Cross; her personal beliefs about the war and the complicity the Hungarian army with Germany; hearing gunshots and learning later that some of the weaker deportees were shot in the back of the neck; Hungarian and Russian soldiers searching for two mass graves close to the Danube after the war; meetings with local communities who may have had some ideas about the location of the graves; hearing about Julianna Eisenberger who hid four Jewish women in the attic of a pigsty; Julianna’s father, Mihaly Eisenberger, who transported each of the four women individually by bicycle to the Gyor train station; the capture and deportation of two of the women at the train station; the return of the other two women to Budapest after the war; Feri Festetics, a university student in Budapest who housed a young Jewish girl in his village, hiding her Jewish identity; the reunion of the girl and her parents after the war; and a Russian captain who lodged in her house after the arrival of Soviet forces in Hungary.
Oral history interview with Marianna Bagossy Mikes
Oral History
Marianna Bagossy Mikes (Mikes Istvanne Bagossy Marianna), born in 1935 in Homrogd, Hungary, discusses her parents' friendships with local Jewish families; witnessing a group of Jews, including her friend Mariann, assembled for deportation in a courtyard guarded by gendarmes; being unaware of religious differences in her community until her father explained the reason for the deportation; hiding two distant Jewish relatives in her home during the deportation; orders for her father to assist with loading Jews into wagons in the nearby town of Halmaj; her father’s attempt to assist an elderly Jewish man by placing him in a less crowded cart; her family’s move to Budapest, Hungary in 1944; her father’s imprisonment in Szikszo for 5 to 6 months after he was accused of taking items form the homes of departed Jews; her father’s release from the detainment camp after others testified on his behalf; and joining her father who moved to Miskolc, Hungary for factory work.
Oral history interview with József Fodor
Oral History
József Fodor, born in 1926 in Karcag, Hungary, discusses the contemptuous relationship between boys of different religions at school in Budapest; the popular belief among his peers that Jews killed Jesus; seeing Jewish forced laborers; being mocked by other kids who said he “must be a Jew” after an airplane mechanic school rejected his application; his family’s move to Szentendre in 1941, where he noticed the disappearance of Jews upon his return from labor service; learning from his parents that the town’s Jews were gathered at the brick factory in Bekasmegyer in Budapest; the return of only three Jewish families after the war; being taught antisemitic ideologies at school; how Jewish students were prohibited from participating in exercises and had to do demeaning, worthless jobs; being disciplined by his father for singing an antisemitic song; knowing members of the Arrow Cross; witnessing pro-Szalasi actions; his sister’s friendship with Szalasi’s daughter; a Jewish doctor who treated everyone free of charge; his father’s advise to a Jewish watchmaker to flee instead of moving into the Csillaghegy ghetto; being assigned on a unit to clean and repair railways from Ferencvaros station in Budapest to Felvidek, in Upper Hungary; receiving the same food and treatment as the Jewish labor unit; his interactions with Jews from Transylvania who were being transported in overcrowded wagons to concentration camps in Poland and Germany; witnessing members of the Arrow Cross abuse a train conductor who refused to drive a train full of deportees because they were being denied water and sanitary conditions; some of the railway staff who joined the Arrow Cross Party; interactions between gendarmes and railway employees; interacting with groups of Jews who were kept at the train station for days before they were transported; purchasing items at the station’s shops on their behalf; being apprehended by the Arrow Cross after he was caught keeping flyers of Janos Voros; escaping to a labor group in Pest; witnessing three Arrow Cross soldiers attack and murder two Jewish men; hearing antisemitic remarks from other workers when he discussed the terrible conditions for Jews during their deportation; witnessing members of the Arrow Cross search for Jews in Teleki Square market in Budapest; the restitution of homes and business for some Jews who returned after the war; recording his memories in his biography; and an incident that occurred a decade ago at a conference in Hungary where someone made an openly pro-Hitler statement.
Oral history interview with Margit Hársfalvi
Oral History
Margit Hársfalvi (Hársfalvi Laszlone Szeles Margit), born in 1930, discusses her friendships with Jews in the predominately Catholic town of Balassagyarmat, Hungary; her patronage of Jewish-owned businesses; increasing antisemitism in 1938-39; her Jewish classmate Sandor Goldmann, who challenged their school teacher after the teacher read portions of Hitler’s Mein Kampf and used derogatory terms in the classroom; singing an antisemitic song even though she did not understand the meaning; seeing gendarmes who usually came to the village by bicycle; her aunt who kept packages of clothing for a Jewish neighbor, Mrs. Goldmann, prior to her deportation; hearing about authorities searching houses for items belonging to Jews; looting of the Goldmann family’s store following their deportation; seeing Jewish families being led away in carts by gendarmes; hearing rumors about Jews being relocated to Israel or Egypt instead of concentration camps; the postwar return of members of the Goldmann family who reopened their store; seeing Imre Goldmann’s wife’s camp tattoo; hearing stories about how Imre Goldmann’s wife escaped the gas chamber and later, a Russian’s soldier’s attempt to sexual assault her; political changes in Hungary; and hardships after the arrival of Soviet forces, including the beating and rape of women by Russian soldiers.
Oral history interview with Zoltán Réti
Oral History
Zoltán Réti, born in 1923 in Hungary, describes his employment under a Jewish architect in Balassagyarmat; his work in the Kárpátalja region; his good relationship with Jewish bankers; an incident in the autumn of 1944 in which his Jewish employer was shunned by the community; the relocation of Jews from Balassagyarmat ghetto to Nyírjes; how he became a prisoner of war until 1946; and an incident in which stolen Jewish property was sold back to Holocaust survivors.
Oral history interview with Sándor Bacsúr
Oral History
Sándor Bacsúr, born in 1935 in Balassagyarmat, Hungary, describes the presence of Jewish families in his community; actions taken against the local Jewish population, including the order to wear the Star of David badge and the destruction of a synagogue; moving to a new house in 1944 as a result of the establishment of a Jewish ghetto in his neighborhood; hearing adults in his family express concern about the fate of the community’s Jews; an incident in which a wealthy Jewish woman was tortured into revealing where she hid her valuables; the relocation of the community’s Jews to the ghetto in Balassagyarmat; the relocation of Jews from the surrounding villages to the Óváros Square ghetto; the deportation of Jews from the ghettos; guards who were stationed around the ghettos; non-Jews who moved into the homes and stores of Jews; and artwork he created depicting the destruction of the synagogue and his sadness at what happened to Hungarian Jews.
Oral history interview with Erzsébet Kun
Oral History
Erzsébet Kun (née Kubicza), born in 1930 in Balassagyarmat, Hungary, describes the Jewish community in Balassagyarmat and her interactions with them; the anti-Nazi political leanings of her parents; her father’s refusal to participate in discrimination against the Jewish population; the conversion of a Jewish family to Catholicism; the requirement that Jews wear Star of David badges; and the deportation of Jews from the ghetto in Balassagyarmat.
Oral history interview with Aladár Naszály
Oral History
Aladár Naszály, born in 1922 in Balassagyarmat, Hungary, describes the large prewar Jewish community in Balassagyarmat and his friendly relations with them; his work in a brush and broom factory under Jewish employers; the requirement that Jews wear yellow Star of David badges; joining the military in 1942; anti-Jewish songs sung by fellow soldiers; the Balassagyarmat ghetto; the relocation of the ghetto’s Jews to Nyírjespuszta to be later deported to concentration camps; the looting of possessions that belonged to Jews; witnessing in 1944 German and Austrian soldiers marching a group of Jews and killing those who could not march; his time in the military; and the aftermath of the war.
Oral history interview with Elemér Pálinkás
Oral History
Elemér Pálinkás, born in 1917 in Hungary, describes the good relationship between Jews and non-Jews in prewar Balassagyarmat; his work as a barber and hairdresser; anti-Jewish sentiment that spread with the arrival of the German occupation; the relocation of the Jewish population from the main ghetto to Illéspuszta, across the river Ipoly, then to Nyírjespuszta near Balassagyarmat; his visit to the ghetto to serve as a hairdresser and barber; witnessing the murder of a young Jewish man in 1944; and the aftermath of the war.
Oral history interview with Irén Polyák
Oral History
Irén Polyák (Polyák Györgyné Orosz Irén), born in 1936 in Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of her town Balsa and the positive relations between the Jewish and non-Jewish population; difficulties for the Jewish population after the start of the war; the closing of shops and order to wear Star of David badges; the deportation of groups of Jews in 1944; the relocation of the Jews of Balsa to Gávavencsellő; the return of some Jews after the war; the looting of the homes of Jewish families after deportations; and hiding from the advancing Soviet Army in the village of Buj.
Oral history interview with Irén Tóth
Oral History
Irén Tóth (Tóth Józsefné Horvath Irén), born in 1926 in Hungary, describes her good relationship with the prewar Jewish population of Gebe (modern day Nyírkáta); her father’s work as a miller at a mill owned by a Jewish man; her father's professional and friendly relationship with the local Jewish population, which caused suspicion by the local gendarmerie; the burning of her family home and the mill in the mid 1940s; antisemitic acts; being the target of violence as a result of her family's friendly relationship with the Jewish community; the deportation of the Jewish population from Gebe; the case of an escaped Jewish family living in a vineyard who were later caught and taken to the Nyíregyháza ghetto; an incident in which she entered the Mátészalka ghetto to recover a bicycle; the deportation of Jews at Mátészalka; and how no Jewish survivors returned to Gebe after the war.
Oral history interview with Mátyás Tullner
Oral History
Mátyás Tullner, born in 1924 in Győr in Hungary, describes the Jewish community of Győr before the war; his family history; the friendly relations between Jews and non-Jews; signs of antisemitism appearing in 1941; anti-Jewish sentiment spreading with the occupation by the Germans in 1944; discriminating actions against the Jewish population, including a registry made of the Jewish residents of Győr and the forced closing of shops owned by Jews; the Star of David badges worn by Jews; vandalization of Jewish shops by the Arrow-Cross group starting in 1943; the forced relocation of the Jewish population into a ghetto on Győr Island; the deportation of the Jews from the ghetto; the sealing of the homes of the Jews; the destruction of many Jewish apartments in 1945 due to a bomb attack; the return of some Jews after the war; and assisting a few Jewish men escape to Budapest.
Oral history interview with József Németh
Oral History
József Németh, born in 1932 in Hungary, describes witnessing trains transporting Jews through Herceghalom; seeing a group of Jewish men being taken into a barn; his mother giving food to those men; the Jewish families of Zsámbék, a nearby town; the flight of German soldiers at the approach of the Russians; and violent and non-violetn actions of the Russians in his town.
Oral history interview with Endre Pintér
Oral History
Endre Pintér, born in 1927 in Hungary, describes his class at the Árpád gymnasium in Budapest which included several Jews; a protest action organized by the students to wear Star of David badges with their Jewish classmates; propaganda against the Jews in his hometown of Óbuda; living above the district headquarters of the Arrow Cross Party; violent actions of the members of the Arrow Cross Party; the closing of Jewish shops; the siege of Budapest by German forces; his work as a medic in Margit hospital; the deportation of the Jewish population; incidents in which community members aided the escape of Jews prior to deportation; punishments for those who aided the escape of Jews; the burning of his family’s apartment in 1945; violence committed by Russian soldiers; and the aftermath of the war.
Oral history interview with Rozália Brankovics
Oral History
Rozália Brankovics (Brankovics Ferencne Radványi Rozália), born in 1922 in Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish families living in Bodrogkisfalud, a village near Bodrogkeresztúr; working with her family in a Jewish-owned vineyard; generally good relations between the community’s Jews and non-Jews; her marriage in 1944 in Tiszalök; the deportation of Jews to Szerencs; living in the home of a deported Jewish family; the looting of the homes of deported Jewish families; and the aftermath of the war.
Oral history interview with Aranka Tóth
Oral History
Aranka Tóth (Tóth Sándorné Nyitrai Aranka), born in 1932 in Hungary, describes the Jewish population of her hometown, Gyüre; the positive relations between the Jewish and non-Jewish population; how antisemitic ideas spread from the higher levels of government; the requirement that the Jewish population wear Star of David badges; a decree that Jewish population was not allowed to leave their homes for ten days; her education; an anti-German publication; the deportation of Jews to Kisvárda; the ghetto in Kisvárda; conditions of the train cars in which Jews were transported; the looting of the houses of deported Jews; and life after the war.
Oral history interview with Sándor Czike
Oral History
Sándor Czike, born in 1929 in Szeged, Hungary, describes living in Székesfehérvár during World War II; his interactions with various members of the Jewish community in Szeged and Székesfehérvár; the intermarriage of his family with a Jewish family; antisemitic remarks from a teacher in his school; how measures were introduced against the Jewish population in 1937; his family’s attempt to hide a Jewish family’s collection of art books and albums to prevent their looting; the removal of young Jews from the town; the looting of Jewish homes by members of the Arrow Cross; actions taken by his family to help Jewish families who were being persecuted; propaganda spread by the Arrow Cross Party; Star of David badges worn by Jews; the actions of his father to protect Jews; the arrest of his father in 1944 for hiding Jews; traveling to the fortress at Komárom with his mother to secure the release of his father; staying in Budapest until January 1945; his involvement in saving Jewish children; and the aftermath of the war.
Oral history interview with Attila Csernok
Oral History
Attila Csernok, born in 1929 in Székesfehérvár, Hungary, describes the presence of Jewish classmates in his school in Székesfehérvár; staying in a military camp in Komárom in 1944 because of the location of his father; his father’s request for the services of Jewish forced laborers so that he could ease their situation by treating them with respect; his father’s disagreement with the inhumane treatment of forced laborers; witnessing the deportation of a Jewish family; the flight of his family from Hungary; and his writings after the war.
Oral history interview with Éva Kurdi
Oral History
Éva Kurdi (Kurdi Palne Bogar Éva), born in 1924 in Őcsény, Hungary, describes her positive relationships with members of the Jewish community of Őcsény; restrictions on Jews during the German occupation; the deportation of the Jews of Őcsény; and the return of only one Jewish person to the village after the war.
Oral history interview with Lajos Kácz
Oral History
Lajos Kácz, born in 1931 in Őcsény, Hungary describes the prewar Jewish population in his village and the positive relationships between Jews and non-Jews; the introduction of laws that permitted the mistreatment of the Jews, including the closing of Jewish shops; the deportation of the Jewish population; the lack of popularity of the Arrow Cross Party in his village; and violence committed by the Russians.
Oral history interview with Sára Lovas
Oral History
Sára Lovas (Lovas Istvanne Varga Sára), born in 1929 in Őcsény, Hungary, describes the peaceful relations between the different residents in her village before the war; wartime actions taken against the Jewish population, including the closing of Jewish shops; the deportation of the Jews in 1944 to the ghetto in Tolna; the looting of Jewish homes; the ostracising of Arrow Cross Party members by the village; anti-Jewish songs sung by Arrow Cross Party members; and the aftermath of the war.
Oral history interview with Márta Schultz
Oral History
Márta Schultz (Schultz Lászlóné Pezső Márta), born in 1932 in Surd, Hungary, describes her attendance at a Catholic high school in Nagykanizsa in 1942; the Jewish community in Nagykanizsa, including the doctor and shop owners with whom she had regular interaction; an incident in which a Jewish shop owner asked to be christened to avoid persecution; positive relationships between the Jewish and non-Jewish population of Nagykanizsa; her family’s anger at restrictions placed on Jews; actions taken by non-Jews to help Jews obtain kosher food; the activities of the local gendarme; anti-Jewish propaganda; the deportation of the Jews; the looting of Jewish belongings; her family’s aid to an escaped forced laborer; hiding a Jewish family in a vineyard; her mother hiding girls with the arrival of Russian soldiers to prevent their being sexually assaulted; and the aftermath of the war.
Oral history interview with Irén Peleskeiné Kàràsz
Oral History
Irén Peleskeiné Kàràsz (Peleskei Lazosne Kàràsz Irén), born in 1923 in Ivancsa, Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of Ivancsa; conditions for the Jewish community under German occupation; her work during the war; and witnessing transports of Jews.
Oral history interview with Jolán Sinkáné Grimm
Oral History
Jolán Sinkáné Grimm (Sinka Belane Grimm Jolán), born in 1933 in Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of her hometown, including her Jewish classmates; witnessing a column of Jews guarded by SS soldiers; attempting to give food to a Jewish girl, and almost being taken into the column; her father's aid to Jews in hiding; and witnessing hangings in a nearby tree.
Oral history interview with Erzsébet Oláhné Ecsédi
Oral History
Erzsébet Oláhné Ecsédi (Oláh Jozsefne Ecsédi Erzsébet), born in 1927 in Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of Vasmegyer; conditions for Jews under German occupation; Arrow Cross members; the deportation of her Jewish friends in 1944; and a close Jewish friend who returned after the war.
Oral history interview with Gizella Jaksáne Posztos
Oral History
Gizella Jaksáne Posztos (Jaksa Gaborne Posztos Gizella), born in 1925 in Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of Kiskunlachaza; the forced labor of Jewish boys; her work in Budapest for a Jewish family until 1943; her work in Csillaghegy until 1944; visiting the imprisoned Jewish family for whom she worked and being threatened by an Arrow Cross member; gendarmes torturing Jewish women; the deportation of the Jews; and the looting of Jewish owned belongings by Arrow Cross members.
Oral history interview with Margit Sinkáné Juhász-Buday
Oral History
Margit Sinkáné Juhász-Buday (Sinka Andrasne Juhász-Buday Margit), born in 1932 in Hungary, describes living with a Jewish roommate while attending school in Székesfehérvár; her family hiding Jewish families until liberation; a group of imprisoned Jewish women who were made to dance for German soldiers; bringing food to the imprisoned Jewish women; witnessing German soldiers torturing Jews; a family punished for hiding Jews; and the return of many Jews to her village after the war.
Oral history interview with György Orosz
Oral History
György Orosz, born in 1927 in Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of Szarvas; anti-Jewish propaganda; his father praising the expropriation of Jewish property during the war; the Jewish ghetto; assisting in the roundup and deportation of Jews; the arrest of his father by Soviet forces; and learning after the war about mass murders of Jews.
Oral history interview with Erzsébet Kellóné Kolakovszki
Oral History
Erzsébet Kellóné Kolakovszki (Kelló Gyorgyne Kolakovszki Erzsébet), born in 1922 in Hungary, describes living in Salgóbánya and the prewar Jewish community of Salgótarján; her memories of a Jewish classmate; witnessing a deportation of Jews; and an antisemitic song.
Oral history interview with Mária Hodurné Beke
Oral History
Mária Hodurné Beke (Hodur Istvanne Beke Mária), born in 1932 in Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of Ipolyszög; an antisemitic teacher who punished her for defending her Jewish friends; fighting with other children in defense of her Jewish friends; the deportation of the town's Jews; visiting her imprisoned Jewish friends; and the return of a Jewish man after the war.
Oral history interview with Zsuzsanna Ónodiné Koczur
Oral History
Zsuzsanna Ónodiné Koczur (Ónodi Janosne Koczur Zsuzsanna), born in 1930 in Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of Szügy; her mother smuggling food to the Jews in the ghetto; the deportation of the local Jewish community; saying goodbye to her Jewish friend; and the return of few Jews after the war.
Oral history interview with Mihály Hrapán
Oral History
Mihály Hrapán, born in 1931 in Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of Szügy; restrictions placed upon the Jewish community during the war; the deportation of the Jewish community; and the stationing of a labor unit in Szügy.
Oral history interview with Erzsébet Honoriné Várhegyi
Oral History
Erzsébet Honoriné Várhegyi (Honori Gaborne Vàrhegyi Erzsébet), born in 1929 in Hungary, describes working for a Jewish family in Nemes; the prewar Jewish community of Vácrátót; witnessing Jewish forced laborers working in a nearby forest; bringing food to the forced laborers; the execution of the forced laborers; helping a Jewish man who escaped the killing; a Jewish woman and her children who stayed with her family during the war; and a local young Jewish woman who returned after the war.
Oral history interview with Gyula Farkas
Oral History
Gyula Farkas, born in 1932 in Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of Miskolc; local Arrow Cross members; conditions for the Jewish community during the war; the Jewish ghetto; the deportation of members of the Jewish community; the bombing of his house in 1944; living in a formerly Jewish owned apartment; and the postwar return of the Jewish owner of the apartment in which his family lived.
Oral history interview with Róza Schneider Guth
Oral History
Róza Schneider Guth (Guth Joszekne Schneider Róza), born in 1927 in Boly, Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of Bóly; the persecution of Jews by Hungarian German civilians; the formation of the Volksbund in 1942, which increased Jewish persecution; witnessing the deportation of members of the local Jewish community; actions of the local Arrow Cross party members; and the return of some Jews to Bóly after the war.
Oral history interview with Teréz Szarvas Teszarik
Oral History
Teréz Szarvas Teszarik (Teszarik Palne Szarvas Teréz), born in 1932 in Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of Sükösd; a Jewish boy who was teased for wearing a yellow star badge; her father's work as a night watchman; her Jewish neighbors asking her father to hide valuables for them; the deportation of local Jews; the looting of Jewish owned homes; cruel actions of local guards; and returning valuables to her surviving Jewish neighbor after the war.
Oral history interview with Mária Ripszam Schumann
Oral History
Mária Ripszam Schumann (Schumann Robertne Ripszam Mária), born in 1924 in Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of Bóly; her Jewish neighbors; the establishment of a local Volksbund and the treatment of Jews by its members; the deportation of the Jewish community; bringing food to her Jewish neighbors; members of the local Arrow Cross party; and her family buying a house once owned by Jews.
Oral history interview with István Gáspár
Oral History
István Gáspár, born in 1923 in Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of Dombóvár; the treatment of Jews during the war; the establishment of the Jewish ghetto; the deportation of the Jewish community in 1944; the role of his father in the gendarmery; local Arrow Cross party members; and the looting of amassed Jewish owned belongings after liberation.
Oral history interview with IIlona Szász
Oral History
IIlona Szász, born in 1933 in Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of Óbuda; anti-Jewish propaganda; the murder of her Jewish friend's family; the disappearance of a Jewish schoolmate; conditions for the Jewish community during the war; the deportation of the Jewish community; staying with her uncle in Bihardioszeg (Diosig, Romania); the deportation of the Jews from Bihardioszeg; and moving to Balassagyarmat and seeing the Jewish ghetto.
Oral history interview with Vilmos Oláh
Oral History
Vilmos Oláh, born in 1928 in Salgótarján, Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish and Romani communities of Salgótarján; his work as a violinist; the treatment of Jews during the war by local townspeople; the deportation of the Jewish community in 1944; his forced labor sorting items from the Jewish ghetto; and his conscription into the army in 1944.
Oral history interview with Rozália Tahon Bolyos
Oral History
Rozália Tahon Bolyos (Bolyos Laszlone Tahon Rozália), born in 1931 in Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of Salgótarján; the conditions for the Jewish community during the war; the establishment of the Jewish ghetto; the looting of Jewish owned belongings by Arrow Cross party members; purchasing books stolen from local Jews; an antisemitic song; and her Jewish classmate who returned after the war.
Oral history interview with Rózsa Surán Desztler
Oral History
Rózsa Desztler (Desztler Istvanne Surán Rózsa), born in 1925 in Budapest, Hungary, describes her father, who was a prisoner of war in WWI in Russia and married a Russian woman; her father’s Jewish friends, including József Englender and Kálmánné Szladek; being forced to move to Svábhegy (XII district of Budapest) by German officers; her brother’s arrest by the Gestapo for anti-state activities in 1940; her numerous Jewish friends and classmates, including Ági Labesz; witnessing several episodes of antisemitism beginning in 1943; Jews having to wear yellow stars; her attempts to help her brother and father after they were arrested; being pregnant during that time; the persecution of her family for their ties to communism; escaping their home and going to János hospital; living in a yellow star house on the corner of Podmaniczky and Bajza streets; and witnessing a deportation of Jews.
Oral history interview with Julianna Bakos Sunyovszky
Oral History
Julianna Sunyovszky (Sunyovszky Ferencne Bakos Julianna), born April 25, 1929 in Budapest, Hungary, describes her family’s good relations with their Jewish neighbors; seeing Jews being escorted by Arrow Cross men one day when she was shopping with her mother and watching as one the older Jewish men was shot; her next-door neighbor who was part of the Arrow Cross Party; seeing trains carrying Jews many times; the Russians arriving; and hiding in a cellar with others.
Oral history interview with Mária Bellus Sulyokné
Oral History
Mária Sulyokné (Sulyokné Bellus Mária), born in 1932 in Nyiregyháza, Hungary, describes the Jewish community of Nyiregyháza; her sister (Aranka), who worked a company (Fűszer és Gyarmatáru) with Jewish owners and was assigned the job of selling out the supply of the company after the owners were taken away; seeing Jews wearing the yellow star, including the grocer, Mr. Kohn; her Jewish friend, Márta Grósz, who she visited in the Jewish ghetto; the deportation of the Grósz family and never seeing them again; the looting of Jewish belongings after the deportations; the fear of the leventes (paramilitary youth organizations in Hungary), who would often beat people and were destructive; the Russians arriving; the murder of her sister and her brother-in-law by Russians; and going to work at the National Bank in Budapest in 1947.
Oral history interview with Júlia Kardos Fogler
Oral History
Júlia Fogler (Folger Imkene Kardos Júlia), born in 1924 in Budapest, Hungary, describes her Christian mother and Jewish father; her father’s work as a printer for the printing firms Atheneum and Glóbusz; being well informed about current affairs because of her father’s involvement with the Zionist movement; her Jewish classmate Kati Schmidt; the hostility of their neighbors because her family had a good income; the rise of antisemitism; her family’s decision to move to Pesterzsébet (part of district 20 in Budapest) to her aunt’s house circa 1942; anti-Jewish propaganda; a neighbor who was part of the Arrow Cross Party; her father having to wear the yellow star and being taken away one day while he was on his way to work; the yellow star house her father lived in on Pannónia street and visiting him there on two occasions; being more frightened of the Arrow Cross soldiers than the German soldiers; her brother’s escape from the levente (paramilitary youth organizations); being constantly harassed by the Arrow Cross Party members; hiding with her mother in a small pit covered with planks; her mother deciding to move to her hometown, Zámoly, Hungary; being regarded as Jews in Zámoly, which was dangerous, and moving to Székesfehérvár then back to Budapest; the jobs of the Jews in Zámoly and hearing about their deportation; getting married to a Jewish man whose entire family was killed and his family house in Kisk Kiskőrös was destroyed; keeping a diary during the war, even when she was hiding, but losing it during their moves; and how after the Germans came in, she invented a code system to write down her thoughts or German jokes.
Oral history interview with Dániel Stiffel
Oral History
Dániel Stiffel, born in 1930 in Csepel (Budapest), Hungary, describes growing up in Csepel; his Jewish friends and classmates, including Roschild and Buxbaum, who were deported during the war; the labor camp on Kikötő street established during the summer of 1943; the conditions and guards in the labor camp; how the gendarme guards behaved as if they were ashamed of what they were doing; peaking in on the camp numerous times; the deportation of the Jews from the camp and Seklers (székely) from Transylvania being forced to move into the camp; his memories of the song, “Long live Szálasi and Hitler”; a large factory in Csepel, Weiss Manfréd factory, where there were bomb-proof shelters that were for non-Jews only; the separate shelters for the higher-ranking officials and managers, where workers were not allowed; Jews having to wear the yellow star; staying with his relatives in Kiskunmajsa-Ötfapuszta in the summer of 1944; going through the Kiskunhalas train station with his mother and her German-speaking friend during the fall of 1944 and witnessing as German and Hungarian soldiers shot 20-25 civilians by the platforms; hiding in a safe place within the railway station building; witnessing with his mother as two Jewish boys begged he and his mother to save them; watching as Jewish boys dug trenches and collected and buried the bodies of those who had been shot; the murder of one of the Jewish boys while he was carrying a dead body; how the after the trenches were dug and the dead bodies buried, the Jewish boys had to line up by the second trench and were shot into it; returning to Budapest and over hearing the same German soldiers from the train station as they discussed the day and entertained themselves with the objects that they took from the Jews; and hearing about an escape route via a wall near Főkert on Dob street in Budapest. [Note that part of the interview takes place at Kiskunhalas train station.]
Oral history interview with Anna Fehér Kreisch
Oral History
Anna Kreisch (Kreisch Joszefné Fehér Anna), born in 1929 in Budapest, Hungary, describes her mother, who did cleaning and laundry for Jewish families, including Mrs. Weis, who lived on Dob street with her two sons; Mrs. Weis leaving before the war; how her house was hit by a bomb on 17 April and her family lost their flat and their belongings; moving to a flat at no. 26 Vilmos császár street, which they had to move out of two months later as it became a yellow star house; the curfew for Jews and bringing ice cream to the Jewish family across the street during the curfew; being threatened by a German soldier for bringing ice cream to their Jewish neighbors; working at a cotton factory beginning in 1943 and training a Jewish girl, Ildikó, who had worked there as a form of labor service; seeing a column of about 50 Jews being walked on Andrássy street and escorted by German soldiers; seeing numerous Arrow Cross Party members in the city; how her sister cried for three days after she saw how Jews were shot into the river; moving to Szakály; and the Russians arriving and attacking the women in Szakály.
Oral history interview with Mária Horváth Bartha
Oral History
Mária Bartha (Bartha Attilane Horváth Mária), born in 1934, describes growing up in Budapest; her parents divorcing and commuting between their homes (her father lived by the bridge connecting Pesterzsébet to Csepel and her mother lived in Pesterzsébet on lower Határ út); her father’s work for a Jewish entrepreneur, Berger; being at school during the first big bombing and going to her father’s house; Jews having to wear the yellow star; the creation of the ghetto and the looting of Jewish homes; Jews being forced to do labor under guard of the Arrow Cross Partymembers; and witnessing the deportation of Jews from the ghetto.
Oral history interview with Julianna György Balázs
Oral History
Julianna Balázs (Balázs Istvanne György Julianna), born in 1927, describes growing up in Budapest, Hungary; living in the Újpest neighborhood, where there were many Jewish families; working in her parents’ restaurant; the deportation of some of her neighbors; her husband’s work with a Jewish carpenter, Mr. Kohn; living with her husband in the house of a Jewish man named Krausz, who later changed his name to Kertész; hiding Kertész in the maid’s room at times during 1944; her interactions with the Arrow Cross Party; hiding a Jewish woman named Ilonka, who as the wife of an actor; always trying to get enough food for Kertész and Ilonka; seeing the death of a small child during a bombing; watching as a friend, Laci Neiger, was being escorted by two Arrow Cross men; the gathering of the Jews in Újpest on Hun street and seeing as the columns of Jews walked along Árpád street; Ilonka giving birth to a baby in 1945; and providing Ilonka with breast milk after Ilonka had difficulty producing her own milk.
Oral history interview with János Bese
Oral History
János Bese, born in 1929 in Budapest, Hungary, describes his childhood and attending an elementary school on Maria Terézia square; his Jewish classmate, György Krausz, who lived with his family at no.1 Jázmin street; the training site for the arrow cross near Ferencváros train station; hearing rumors in 1942 that the Jews would be resettled in Madagascar; hearing antisemitic stories; his father’s sympathy for the political left; living with his family at no.14 Nagytemplom street, in the 8th district; the Jewish family who lived in the same house, the Rosenzweigs, and their 6-year-old daughter, Lili; an incident during which two former Hungarian soldiers chased away Arrow Cross Party members who were trying to take the Rosenzweig family and German soldiers intervening and ultimately taking the Rosenzweigs; speaking with Mrs. Rosenzweigs in July 1945 and finding out that her husband and daughter died during the war; his view on the origins of antisemitism in Hungary; antisemitic jokes that are popular in Hungary; witnessing the fire fight in a building on Népszínház street and Bérkocsis street, during which deserters, labor servicemen, and civilians fought German soldiers and ultimately lost when the Germans brought in a tank; and seeing some of the Hungarian resisters shot in the street.
Oral history interview with Anna Polai Tóth
Oral History
Anna Tóth (Tóth Martonne Polai Anna), born in 1931 in Nagykanizsa, Hungary, describes living next to a synagogue in Nagykanizsa; spending a lot of time with Jewish families when she was a child; her confusion over Jews having to wear yellow stars; her friendship with the local library manager, Malvin Kircz, who was Jewish; the deportation of Jews from Nagykanizsa, which was led by Arrow Cross Party members; witnessing as Jews were gathered in the synagogue and systematically deported; hearing that some Jews survived in hiding; the Arrow Cross Party organizing the collection and distribution of the belongings of the deported Jews; and her memories of a local camp established for Jewish workers.
Oral history interview with János Hangya
Oral History
János Hangya, born October 30, 1925 in Szakcs, Hungary, describes moving with his family to Budapest, Hungary when he was 10 years old; not being religious; his father’s work for the Jewish Congregation of Faith beginning in 1940; spending a lot of time with Jewish families; attending a school comprised mostly of Jewish boys (there were only 4 Christian boys in his class) and feeling immediately accepted even though he was a boy from the country; working at a factory on Fehérvári street during the war; knowing most of the people who worked at the congregation on Síp street; hearing about the deportation of Jews two weeks after it had begun; Miksa Domokos taking over the leadership of the Jewish community some time around April 1944 and Rabbi Sándor Berendt also appearing at this time; the arrival of the Germans in Hungary; the widespread disbelief of the rumors about the conditions in Auschwitz; having to leave the ghetto with his family by December 1, 1944; moving into the flat of a Jewish family they knew; his father’s ID from the Gestapo, allowing him to enter the ghetto; bringing blankets to lagers in Aszód (near the neighborhood Csepel in Budapest); conditions in the lagers; being asked by Miksa Domonkos (the head of the Jewish congregation) to witness and report about the conditions at the round-ups and deportations in the countryside, which included several villages: Szakcs, Kocsola, Döbrököz, Dombóvár, Kurd, and Kurdcsibrák; going to Szakcs, Kocsola (where his mother was born), and Törökkopány to pick up his mother's and his father's birth certificates and their marriage papers from the local authorities; the Jewish families he knew in Szakcs and Kocsola, whom he saw deported; the transfer of Jews from Kurd and Kurdcsibrák to the ghetto in Dombóvár; being back about 10 copies of his parents' marriage certificate and giving them to Jewish friends and acquaintances to use; the Jewish congregation’s attempts to help the Jewry in the countryside; hearing that Rezső Kasztner freed some people from confinement at the synagogue on Rumbach street; getting a Swiss Schutzpass for someone from the synagogue on Rumbach street; meeting Wallenberg three times; having to report for military service at a military base and staying for three days in a brick factory in Kőbánya before returning home; taking a Swedish Schutzpass to the Reisz family, all of whom survived the war; staying in the basement of the Reisz house during the bombings; and the trial of Béla Berend (a former rabbi from Maramures) after the war.
Oral history interview with Tibor Kolosi
Oral History
Tibor Kolosi, born in 1933, describes life in Szécsény, Hungary before the war; the good relations between Jews and non-Jews; living with his family on Próféta street, where there were many Jewish families; his Jewish friends; the gathering of Jews in the courtyard of the synagogue, where they were guarded by gendarmes; Jewish boys not being allowed to play football; seeing Jews wearing the Star of David; witnessing a deportation of Jews via truck; the Levente (paramilitary youth organizations) training, which was often held near his football training area, and hearing them sing anti-Jewish songs; and several Jewish families he knows who survived the war.
Oral history interview with Rozália Kelemen Csábi
Oral History
Rozália Csábi (Csabi Janosne Kelemen Rozália), born in 1934, describes life in Szécsény, Hungary before the war; her father’s work for Mr Donner, a Jewish man who ran a lumber yard and a brick factory; not having any Jewish classmates; the Jewish Klein brothers who owned a bakery and the Jewish greengrocer; not seeing the local Jews wear the star, except for the young Grünberger, the soda maker's son; seeing the local Jews, including the Donner family and the Kleins, escorted by Hungarian soldiers to the train station on Tarjáni street; being hugged by Mrs. Donner before they were deported and saying good-bye to Rózsika Donner; and Christians living in the Donners’ house.
Oral history interview with István Márton
Oral History
István Márton, born in 1932, describes life and the ethnic diversity in Ipolyság/Šahy, Slovakia before the war; his Jewish neighbors in Šahy, including the Kinszki family, the Ertler family, and the Kinszki family; how in 1944 people began to talk about who amongst the Jews in Šahy were taken away; listening to a few of the radios in town; hearing about the camps; the Komlós brothers (who were children of a interfaith marriage) attending levente training; Jews having to wear a star; the creation of a ghetto; listening as the Komlós' discussed whether they would have to wear the star; Mr. Komlós going to the ghetto with his son and later being hidden by a forester in the Börzsöny; the hospital in the ghetto for those with infectious diseases; the closing of Jewish shops in 1944; his family keeping contact with Jewish families (Köves, Komlós, Ertler) up until the point they were moved into the ghetto; his classmate, István Gál, whose father was a gendarme; how after the German occupation of Hungary a chief gendarme, Károly Sziller, was put in control of Šahy and gendarmes were brought from other places and moved in to an emptied school building; going with his father to Tésa, where they met a group of 12 girls, who were taken to work for a land owner for two weeks; the conditions in the ghetto and the brutal treatment of Jews in Šahy; hearing about the interrogations of Jews; the deportation of the Jews and hearing about the atrocities at the train station where the Jews were loaded into wagons to be transported to Balassagyarmat; seeing the furniture of the deported Jews in public offices; the return of few Jews after the war; and his efforts to write a book about this time period in Šahy.
Oral history interview with Ferenc Géró
Oral History
Ferenc Géró, born on November 17, 1925 in Kecskemét, Hungary, describes moving to the village of Tiszavárkony, Hungary at the age of 12; working as a peasant and servant to rich farmers; at the age of 14, working at a sugar factory owned by Jewish people in Szolnok, Hungary; antisemitism beginning with people singing Nazi songs, including members of the fascist Iron Guard political organization, when Transylvania was assigned from Romania to Hungary; moving to Budapest, Hungary in 1942; American air raids starting in spring 1944 and being trained to put out fires; Jews having to wear a yellow star and being put in homes that had stars; walking by a building on Wesselényi Street in Budapest that was designated for Jews and seeing a grenade thrown out of one of the windows at a German guard, and the building being empty the next day; and leaving the fire brigade unit because they had become fascists.
Oral history interview with Irén Merschán Meschán
Oral History
Irén Merschán Meschán (Meschán Ferencné Merschán Irén), born in 1925 in the town of Rákoscsaba, Hungary (now part of Budapest, XVII. Kerület), describes a Jewish-owned grocery store next to her grandmother’s house; a large Jewish family who lived next to her aunt’s home and made pottery, and who were taken away and did not return home; hearing people on the street at night throwing stones at the Jewish-owned grocery store’s iron shutters; the store being closed down after Jews were rounded up and taken away; working on Alkotmány street in Budapest in 1942 for a company’s transportation unit and having Jewish colleagues; all Jewish workers having to wear a large yellow star; everyone being afraid of the far-right Arrow Cross Party in Hungary; Jews who did not wear stars being shot dead; getting married in 1947 and moving to the city of Baja in southern Hungary out of fear of the Russians; her husband being an injured when he was a soldier; and a Jewish safehouse near St. Stephen's Basilica in Budapest, where she delivered Hungarian Beigli poppy-seed rolls.
Oral history interview with János Balogh
Oral History
János Balogh, born in 1930 in Budapest, Hungary, describes growing up on Nagy Diófa street in District VII (the city’s former Jewish quarter) near Klauzál square; many Jewish people living in his building and going to his school; Jewish friends putting a kippah on him and taking him to a synagogue; not knowing his father; his building landlord being Jewish and an attorney, and later hearing the landlord was executed on the Danube bank; their apartment being inside the Budapest ghetto and having to move with other Christians to a new apartment; hearing screams and shouting and shooting; two members of the far-right Arrow Cross Party coming to their building and asking if Jewish people were in the cellar; the building caretaker looking out to the street and seeing women and children lying dead in the snow, and the bodies staying there for days; Germans leaving and Russians arriving; bombings occurring while they were in the cellar, and their apartment was hit; and the bodies of Jewish people crammed into a shop.
Oral history interview with Tamás Molnár
Oral History
Tamás Molnár, born in 1933 in Budapest, Hungary, describes living in a one-room apartment with his parents in Budapest’s District XI in a villa quarter; growing up Jewish; his father riding on a motorbike to sell butter for a dairy factory; his father working for labor service in 1942 in the town of Dabas, Hungary; a few children in higher classes at school calling Jewish students names; the far-right Arrow Cross Party holding meetings near his Budapest neighborhood of Kelenföld (in XI. Kerület) in 1943 and 1944, and emphasizing the Hungarian identity and firing up hatred with statements about foreigners and undocumented people; other parents signing up children for Hitler-Jugend (Levente); German soldiers and tanks and military cars coming in spring of 1944; Jewish people having to move to Jewish houses, with Christians taking over their property; 15-20 percent of residents of Budapest being Jewish; having to wear yellow stars and feeling humiliated; hours of shopping being restricted for Jewish people; his parents being taken to labor service; his mother being taken to a factory; both of his parents escaping and returning home; his father getting work driving a Red Cross truck and getting the family Christian papers and different names; his father being arrested and taken to headquarters of Arrow Cross guards and beaten; and constantly moving around to new homes.
Oral history interview with Frigyes Rotharidesz
Oral History
Frigyes Rotharidesz, born in 1934 in Budapest, Hungary, describes living in Budapest’s District VII on the corner of István road and Nefelejcs street, in a house next to a synagogue; living in a neighborhood of lower middle-class people, both Jewish and Christian; three or four Jewish families living in his building; going to elementary school on Hernád street in District VII; discrimination starting strongly in 1944 and Jewish people having to move to star houses; Arrow Cross Party soldiers taking away Jews and putting them in a crammed apartment, then Christians moving into the Jewish people’s homes; never again seeing his best friend, who was Jewish; and seeing dead bodies lying all around a synagogue on Dohány Street.
Oral history interview with Eva Németh Habán
Oral History
Eva Németh Habán, born in 1926 in Gyékényes, Hungary, describes her father working for a railway company; attending schools in Nagykanizsa and in Érsekújvár, Hungary (now Nové Zámky, Slovakia); a Jewish classmate and her family being taken to a ghetto and having to wear yellow stars; sneaking in and out of the ghetto to visit her classmate, and her classmate giving her a necklace; bombings beginning on October 6, 1944; after she got home from work at a military hospital; she was outside in her yard and heard sounds of aircraft and a bomb explode, and she ran down into her shelter and hid beneath a table, and homes next door were damaged; inviting a German soldier to their place and her mother giving him a big glass of milk; all Jewish people in Érsekújvár being taken to Auschwitz; going to the nearby village of Tótmegyer (now Palárikovo, Slovakia) after the October 6 bombing and staying until summer 1945; visiting a Hungarian family in October 1944 when a refugee turned up at their place with a backpack while on his way to Budapest and taking him home.
Oral history interview with Edit Dánay Kállai
Oral History
Edit Dánay Kállai (Kállai Istvanne Dánay Edit), born June 19, 1933, describes growing up in Budapest, Hungary; her suspicion that her Catholic family had Jewish roots; her father, who worked in the post office but was inducted into the army in 1942, sent to the front, and was very sick when he returned home; the three families in the Kallai’s house, including a woman and her son Janchi Bartos (he belonged to a partisan group and had a Jewish fiancée, Zsuzsa); the Arrow Cross; the many partisans who saved Jewish people from the ghetto; stories of people trying to rescue Jews; her friend Eva Biro, who wore a yellow star and attended school until the Arrow Cross took power in October 1944; watching as Jews were lined up in the Budapest neighborhoods of Rakospalota (XV. Kerület) and New Pest (IV. Kerület) to be taken away on wagons and seeing people beat, kick, push, and scream at the Jews that they were thieves and crooks and were ruining Hungary; having nightmares for months after witnessing this; knowing of a woman who committed suicide; hearing that Jews were taken to a movie theater, where they were tortured; the Kallai family taking food to the ghetto as long as its gates were open; going to the ghetto after it was emptied and visiting her former house on Vaci Street, which was one of many that had been bombed; how the Arrow Cross men had taken all valuables, including paintings, carpets, and china from homes in the ghetto; the Russian take over on January 7, 1945; moving with her family to Tolna, Hungary; and the very few Jews who returned after the war ended.
Oral history interview with Ilona Weinberger Srékelyhidi
Oral History
Ilona Weinberger Srékelyhidi, born in 1929 in Budapest, Hungary, describes her father taking her to a children’s shelter where she became an orphan; not remembering what her mother looked like; learning that her father was taken away and was Jewish; and her mother being from the city of Nitra in western Slovakia.
Oral history interview with Margit Németh Gál
Oral History
Margit Németh Gál, born in 1924 in the village of Egervár, Hungary, describes growing up in a castle between Egervár and the nearby village of Vasboldogasszony; moving to her mother’s home village in Vasboldogasszony in 1928; Jewish families in the village; Jews being rounded up and taken away; one Jewish father jumping off a balcony in suicide; two families being taken away in a cart to a concentration camp in the Hungarian city of Szombathely; Arrow Cross Party members in the village; her brother being conscripted in 1938 and moved to Hajmáskér Barracks in Hungary, then to the front and being captured in Stalingrad; her family being asked to send ten thousand Hungarian forints for her brother to be sent home, which they raised by selling horses, but he never returned.
Oral history interview with Erzsébet Ványi Kubik
Oral History
Erzsébet Ványi Kubik (Kubik Istvanne Ványi Erzsébet), born on June 6, 1931 in Budapest, Hungary, describes living at Hold Street number 41 until 1956; growing up in a home where there was no discrimination; the Jews living in her neighborhood, including her best friend Zsuzsi, who lived at Hold Street number 9 but did not attend the same school; the Jewish girls in her class and how there was no differentiation between Jewish and Christian students, except that they went to different religious classes; her math teacher who wore a yellow Jewish star; the many incidents that occurred against Jews after the mandate for Jews to wear a yellow star was introduced in 1944; Arrow Cross guards, who had been active even before the German occupation and how they marched and sang songs; Jews from all over being moved into Zsuzsi’s house in 1944; not being allowed to visit or talk to Zsuzsi because the Arrow Cross guards would search people who were friends with Jews; Jews being beaten and kicked when they were taken to the ghettos; Zsuzsi and her family being taken away with the other tenants; living in a government building near the American Embassy; seeing Jews being taken away along Vilmos Czasar Street but not knowing where they were being taken; seeing many rows with about eight people in each row and the Arrow Cross guards kicking, beating, and cursing at the people; the responses of the witnesses of the deportation; hearing that people were taken to the banks of the Danube, lined up, and shot; how her middle brother, who worked for a Jewish company, joined the Arrow Cross and her older brother also joined the Arrow Cross but never went to meetings and did not wear the uniform; her sister also joining the Arrow Cross and working in an office; her siblings’ internment for eight months after the war and the Jewish owner of the business, GYURI, vouched for them by saying that they had not done anything to hurt anyone; and the words to a song the Arrow Cross members sang often.
Oral history interview with Anna Feiger Doleszák
Oral History
Anna Feiger Doleszák, born in 1929 in the village of Mád, Hungary, describes her father working as a cart driver for a local mine; living near a Jewish doctor and Jewish tradesmen and shopkeepers; around 4,800 people living in Mád, with about 800 Jews; having a brother and two sisters; noticing Jewish persecution and people having to show family birth certificates to show if they were Jewish; seeing people in Mád having to wear yellow stars; her future husband being in the village of Méra in northeastern Hungary in 1943 and meeting a Jewish person digging ditches for a shooting; seeing Jewish people being escorted from a synagogue to a train station; shops being looted; and some neighbors later returning from concentration camps.
Oral history interview with Erzsébet Kovács Banykó
Oral History
Erzsébet Kovács Banykó, born in 1925 in city of Nyíregyháza, Hungary, describes Jewish people having to wear a yellow star; Jewish people working as shoemakers, tailors, and painting shop owners; her mother not letting her light fireplaces for Jewish people on Shabbat because her mother was scared of her daughter being among Jews; a woman’s two daughters being taken away; a neighbor who was a vinegar seller being taken away; people associated with the fascist Arrow Cross Party being in Nyíregyháza; going to a factory for work and seeing train wagons with people inside shouting they were suffocating; visiting a Jewish woman in a ghetto, who asked for water, so she asked a policeman for water and the policeman filled a bucket with water, but then another policeman kicked over the bucket; people leaving for Israel; and hiding from Russian soldiers.
Oral history interview with Lajos Szabó
Oral History
Oral history interview with Emőke Toós Jancsó
Oral History
Oral history interview with László Keveházi
Oral History
Oral history interview with Ferenc Hajba
Oral History
Oral history interview with Ilona Borsi Máthé
Oral History
Oral history interview with László József Palotás
Oral History
Oral history interview with Erzsébet Molnar Bácskai
Oral History
Oral history interview with Piroska Naszádos
Oral History
Oral history interview with Jenő Szigeti
Oral History
Oral history interview with Edit Fazekas Rákosi
Oral History
Oral history interview with Éva Murányi Németh
Oral History
Oral history interview with Teodóra Jenkei Tóth
Oral History
Oral history interview with Ilona Jakab Varga
Oral History
Oral history interview with Ilona Szlávik Böröcz
Oral History
Oral history interview with Sándor Schmidt
Oral History
Oral history interview with Magda Ferencz Révayné
Oral History
Oral history interview with Éva Kollarits Aradi
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Oral history interview with Dán Zoltán
Oral History
Oral history interview with Márta Páll Reusz
Oral History
Oral history interview with József Rábai
Oral History
Oral history interview with Mária Sulyok Rábai
Oral History
Oral history interview with Ferenc Mészáros
Oral History
Oral history interview with Anna Mészáros Berecz
Oral History
Oral history interview with József Döbrősy
Oral History
Oral history interview with Jenő Pászner
Oral History
Oral history interview with József Szalai
Oral History
Oral history interview with Erzsébet Virger Szalai
Oral History
Oral history interview with Mária Venesz Karácsonyi
Oral History
Oral history interview with Ferenc Karakai
Oral History
Oral history interview with János Magyar
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Oral history interview with Imre Orbán
Oral History
Oral history interview with Vilma Horváth Orbán
Oral History
Oral history interview with József André
Oral History
Oral history interview with Valéria Rudolf Tita
Oral History
Oral history interview with László Szakmáry
Oral History
Oral history interview with Mária Schwartz Hevesi
Oral History
Oral history interview with Ede Jenkei
Oral History
Oral history interview with Erzsébet Horváth Somi
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Oral history interview with Edit Kocska Hardi
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Oral history interview with Johanna Fazekas Laing
Oral History
Oral history interview with Anna Krisztina Scheuring
Oral History
Oral history interview with Ilona Domitilla Molnár
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Oral history interview with Julianna Jácinta Brath
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Oral history interview with Ferenc Huller
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Research interview with Márta Kovalik
Oral History
Research interview with Ilona Bártfai
Oral History
Research interview with Mária Sárközi
Oral History
Research interview with Károly Bálint
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Research interview with Kátai Szilveszter
Oral History
Research interview with Mária Tóth
Oral History
Research interview with Dr. Erzsébet Bényei
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Research interview with Julianna Kassai
Oral History
Research interview with Géza Takács
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Research interview with Ilona Vitányi
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Research interview with Dr. Mária Pozsgai
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Research interview with Marianna Bagossy Mikes
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Research interview with József Fodor
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Research interview with Margit Szeles Hársfalvi
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Research interview with Sándor Bacsúr
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Research interview with Erzsébet Kun
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Research interview with Aladár Naszály
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Research interview with Elemér Pálinkás
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Research interview with Irén Polyák
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Research interview with Mátyás Tullner
Oral History
Research interview with József Németh
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Research interview with Rozália Brankovics
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Research interview with Aranka Tóth
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Research interview with Sándor Czike
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Research interview with Attila Csernok
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Research interview with Éva Kurdi
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Research interview with Lajos Kácz
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Research interview with Sára Lovas
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Research interview with Márta Schultz
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Research interview with Irén Peleskeiné Kàràsz
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Research interview with Jolán Sinkáné Grimm
Oral History
Research interview with Erzsébet Oláhné Ecsédi
Oral History
Research interview with Gizella Jaksáne Posztos
Oral History
Research interview with Margit Sinkáné Juhász-Buday
Oral History
Research interview with György Orosz
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Research interview with Erzsébet Kellóné Kolakovszki
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Research interview with Mária Hodurné Beke
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Research interview with Zsuzsanna Ónodiné Koczur
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Research interview with Mihály Hrapán
Oral History
Research interview with Erzsébet Honoriné Várhegyi
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Research interview with Gyula Farkas
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Research interview with Róza Schneider Guth
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Research interview with Teréz Szarvas Teszarik
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Research interview with Mária Ripszam Schumann
Oral History
Research interview with István Gáspár
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Research interview with IIlona Szász
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Research interview with Vilmos Oláh
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Research interview with Rozália Tahon Bolyos
Oral History
Research interview with Julianna Bakos Sunyovszky
Oral History
Research interview with Júlia Kardos Fogler
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Research interview with Dániel Stiffel
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Research interview with Anna Polai Tóth
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Research interview with János Hangya
Oral History
Research interview with Tibor Kolosi
Oral History
Research interview with Rozália Kelemen Csábi
Oral History
Research interview with Dr. István Márton
Oral History