Oral history interview with Kornel Tarjan
Kornel (Friedman) Tarjan (1893-1978) born in 1893 in Szekszard, Hungary, discusses his studies in mechanical engineering in Berlin, Germany; serving in the Austro-Hungarian Army as an officer during WWI; being wounded on the Italian front and discharged; recovering from his wounds and becoming the city engineer in Pecs, Hungary while the town was under Serbian occupation; his escape from Pecs after the arrival of Nicholas Horthy who marched into Pecs as a "liberator”; traveling to Vienna, Austria with his teenage brother; restoring a mill in Bosnia and learning the Serbo-Croatian language; settling in Zagreb (now in Croatia); opening a business where he imported radios and electrical equipment; his two children, Lucia (aka Medi) and Ivan (aka Jancsi or Van) born in 1925 and 1930 respectively; Germany’s invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941; the family’s deportation to an Italian concentration camp on an island in the Adriatic; joining Tito’s partisans after the fall of Mussolini; his two years marching with Serbian partisans; being taken by boat to liberated Southern Italy; how everyone in the family survived except for Lucy’s teenage husband; the family’s immigration to the United States; and their lives in the Boston, MA area after the war.
- Interviewee
- Kornel Tarjan
- Interviewer
- Ken Tigar
- Date
-
interview:
approximately 1970
- Language
-
English
- Extent
-
6 sound cassettes.
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Peter P. Tarjan
-
Record last modified: 2020-10-07 13:38:28
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn715901
Also in Tarjan family collection
The collection consists of wartime letters written to Erzsébeth Steiner and her sister Ágnes in Budapest from their parents Margit and Simon Steiner in Pécs, Hungary prior to their deportation in July 1944 to the Auschwitz concentration camp. There are a few copies of correspondence of Erzsébeth’s husband Tibor Tarjan. Also included are transcriptions and translations of the letters by Erzsébeth and Tibor’s son Peter, and a personal narrative by Peter regarding his family’s Holocaust experiences. The collection also consists of photographs, postcards and an identity card issued by the Organization of Jews in Hungary; documents related to the Legion of Portugal in Hungary and the class of 1924 in Pecs putting on a Purim show. In addition, the collection includes the address book of Agnes Takacs nee Steiner (1906-1992) with the clients from an elegant salon that she opened in the Gentrum of Budapest in the early 1930s. She was sent on Eichmann March, escaped, caught and completed march to Western border, then sent to Budapest ghetto and survived. Finally, there are 6 audio cassette recordings from the 1970s. The donor's paternal uncle Kornel was interviewed by Ken Tigar. Kornel (Friedman) Tarjan (1893-1978) b. Hungary, survived by escaping Pecs, went to Vienna, then Bosnia, Italian concentration camp on island in the Adriatic, and in 1945 taken by boat to liberated southern Italy. Some of these materials may be combined into a single collection in the future.
Tarjan family papers
Document
The collection primarily consists of wartime letters written to Erzsébeth Steiner and her sister Ágnes in Budapest from their parents Margit and Simon Steiner in Pécs, Hungary prior to their deportation in July 1944 to the Auschwitz concentration camp. There are a few copies of correspondence of Erzsébeth’s husband Tibor Tarjan. Also included are transcriptions and translations of the letters by Erzsébeth and Tibor’s son Peter, and a personal narrative by Peter regarding his family’s Holocaust experiences.
Tarjan family papers
Document
Photographs; postcards and letters of correspondence; identity card issued by the Organization of Jews in Hungary; documents related to Legion of Portugal in Hungary, class of 1924 in Pecs, Purim show.
Address book of Agnes Takacs
Document
Address book of Agnes Takacs (nee Steiner, 1906-1992) with the clients from a salon she opened in the Centrum of Budapest in the early 1930s. She was sent on a forced march, escaped, caught and completed march to Western border, then sent to Budapest ghetto and survived.
