A page of drawings illustrating the contribution of Hungarian Jewish labor servicemen to the war effort.

Photograph | Digitized | Photograph Number: 58014

Overview

Caption: A page of drawings illustrating the contribution of Hungarian Jewish labor servicemen to the war effort.

At the top: "The different platoons work hard at the battle front and in the no man's land [between the armies]. They actively participate in the fighting. They carry ammunition to the Hungarian soldiers." In the middle: "They defuse land mines. They bury the dead, including those that had been left unburied from the winter campaign. They carry soldiers wounded on the front lines to safety." At the bottom: "For example, [Jewish Labor Serviceman] Herman Brand carried 35 wounded soldiers from the barbed wire barricades and from no man's land on May 30, 1942 during the Afanasyevica skirmish. Among those he carried was Gyula Gercsi-Suta, age 35, a lieutenant, who succumbed to his wounds at the field hospital that evening."

One page of an illustrated album produced by Gyorgy Beifeld (1902-1982), a Hungarian Jew from Budapest, who was drafted into the Munkaszolgalat (Hungarian Labor Service system) and spent more than a year on the Soviet front, from April 1942 through May 1943. The album contains 402 drawings and watercolors by Byfield, as well as a narrative of his experiences.
Date: April 1942 - May 1943
Locale: USSR
Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of George Byfield (Gyorgy Beifeld)

Photo Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Provenance: George Byfield (Gyorgy Beifeld)

Source Record ID: Collections: 2001.156

Keyword: ALBUMS ALBUMS (BEIFELD) ART OF THE HOLOCAUST/WWII BEIFELD, GYORGY (GEORGE BYFIELD) FORCED LABOR/BRIGADES FORCED LABOR/BRIGADES (HUNGARIAN) JEWS (HUNGARIAN)
Photo Designation: ART OF THE HOLOCAUST -- Artists B

Biography: Gyorgy Beifeld (later George W. Byfield) was born in Budapest, Hungary on April 8, 1902. The son of a banker, Gyorgy received a law degree and worked as a stock broker. He was conscripted into the Hungarian Labor Service (Munkaszolgalat ) and served for 13 months on the Soviet front, from April 1942 until May 1943. He was wounded on August 28, 1942 at Prilushkniy. In 1943 Gyorgy returned to Budapest. The following year he appears to have been re-drafted or arrested, because he ended up in Dachau at the conclusion of World War II. After his liberation, he returned to Hungary, but left again after the communist takeover. Gyorgy immigrated to Australia in 1949 and settled in Sydney, where he and his wife later operated a successful tobacco shop. He died in Sydney on June 14, 1982.