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EW 12 15630-15640

MASTER-INDEX (P-Scheme)

Index Number: P.III.i. (Hungary) No. 771.

Title of Document: EVENTS IN BUDAPEST IN 1944.

Date: 19th of March 1944 – 18 January 1945.

Number of pages: 11.

Author or Source: Mrs. SZANTO, Magda, London.

Recorded by: herself in January 1958.

Received from: Mrs. Szanto, January 1958.

Form and Contents: Mrs. TADY Szanto, a former resident of BUDAPEST, gives a vivid picture of the sufferings of the HUNGARIAN JEWS which started immediately after the German Occupation in March 1944. Anti-Jewish Measures followed each other in rapid succession: wearing of DAVID’S SHIELD; CURFEW; FORCED LABOUR (first for men, later also for women up to 45 years); STARVATION RATIONS; DEPORTATION OF THE JEWS from the provinces; removal of all Jews into the so-called JUDENHÄUSER / Jewish Houses where sometimes up to 20 persons had to occupy one room and to sleep on chairs. In October 1944, she and her husband, who succeeded in escaping from the Forced Labour Company, went underground. The SWISS CONSULATE supplied them with the so-called SCHUTZPÄSSEN / passports for protection. They moved into one of their SCHUTZHÄUSER / safe houses. But soon these passports ceased to be recognised. With illegal papers and simulating illness, at last they found refuge in a clinic. Her mother and father were taken to the newly founded GHETTO where her mother died from starvation and exhaustion. (After the ghetto was founded all the inhabitants of the Judenhäuser were moved into it).

Remarks: cp. Reports P.III.h. (GhettoBudapest) No. 600; P.III.c. (Hungary) No. 583; P.III.i. (Hungary) Nos. 578, 598, 599, 763.

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The experiences of a Hungarian Jewish woman in 1944.

The 19 th of March 1944 was a black day in the history of Hungary. On this day, German soldiers occupied the country and a Gestapo section under the leadership of the infamous Commissioner Eichmann, set up their quarters in Budapest and a tragedy began which ended with the destruction of a major part of Hungarian Jewry and the devastation of my beautiful country.

A lot has been written and reported about the historical events of this woeful time. In the following, I want to give an account about my experiences as a woman, and with it, give an excerpt from the life of Hungarian Jewish women in the fateful year of 1944.

The day mentioned was a Sunday. We woke up in the morning as usual, a little later than on week days. Nothing indicated that this day would have any special importance. Even the newspapers presented nothing special – the usual news and reports from the war zones – which we were used to.

But about 11 o’clock our neighbour knocked on the door, and asked with a face bathed in shock, if we had heard anything. It was said in the city that the German military had marched in and that the Hungarian government had abdicated.

We had no idea. The fact that German soldiers had marched in and through Hungary happened several times in the course of the past war years, and did not appear as remarkable because Hungary was one of the belligerent countries on the side of the German Reich and Italy. Important connections to Romania, to Russia and to the Balkans led through Hungary. But up until now, they had not interfered in the inner affairs. What pro-fascist and anti-Jewish measures that had occurred so far were the result of diplomatic pressure from Berlin and not military intervention. It had been painful and had brought a lot of worry and sadness to many Jewish families, but the majority of Hungarian Jews had not been affected up till now. The fundamentals of Hungarian Jewry, even if a bit shaken in their economic

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positions, were still intact. Generally speaking, and looking at the rough outlines, you could say that the position of the Hungarian Jews now stood about where that of the German Jewry stood around the years 1936 and 1937, with one big difference, that in view of the events in the war zones, the twilight of the Nazis tin Gods was already evident, and with It, now in the early spring of 1944, the optimism of the of the Hungarian Jews had a semblance of justification.

However, now lightning struck. In the course of the day, it became obvious that a catastrophe of huge proportions was unfolding, or was at least in its early stages, to be more accurate. Large numbers of Germans in Wehrmacht and SS uniforms appeared in the streets. German cars sped through the city. A big hotel, at the heart of the city, was occupied by the Germanstaff and German sentries stood there on guard. The editorial buildings of the left leaning newspapers were occupied and a team from the Gestapo appeared in the building of the Jewish Community of Budapest.

Like an awful nightmare, terror settled over the entire country. For women like us, it was especially bad and we hardly dared to go out onto the streets in order to make even the most essential purchases. Of the edicts and measures, which in the next days and weeks like a torrent rained down over the Jews, one of the first and the most obvious to the eye was the order to wear the star of David. It came into force on the 4th of April. It was exactly prescribed, which shape the star must have, which material and in which colour it was to be made, and where it must be worn. We women acquired the task of making the star for the whole family out of yellow material. Soon no suitable yellow material could be found in the entire city. Later the stars were mass produced. It was a dangerous thing to deviate the star even in the smallest way from the prescribed form because anyone who did not wear it exactly according to the regulations was immediately arrested by the Hungarian criminal officials who prowled the streets at the behest of the Germans.

Besides the legal measures, a whole host of lone actions occurred which German soldiers in their hatred of the Jews did in their free time for their private pleasure. Scavenging in the individual apartments of houses rented by Jews, in order to confiscate there valuable radios, cameras or jewellery, became a favourite sport. The leaders and interpreters for these

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actions were mainly the numerous ethnic Germans elements settled in Hungary who now naturally felt in their element and who constituted the liaison officers between the Germans and the Hungarian authorities. They found out from the caretakers of the individual houses the names of the Jewish tenants and then went together with the German soldiers from apartment to apartment.

A group of four German soldiers also appeared at our door in the early days of April. They forced their way into our flat and searched the room for radios because, as they said, every Jew listens to enemy radio broadcasts. We showed them and old model, and because my husband explained to them in fluent German that it was actually not possible with this old box to be able to receive foreign stations, they were a little confused and finally withdrew although not without having uttered ugly threats. They then went through the remaining Jewish apartments in the block and their activities were finally stopped when a highly ranked Hungarian officer appeared in the picture whom a Christian neighbour had speedily sent for. The Hungarian officer appeared indignant about the individual actions of the Germans. On the other hand though, he did not want to be too predisposed to be taken the Jews under his protection. However, the sight of his uniform was sufficient to cause the Germans to leave the house. In the adjoining house where they went after, they had more luck and left heavily laden with booty.

A similar group of German soldiers appeared a few days later at my parent’s apartment a few streets away from us. Also there they were looking for spoils. They took some valuable objects with them. However, what was worse than this was that my mother as a result of the threats and aggressive appearance of the Germans, suffered a heart attack and was bed-ridden for a long period.

These days were full of worries and cares. We continually heard that people were arrested and interned, and that the Jews from all of the provincial cities had been rounded up and deported. I had many relatives in the provinces. At that time, most of them were taken away to German concentration camps and only a few of them returned later. The majority fell victims to the Nazi terror.

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In May, my husband was conscripted for work service. That was a hard blow for us all. We knew from the experience of earlier years that the treatment and provisions for the Jews in work service had always been bad, and this time it was expected to be even worse. And equally, the worst was expected for those defenceless family members left behind. The news had already come from the provinces that the deportation of the Jews was in full flow. It appeared to be only a question of time before the turn of the Jewish community in Budapest would come. Meanwhile a torrent of anti-Jewish orders and decrees hailed down upon us: the blocking of bank balances; the confiscation of radios and objects of value; a reduction in the food rations; a travel ban and so on. Every week brought a new anti-Jewish measure. It appeared to be in keeping with the plan of the authorities, that exactly now that they had robbed Jewish families of their men through conscription for work duty, the women, old people and children could be exposed as a result of it firstly to the terror of the orders of the authorities and later to the danger of deportation without any defence.

Through the splitting apart of the family members, the problems of existence became almost unsolvable. You could no longer think about any regulated acquisition of bread. You had to sell everything that was superfluous, in order to be able to compete for the extremely restricted means of subsistence. Those amongst our co-religionists who were completely penniless were dependent upon the support of the community. Families helped out one another. A long period of want and going without began, and it always got worse until it finally increased to unbearable hunger pangs.

So long as my husband in the first weeks of work conscription was stationed in Goedoelloe, that is, near the capital city, he was able occasionally with a fake, leave chit or because of a simulated illness to come to Budapest, and even be helpful to us with the forced rehousing from our apartment and into the houses for Jews in the following June. However, in the course of time, these occasions became more difficult and more infrequent and we had to look for other ways and means, to keep in contact. You could not rely on the post. There were though in Goedoelloe and later in more distant garrisons some farm labourers who were ready for money and a bit of flattery to deliver letters, small packages, news and so on. It became a regular and organised shuttle service. These half grown lads, who went several times a week, from Goedoelloe to Budapest and back in order to convey mail and messages from a company of those in work service to their wives and parents in the house for Jews in Budapest and the same back, gradually became a veritable plague. As they became conscious of

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the importance of their role on the one side and the helplessness of the Jews on the other, their insolence and greediness grew. They demanded ever bigger sums of money for their message service, and in the end blackmailed in shameless ways and even indulged themselves physical effronteries against the defenceless Jewish women to whom they delivered the messages. Every woman, who in a house for the Jews, kept in contact with their husband in this way complained about it and it became from day to day and from week to week more apparent that the Jews were completely and without legal recourse, exposed to such attacks and extortions.

The days of the forced resettlement from the existing apartments to the so-called Jewish houses (middle of June) brought the hardest tasks. The most common furnishings and household effects had to be in any case left behind. However, even the transportation of the most indispensable items hit huge difficulties because inside a few days tens of thousands of people had to resettle. So it was as good as impossible to find vehicles. As a result, you had to carry the possessions and parcels yourself. Anyone who was able to find a hand-cart, a pram or something similar could consider themselves lucky. You saw on the streets from early morning till late in the evening, women, old people and children struggling along heavily laden in the sweltering summer heat. In the new accommodation, which were all overfilled with people, right from the first day there was irritation with the other tenants, with the caretakers and with the neighbours.

We believed we had arrived in some kind of hell when we experienced the houses for Jews for the first time in which several families had to share an apartment. And indeed, all of this became steadily worse and worse. In these days on average we were six people to a room, and later this went so far that there were up to twenty people residing in a space. The unlucky people who came into the ghetto last of all, were so cramped together that they could not even sleep stretched out, but had to survive the time of the siege and the street battles of Budapest sitting on chairs or squatting against the wall.

Another evil, which brought the women to despair, was the fact that you were only allowed to leave the houses for the Jews between 11 o’clock on the morning and 5 o’clock in the afternoon. (Later this time span was even shortened). As a result of this, for example, the daily purchasing of the most necessary provisions became a recurring agony. Apart from that, the food supply for the general population was becoming ever worse the nearer the front came. The food which came to the market

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and the few businesses which were still open was mostly sold out in the early hours of the morning. When the Jews appeared at the market after 11 o’clock, they had to be satisfied with what was left. The doors of the Jewish houses were barely opened when the women, armed with their shopping bags and nets, tumbled out and hurried along the streets, in order to ferret out something edible. The hunt went from one shop to the other, in some in which you had to stand perhaps for hours, or in others in which there was a regular scuffle about some stocks. Many shops closed at midday and then the chase continued in the afternoon. Of course the black market flourished and the shop keepers had some things hidden under the counter, but in any case, most of us were deeply miserable and could not afford the expensive additional charge.

In this way, each new day brought new cares and new worries. I lived the house for Jews together with my parents and other relatives. One day, it was probably in July or August, my father, who at that time was in his seventies, was helping me with the shopping in a grocery store. There was a big crowd in the shop and suddenly a soda water bottle either burst or exploded. It was not possible to determine exactly which. The pieces injured my father in the right hand and penetrated deep into the flesh. The blood was streaming out, and at first sight, the injury appeared to be worse than happily it later transpired. Of course there was no doctor anywhere or even a dressing to get hold of. Several householders, who perhaps could have helped, refused any help to the old man with the yellow star. Even the shop-keeper himself did not want to create trouble and edged him out of the door. The nearest hospital was at least a half an hour away. A journey by car was prohibited to all Jews, through a decree which was enacted shortly before. No taxi or vehicle would take the injured man. In the end, a cyclist, who came our way, took pity and invited my father onto a three-wheeler which was designed for transporting wares. My injured father arrived in this way with a considerable loss of blood at the hospital where at last first aid was given. He carried his arm in a sling for a month.

In the second half of August, one day the rumour spread like lightning, that the deportation of the Jews of Budapest was imminent. The tension was high. Actually, an action of this sort was planned and the city swarmed with German SS and Hungarian gendarmes. The action was cancelled at the last moment, although we only learned the details much later. All the Jews of Budapest stood at this time ready with a little bundle to march to the station and get into the waggons. The essentials were snatched up and knotted in the bundle – some change of clothing, some food, soap and comb, the most important documents and keepsakes,

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and everything was tucked away close at hand beside the couch. This bundle never left us for many weeks and months. It became a visible sign of our Jewish fate. Every single Jew in the houses for Jews had it constantly by them. Everyone was ready to go day and night. Each of us lived in the constant fear of being hauled out of the hell of the houses for Jews and into a more frightful inferno.

To the credit of the Hungarian Jews, it should be said that, apart from a few exceptions, they proved their character even in that terrible period. This showed itself in the mutual helpfulness, which the individual families showed to each other and in the assistance given by the better placed to the poorer people. To cite another significant example … in the course of the summer, the rumour was spread that those Jews who were prepared to be christened would avoid the impending threat of deportation. Although both the catholic and protestant clergy were willing to carry out the christening in a shortened procedure, only a relatively few Jews chose this supposed way out. Despite the immensity of the danger, for the predominant and large majority such ideas were out of the question. However, the rumour transpired to be completely unfounded. In all of the measures and excesses which followed, no difference was made between religious Jews and Jews by race.

After the 15th of October 1945, that day which passed off tragically, on which the Hungarian Regent Horthy undertook a failed attempt to leave the coalition of axis powers, and as a result the terror against the Jews was yet more increased. The time allowed for leaving the houses of the Jews was shortened. In reality, we did not dare to go out much at all because you ran the danger to be seized and kidnapped on the streets by the hordes of members of the Arrow Cross party. In fear and dread, we sat in our crowded accommodation. Compassionate people from non-Jewish neighbourhoods slipped us food here and there at dusk. The postal system with the outside world stalled. We heard nothing from our husbands who were with work details in the in the provinces. However, on the other hand, we no began to hear something different – gun fire from the approaching front. At first we heard it only at night, then also in the day; ever louder and louder; ever clearer and non-stop, until finally it became an unbroken backdrop to our lives in the following four months.

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The new Arrow Cross government also passed amongst their numerous terror laws in these days a decree which proclaimed the conscription of all Jewish women under 45 for work service. After the men, now it was also the turn of the Jewish women. The women from the area in which I lived, were supposed to present themselves on a certain day in Tattershall near the Eastern railway station. Because the disorganisation in the country was already widely advanced and in all the areas of administration a lot of panic, if not chaos, prevailed, there was no longer any mention of a gathering using lists or names. Therefore many Jewish women, including myself, simply ignored this conscription decree. We were fully conscious that as a result we were venturing a very dangerous step. On the other hand, we saw even greater danger in carrying out the conscription order. Once you were in the hands of the Arrow Cross members, you could be kidnapped, deported or killed. The houses of the Jews was indeed a hell and a constant repository of insecurity, but under the present circumstances, it was still relatively more secure than the streets, or Tattershall or any other place in the outside world. The period that followed showed that this consideration was correct. Of the women and young girls who went to Tattershall almost all were assigned to forced labour on the defence line around Budapest or were deported to German concentration camps. Very few actually returned.

On the 27th of October, my husband arrived at the houses for Jews coming via secret paths. He had detached himself from the work group, and similarly, had seen the houses for Jews as relatively the safest spot. However, we were both clear about the fact that we as good as illegal. In fact, from these days until the middle of January when the Russians entered, we led the live of a hunted beast. We acquired false papers, amongst which was a certificate from a doctor with famous name, attesting that my husband had a serious heart problem. That helped us over the first raid. One such raid arrived at our house on the first few days of November. Several men and women of work service age were randomly lead away and even some older people were not spared. When an Arrow Cross man entered our room, I was able on the evidence of my old mother, my father with his arm in a sling and my husband lying in bed with a heart condition, to induce him to leave us in peace. However, our stay in this house was at an end. We were clear about that. We acquired the so-called Schutzpässe / protection passes which at this time were given out by the Swiss Consulate based, albeit unintentionally, in a so-called shelter in a neighbouring street. Where we had in total 6 people in a room, now, in our new accommodation, we had to share with 12 people to a room.

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However, we could not even remain there long. At the end of November, we were hauled out in a new raid and our Schutzpässe declared invalid. We were led to a train along with many others. We succeeded on the way there in the dark to escape. We wondered around for several days, and we spent the nights here and there with non-Jewish friends. Again we were apprehended; and again we fled; until finally we found shelter in a clinic where we had to conduct ourselves in devious ways: once we had to project ourselves as non-Jews and another time we had to simulate being ill.

Of course, we had torn off and thrown away our yellow stars at the time of our first escape. It was not easy to wander round the streets with an unconcerned face and go passed many Arrow Cross members, who hung about and roamed around everywhere, and stopped people who looked suspicious. In order to give myself courage and to appear as unconcerned as possible, I cultivated in such circumstances a cheerful tune, humming and going along the street with a smiling face, whilst in reality my heart was beating furiously with fear. I had to muster a special courage and endurance when I was separated from my husband after our re-arrest and was brought to a house in Teleki Platz where nothing but Jewish women were under heavy Arrow Cross guard. Once again, I showed my false papers and claimed that I was a refugee from the provinces who had been arrested by mistake. However, the Arrow Cross members knew that many false papers were in circulation and rejected me brusquely. However, I did not allow myself to be intimidated and demanded once again to be taken to a police officer. Rejected ten times, I did not move away from the threshold of the room where the police were who it was known were not as fanatical as the Arrow Cross. After waiting for hours – hungry, cold and completely exhausted – I finally succeeded in getting in front of an investigating police officer. Once again, I gathered a lot of energy and I protested against our arrest to him. He looked at me; he looked at my papers; and he knew without doubt the correct decision. But he was well-meaning. He arranged for my immediate release and gave me two officers with whom I then went to a neighbouring house for arrested Jewish men to fetch my husband.

We had already been separated from my parents when we were taken out of the Schutzhaus. They were lined up in rows of older people and taken to a ghetto. We learned that later and were able to find out their exact address through news smuggled out. Although we ourselves were harassed, we maintained contact with them.

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Thankfully, some non-Jewish friends, who were daring and prepared to make sacrifices said they were prepared to deliver messages to the ghetto. An attempt to smuggle in food parcels failed though. However, a good friend at least brought out a letter and was able to speak to my parents personally. It was the last greeting he brought back to me from my mother. The poor thing died on the morning of the 18th of January 1945 of hunger and exhaustion.

I also have to relate about the sad aftermath that was linked to this tragic event. In the clinic where we had been hiding ourselves, and which had been freed by the Russians on the 13th of January, we learned on the 19th of January that the ghetto had been liberated on the previous day. Immediately, we made our way through the city which was completely devastated and lying in rubble. Half way there, amongst the ruins, we met my father who was looking for us. He was so completely exhausted and aged by decades that I scarcely recognised him. When he gave me the awful news, we collapsed together. It lasted a fairly long time until I was myself again. At the same time, at the other end of the city the battle raged on. Huge waves of fire flared up. There was no mention in this chaos of any kind of funeral. The dead lay in their thousands unburied on the streets and between the ruins. My poor mother was laid out in the cellar of the ghetto house. I tried in the next few days to find a coffin somewhere. My efforts were in vain. There was no coffin to be found in the whole of the large ruined city. Finally, my husband and I made our way in order to bring the body out of the ghetto on a stretcher. Because the cemeteries lay far outside of the city and were still under artillery fire, they were unreachable, therefore people had begun in these days to bury the dead in situ in squares and in parks. We wanted to do that in the garden of the clinic. It was a long way, and a deep covering of snow had spread itself over the rubble strewn streets. My husband and another man, a caretaker, made their way with the stretcher. However, they were both so exhausted through under-nourishment that they did not come very far with their sad load. On the way, in the middle of all of the destruction and horror, children played in a square with a toboggan. We borrowed it; put the body on it; and pulled it through the snow and between the ruins to the clinic. There, my mother was temporarily buried beside all of the other who died during the struggle. The intention was to transfer her later at the end of the battle in an orderly ceremony to the Jewish cemetery, and there to lay her to rest in eternal peace.

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However, the situation happened differently. Because the lack of food also continued after the end of the siege, and we were both extremely exhausted, my husband and I went to the provincial city of Szeged where the provisioning was better. In the meantime, my father was put in hospital and slowly recovered his strength again. In the interim, the city administration in Budapest began in March to exhume those who were temporarily buried during the siege and transfer them to the central cemetery. When we learnt that, we hurried to the clinic in Budapest, but it was already too late. In a completely chaotic manner and without informing anyone, the exhumations had begun precisely in this area, and all of my efforts to reconstruct the way to where the bodies of the dead were brought were in vain. We learned only that those exhumed were buried in a mass grave in the central cemetery of Budapest.

There is now a symbolic burial mound there given information about the martyrdom of my dear mother. A memorial plaques for her is mounted in two synagogues in Budapest; in the Vasvari Pal utca and in the main courtyard of the temple in Dohany utca. She is called Ilka Ipolyi (nëe Bineter) and was 69 years of age when she died a victim of fascism.

Magda Szanto (nëe Ipolyi), 15 January 1958.