Edited version of an entry submitted to the student contest “Their fate, our history” (2023-24) organized by the Jewish Roots in Győr Public Benefit Foundation
Work by Levente Bekő, Bálint Burkus and Levente Csíkász
Pattantyús-Ábrahám Géza Technical Highschool
Supporting teacher: Melinda Kardos Kazóné, history
Between 1944 and 1945, Hungary experienced countless horrors and atrocities. During these dark times, propaganda turned neighbours into enemies and incited people against each other.
However, there were brave and determined individuals who refused to give up their humanity and hid endangered people in their homes. In the city of Győr, numerous residents risked their own safety to stand up to the Nazi occupiers. Many were captured and imprisoned or executed.
One of the renown rescuers in Győr was Imre Pattantyús-Ábrahám.
The Pattantyús-Ábrahám family
His family was granted nobility in 1680 by Prince Michael I Apafi of Transylvania. His earliest known ancestors were James I and II. James I was the castellan of Fogaras Castle. The descendants of Eustachius Abraham (Takesz) began to be called Abraham, taking a double family name.
Imre was born on 26 August 1891 in Illava. Among his siblings was Pattantyús-Ábrahám Géza, a renowned mechanical engineer, scientist, university professor after whom our school is named.
Imre Pattantyús completed his secondary education at grammar schools in Trenčín and Nagyszombat, and his higher education at the Mining and Forestry College in Selmecbánya, where he obtained a degree in metallurgical engineering. [1]
Working years
Until 1918, he served as a teacher and workshop manager at the state vocational school in Gölnicbánya.[2]
In April 1919, he was transferred from Selmecbánya to Sopron, namely to the Department of Physics and Electrical Engineering at the College of Mining and Forestry. In 1924, he was appointed Head of the Department of Furnace Engineering as an extraordinary college professor, and in 1927, he became a tenured college professor. He lectured on ‘Furnace Engineering’ and ‘Caloric and Hydrogen Engines.’ In 1927, his first major scientific work, entitled ‘The Performance of Intermittent Electric Motors,’ was published. His work ‘Die Berechnung der Walzarbeit’ (The Calculation of Rolling), written jointly with Ernő Cotel and published in 1929, caused a great stir in professional circles. [3]
In 1931, the College Council elected him Dean of the Department of Metallurgical Engineering. In 1934, the college in Sopron was merged into the József Nádor University of Technology and Economics, thus elevated to the status of university. At the same time, Imre Pattantyús-Ábrahám was awarded the title of tenured professor. His position as Dean would have been accompanied by redundancies announced in connection with organisational restructuring. However, he was unwilling to accept this and preferred to resign from his post. [4]
In the summer of 1941, he took over the management of the Győr Wagon and Machine Factory. The security of the factory workers was of great importance to him, and to this end, he repeatedly submitted proposals for the establishment of a bomb shelter. However, his proposals were repeatedly rejected.
Pattantyús considered the construction of shelters important because the factory, which had been converted into a military plant, was building military machinery that was vital to the German and Hungarian armies. Messerschmidt 109E and F fighter planes were assembled, and the Botond off-road military vehicle designed by Dezső Winkler and the Turán light armoured vehicle were also built here. [5]
Rescue of Jewish colleagues
In June 1944, the deportation of Jews began in Győr.
Pattantyús prevented the deportation of several Jewish colleagues, which is why he is referred to as the Hungarian Schindler. He saved Jews using the same method as Oskar Schindler.
Unfortunately, he was unable to save everyone. He managed to prevent the deportation of three families in total.
Those he was able to save:
- Dezső Winkler
He was born on 11 July 1901 in Tét. Due to his Jewish origins, he was not allowed to study at a Hungarian university under the numerus clausus law passed in 1920. He therefore studied mechanical engineering at the University of Brno. After returning home, he worked for a year before being assigned to the Automotive Department. There he designed the Rába small tractor and then began work on the Botond off-road vehicle.
Deportations from Győr and the surrounding area began in the summer of 1944. Almost six thousand Jews were taken away, of whom eight hundred and fifty returned.
If Dezső Winkler had not been in a key position at the factory, he would probably have been taken away with the other Jews of Győr. Imre Pattantyús-Ábrahám saved him, his wife and their child. He rescued them from the ghetto on several occasions and even managed to get them off the train transporting Jews from Győr. However, he was finally deported in March 1945. He eventually escaped with several companions near Munich. He continued his professional career successfully for decades and was awarded the Kossuth Prize in 1952. [6]
- Armand Korein
Not much information remains about Korein Armand. All we know is that he was originally an employee at the Rába factory headquarters in Budapest, and he moved to the countryside during the war.[7]
- József Lengyel
Unfortunately, we have little information about him. He was a bridge engineer, and the Petőfi Bridge in Győr was built in the 1930s according to his designs.[8]
Those he could not save:
Among those who were deported were many workers and their families, most of whom perished in the horror.
He tried to save not only Jews, but all those who were persecuted.
- Tibor Urbantsok
He was a left-wing architect at the factory and managed to escape arrest until the Arrow Cross takeover, but was shot dead in his home one night in autumn 1944. They probably believed that Imre Pattantyús-Ábrahám would once again prevent the ‘official’ prosecution, as he had done before.[9]
- Members of the József Attila Circle (Attila József, 1905-1937, outstanding Hungarian poet – ed.)
The Circle was formed at the end of 1943 by workers at the wagon factory. Its leader was the foundry clerk, János Németh. They produced leaflets with the slogan ‘We want peace!’ and distributed them throughout the town. They used forms obtained from the military registry to make fake ID cards, which they distributed to people in hiding and members of the resistance. In December 1944, the Arrow Cross arrested the members of the Circle. After two weeks of torture, the prisoners were transported to Sopronkőhida. A military court sentenced János Németh and Lajos Stelczer to death, while the others received prison sentences. Factory workers saved several members of the Circle by denying their presence to the Arrow Cross members who were hunting for them, thus giving them a chance to escape.[10]
After the war
After the war, Imre Pattantyús-Ábrahám was arrested as a German collaborator and put on trial. Later, based on witness statements and the testimony of his colleagues, he was acquitted of all charges.
In 1949, he was asked to give lectures at the newly established Faculty of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering of the University of Heavy Industry in Miskolc. These duties took up so much of his time and energy that he was unable to reconcile university activities with his duties as the company’s top manager, so he handed over the management of the Rába factory to his deputy and continued to work as deputy company manager.[11]
In 1951, he was asked to head the Department of General Mechanics and was reappointed as a university professor.
He worked there until his death.
In 2000, Imre Pattantyús-Ábrahám was posthumously awarded the Yad Vashem ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ award, which is given by the Holocaust Memorial Institution of the State of Israel to non-Jewish people who risked their lives to save their fellow human beings of Jewish origin during the Holocaust.[12]
His son, Tamás Pattantyús-Ábrahám, before his death, provided our school with a wealth of valuable materials about his father and his family, which are held in high esteem by our institution. The surviving members of the family visit us regularly, and together we preserve the memory of the Pattantyús family. A plaque in the school hall bears witness to this.
Footnotes
[1] Győri Tanulmányok (179-182)
[2] Győri Tanulmányok (179-182)
[3] Győri Tanulmányok (180-182), Pattantyús-Ábrahám Imre memorial book (5)
[4] Győri Tanulmányok (179-182), Pattantyús-Ábrahám Imre memorial book (5)
[5] Győri Tanulmányok (184-195), Pattantyús-Ábrahám Imre emlékkönyv (6), Fekete tél (278-280)
[6] Győri Tanulmányok (190-191); see also: ‘A győri zsidó Botond: Winkler Dezső’ (ed.)
[7] Győri Tanulmányok (190-191)
[8] Győri Tanulmányok (190-191)
[9] Fekete tél
[10] Fekete tél (20-40)
[11] Győri Tanulmányok (195-200), Pattantyús-Ábrahám Imre emlékkönyv (105-114)
[12] Pattantyús-Ábrahám Imre emlékkönyv, Győri Tanulmányok
References
The History of the Hungarian Wagon and Machine Factory 1896-1945, Győr-Sopron County Printing Company, 1972.
Ganz/ Millenáris Park: Dreamers of Dreams: World-Renowned Hungarians II. deMax Works, 20012002.
Miklós Gerencsér: Black Winter, Szépirodalmi Könyvkiadó, 1973.
Győr Studies 9, Széchenyi Printing House, 1988.
Rózsa Kecskés: Songs of My Life, Holdudvar Association, 2005.
Holocaust Booklets 11, Hungarian Auschwitz Foundation – Holocaust Documentation Centre, 1999.
Szabolcs Wekerle: Life Insurance on Eight Wheels, Magyar Nemzet, 7 June 2011
István Nagy: Quiritatio, Sikoly. The Jewish Tragedy in Győr, Győr Jewish Community, 2010.
Zénó Terplán: Pattantyús Ábrahám Imre – Memorial Book on the 100th Anniversary of His Birth; University of Miskolc, 1991.
“Kisalföld” daily paper
Edited and translated into English by Peter Krausz