Category: Győr and Jewry

Apáczai Csere János Faculty of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, Széchenyi István University, Győr

Summary report on the views expressed during micro-interviews conducted by course students

By Péter Krausz

Students who participated in the course held between September and November 2025 compiled reports on the answers they received during their interviews. These reports form the basis of this paper.

In general, with a few exceptions, the interviewees often demonstrated ignorance or their “knowledge” was limited to negative stereotypes about Jews. It seems that the majority of those interviewed do not harbour any explicit animosity toward Jews, and several tolerant and sympathizing opinions were also expressed.  Fortunately, explicitly anti-Semitic statements were not heard too often.

These micro-studies are useful because they reinforce our understanding of the topic of “Jewishness – acceptance – exclusion.”

I must emphasize that the students’ research does not constitute a public opinion survey, as they only interviewed a handful of residents in the given settlements; that was their task. The responses they received, which are fragmentary, do not and cannot reflect the collective position of the local community.

In September 2025, with the participation of BA students majoring in social pedagogy and sociology at the Apáczai Csere János Faculty of Széchenyi István University in Győr, a freely available course on the theme of “Jewishness – Acceptance – Exclusion” was launched with the support of the Jewish Roots in Győr Public Benefit Foundation. 

Guest lecturers invited by the Foundation, Dr. Richárd Papp, Associate Professor (ELTE Faculty of Social Sciences), and Dr. Anikó Sükösd, Assistant Professor (KRE Faculty of Economics, Health Sciences and Social Sciences), explored and interpreted the issue of anti-Semitism and other forms of social exclusion in a series of interactive lectures and workshops. 

Under the guidance of the guest speakers and the collaborating lecturers from the University of Győr (Dr. Péter Simonik, Associate Professor, and Bettina Oszter, Assistant Professor, both from the Department of Social Studies and Sociology), in the final phase of the course, the students conducted independent research and personal interviews to find answers to questions such as what significance Holocaust remembrance has today in Hungary among representatives of different generations and in settlements of different sizes, mainly in their place of residence and elsewhere.

Six students participated in the credit-earning course, and in mid-November, all six reported on their individual sociological micro-surveys. Since I am not a sociologist and an expert of the subject matter, thus this summary report, based partly on handwritten notes taken during lectures on the interviews and partly on PPT presentations provided to our foundation by three students [1] (see below), was not written by an expert and it is inevitably inaccurate in a number of details. I feel that this fact, as well as the fact that university students are not yet fully trained and experienced experts and “interviewers” on the subject under study, does not alter the truthfulness of what the interviewees said. The methodology of the micro-research is essentially based on the simplified toolkit of sociological research based on individual and focus group interviews presented in the book by György Csepeli and Richárd Papp entitled “Kiáltó csend – a holokauszt helyi emlékezete Magyarországon” (Screaming Silence – Local Remembrance of the Holocaust in Hungary). [2]

Where and with whom were the interviews conducted?

Most of the students sought interviewees in their own place of residence, and in one or two cases in a settlement near their place of residence. Overall, these locations are in the Transdanubia region north of Lake Balaton, three of them in Győr-Moson-Sopron, three in Vas, and two in Veszprém counties. These are small and medium-sized villages with populations ranging from a few hundred to two thousand five hundred, as well as two small towns with populations of ten thousand and thirty thousand, respectively.

A couple of peculiarities about the settlements studied: (a) in one village, the authorities recently dismantled a neo-Nazi organization and imprisoned its leader. (b) In 1944, a company of forced labourers, which included the famous poet Miklós Radnóti, who was later executed, was driven westward through another village, but the villagers know nothing about this. (c) Jews have literally never lived in another settlement.

The composition of those surveyed is quite heterogeneous. They include women and men, high school students, adults aged 20-40, and adults aged 50-80.

Some of the interviewees identified by the interviewers, or a specific group among them, cancelled the interview despite prior agreement. Many were uncomfortable with the “deep” nature of the topic, which was outside their comfort zone and something they had never discussed before.

Interview questions

The students conducting the interviews were given the questions to ask in advance:

• Where and in what context did you first hear the word “Jew”?
• Who are the Jews?
• What were the causes of the persecution of the Jews and anti-Semitism?
• Did you talk about the Holocaust in your family?
• Is “Jew-baiting” present in your social circle?
• Was the Holocaust discussed at your school? Did you talk about it with your teachers, classmates, or friends?
• How did the deportations take place in your community?
• Are there any signs of remembrance of the Jews who lived in your community and the Holocaust?
• Should we remember the Holocaust? How could we honour the memory of the Jews today?
• How do you view the terrorist attack carried out in Israel on October 7, 2023, and the events that followed? (This question was not asked in every interview.)

How are the answers presented?

In the following chapters, I will present the answers to the above questions. I will refrain from identifying the interviewers and respondents, and I will not name the settlements concerned either, in order to avoid the risk of generalizing about a particular group of people or settlement. I have separated the individual answers to the questions with semicolons, placed a few necessary additional words that were not spoken in brackets marked with “/ /” and included editorial information in italics here and there using “( )” brackets. I have limited editorial changes almost exclusively to these clarifying details.

I have provided a brief introduction to answers to individual questions, but I have not evaluated these answers; I leave that to the reader.

Here are the answers:

Where and in what context did you first hear the word “Jew”?

There was no respondent who had never heard the word “Jew” in their life. The answers were very varied.

In detail: it was talked about at home; if I remember correctly, first in history class when I was a child; from my grandparents when we talked about the war; in religious education classes at school, in a positive sense; parents and grandparents talked about Jews; young people: at school, through movies; older people: talking about World War II, things they saw as children; from my father: a friend’s father is Jewish (“candle thing” at Christmas); that’s why he behaves “like that”; in third or fourth grade for the first time; in elementary school; it didn’t leave a deep impression; I don’t remember it specifically, but I suspect that when I noticed it, wondering what the word meant, it was probably in elementary school history class; I think I started watching history channels in fourth grade, and that’s where I first encountered World War II;  … I studied religion from first grade, so that’s where I first encountered it; for example, I read the novel “In the Shadow of the Triumphal Arch” three years ago, and it takes place after World War II and deals with this topic, I had heard about it before, but at that time I gained a broader insight into this issue and into the religion; … at a memorial ceremony in elementary school; … I don’t remember the context, but maybe in elementary school literature class.

Who are the Jews?

In parallel with objective, neutral definitions, negative stereotypes were also formulated, which are certainly part of the anti-Semitic vocabulary.

Specifically: they have big noses, sidelocks, curly hair, big earlobes, and wear hats; Jews were merchants, Jewish shops were the most expensive; they are wealthy, rich, even today; a Jew is someone who is perceived as such; they are people who have their own culture and religion; a religious and cultural community; a hated community; Moses led them across the water; they are mentioned in the Bible; they do not participate in community life; according to the elderly, they were hard-working, decent people, while the opinion of young people is neutral or positive; those who are born into it; those who claim to be; those who follow that religion; some people ‘give up’ their religion; you cannot become Jewish through marriage; an acquaintance’s husband is Jewish, he is strict and does not allow his wife to have much freedom; they are said to be very good businesspeople, good negotiators; someone worked at Nestlé, … a few other Jews too … /opinion on this:/ since they are Jews, they naturally work in such jobs and, besides, they have a good business sense … /another opinion:/ you can’t join a company like that just because you are Jewish, you need to have a good business sense and education; someone says that those whose religion is Jewish, but there are those who are Jewish by origin… how I feel about this is a difficult question, but perhaps it is those who are Jewish by origin; well, those who believe in the Jewish faith, and if I understand correctly, it is passed down through the maternal line; I think they are very intelligent, precise, and cunning people, and that is why they were rejected, so to speak; they are a small ethnic group, relatively scattered, ambitious, and quite influential; the Jews are followers of the first Abrahamic religion.

What were the causes of the persecution of the Jews and anti-Semitism?

In searching for reasons, respondents reach back to Hitler’s racial theory and even to the Middle Ages, with many citing “timeless” arguments. Some express their disagreement with the persecution of Jews.

Here are some examples: Hitler incited the working class in Germany; if they (i.e., the Jews) had not been persecuted then, they would now rule the whole world; jealousy; fear, prejudice, ignorance; a kind of hatred and fear of difference; in many places, people envied the Jews because they were hard-working and successful in certain areas; people were afraid of what they did not know, and this often led to hatred; mob mentality; ‘for fun’; the situation in Palestine and Israel; the result of political manipulation, the responsibility of those in power; it started in the Middle Ages; they have always been persecuted; I cannot name a single reason why they should be persecuted; a closed society, they don’t really let people in; the spread of Christianity; they were fewer in number; in fact, people were categorized on the basis of race… mainly due to the activities of the German Reich and what was behind them: rounding people up and sending them to concentration camps, ghettoization, deportation, extermination; no matter how repulsive or absurd this may seem, although … I consider myself to be an educated person to some extent … I can also contemplate whether there were real reasons for this … and to some extent, of course, what emerged from this was complete nonsense, … there were things that made some people reach for the knife in their pocket … obviously you can’t say that a people is guilty just because they are Jewish; in my opinion, as in most dictatorships … they just wanted to find someone to blame for everything … on some level, a common hatred was born among the people, and what unites people most is usually a common hatred; … they had the most influence, they held many positions, so it was easier to blame them for everything … and of course the Jews didn’t do these things, but it was easy to pin the blame on them; the government embraced the people’s animosity.

Did you talk about the Holocaust in your family?

The majority of respondents indicate that the Holocaust was rarely or never discussed in their families, and many identify the reasons for this. In one or two cases, we encounter the phenomenon of being “suddenly struck by the essence” of the matter.

Specifically: not really, it wasn’t a topic at home; maybe once my parents talked about it; fear of asking my parents about it; the second generation after the war doesn’t talk about it, but the older generation does; they don’t talk about it, but they are aware of it; older people still talk about it with disgust, but for young people it’s a taboo subject; shame about what happened; we visited Auschwitz with the family, we hadn’t talked about it before – it’s horrible, depressing, hair clippings, children’s shoes: you realize that these were real people; It’s a visible topic on TikTok: one interviewee “met” her relative this way, a Hungarian woman who survived Auschwitz, now living in America; in the family, only if there is “understanding”; perhaps it never came up in my life, obviously I wasn’t affected, so that’s why; I wouldn’t call my parents… history fans, so not even at that level; … my sister is very knowledgeable about history and studies in Budapest, … I often … go to visit her … once we were standing at a train station and there are, you know … those big container trains, whenever one passed us, it was such an unpleasant feeling, so frightening… she explained that this is because it reminds us of the Holocaust, because people were transported in trains like this. Every time a train like this passes me, I step back, it’s a strange feeling and maybe that’s why; I was always a very curious child and wanted to know everything about everything, so I asked my parents a lot of questions about this too.

Is “Jew-baiting” present in your social circle?

Either not all interviewers asked this question, or very few responses were received.

Here are the responses received: yes, mostly among men; yes, /the word “Jew”/ was used among friends, whichever ones I can think of… you know, this word has taken on a pejorative meaning… someone who has money and wants to ‘make a lot of money’ … I would say that this was also influenced by the fact that, for example, when we were children, or even now… in the series South Park (American animated series, 1997 – ed.), for example, they constantly use the word “Jew” almost as a conjunction, and not in a positive sense; I would say it is used mildly; In our circle, there has been no /Jew-bashing/ yet, but I have heard it /elsewhere/, often in a pejorative sense; there is a person in my circle of friends who is often called a Jew because of his appearance; ‘no comment’ (this was a response – ed.).

Was the Holocaust discussed at your school? Did you talk about it with your teachers, classmates, or friends?

This question overlaps somewhat with the first question. In general, it can be said that schools commemorate the Holocaust, but the forms and effectiveness of commemoration are judged variously. Some of the comments refer to the presence of hatred of those who are different in schools.

Individual responses: only after the change of regime; they should have started with the Gypsies; only briefly in history and religion classes; film experience: Schindler’s List; yes, with the teachers; boys making fun of it: they did well (this is the opinion of the ‘boys’ in question – ed.); young people learn about it, they take part in commemorations; education plays an important role, not only in history lessons, because this is a moral issue, it should be discussed in class teacher hours; very detailed education – but what I saw in Auschwitz changed my mind; it was more of a conversation; we saw a shocking black-and-white video (the music has stayed with me to this day); I don’t know exactly when, but the days of remembrance were always observed… I remember it being in high school… there was a school radio in every classroom and these were school-wide commemorations; with my friends, I feel that it came up more often than average, especially at university… as people become more open to the world, they encounter /the issue of the Holocaust/ more and more often, even when having a beer in a pub; we touched on it in history class studying the Jewish religion, if I remember correctly; In my circle, it’s very rare, but sometimes we start talking about the Jewish people and culture.

How did the deportations take place in your community?

The majority of respondents know almost nothing about the deportations that took place in their locality, or simply do not want to know about them.

Information received: I don’t know; they were loaded onto wagons at the railway station; my grandparents mentioned that Jews lived here too and they were taken away; I wasn’t there, I don’t know; I know that Jews were taken away from the village; it’s not a topic among young people, the elderly didn’t know anything either, but one comment: those who were taken away never returned home; There was no deportation here; this was always a staunchly Christian village. The Jews were deported from the neighbouring town, and there is a memorial to them there. Specifically, that Jews were taken from here… I don’t remember… They were definitely taken from the neighbouring village; there was a large Jewish community there… There is also a Jewish cemetery. First there was a Jewish quarter and they made a ghetto there, literally putting everyone under house arrest, taking away their property, and then transporting them from there; I don’t really know how it happened here.

Are there any signs of remembrance of the Jews who lived in your community and the Holocaust?

According to most of the responses, there are no traces of the former Jewish community in the given location, or if there are, the respondents are unaware of them.

Responses: Jewish cemetery; there used to be a synagogue, but it no longer exists, I don’t know where it was; there may be a memorial site (which even the interviewer could not find – ed.); not really, I don’t know about it; I don’t know about it, but it would be good if there was one, so we could remember; there is no memorial site; there is no memorial site, only a Jewish cemetery surrounded by family homes and farmland, which is in very poor condition; the Jewish cemetery is maintained, it is fenced in, there are 2-3 family graves here, it is respectfully treated, it is not allowed to be plowed over; only the cemetery, I don’t know of anything else; there is no memorial, it is not an issue, there will not be any, others say there should be a memorial; I think there is nothing here; at the end of the street, there is a small memorial on the wall at the edge of the house; … in front of the houses, there are metal plaques with the names of the families … (additional question: do you know what those metal plaques are called? – ed.) No, I don’t (this was the answer given; the interviewer asked about the stumbling stones – ed.); the synagogue, which could be very beautiful, but there is no intention to renovate it because it is wanted to be preserved as is.

Should we remember the Holocaust? How could we honour the memory of the Jews today?

With a few exceptions, respondents emphasized the justification and importance of remembrance. Some consider the extent of remembrance to be excessive, even going so far as to spread false rumours.

The answers: no, we must forget; no, because there are no longer any interested parties or relatives; yes, as a deterrent; it must never happen again, but Jews are not dear to our hearts; definitely, so that it never happens again; yes, so that future generations can learn from it; it is important to remember what happened and also the survivors, not just the victims; Yes, even with a memorial plaque or a commemoration; Yes, but this changes; Yes, this was also an event; Yes, this is how it will be preserved for posterity; If we commemorate our dead, then we must also commemorate them; One day a year, no more; we must educate people so that it never happens again; it is our moral duty to show what hatred is capable of; this is not just a lesson from the past, but a moral lesson for today; the answer is clearlyyes; so many lives were taken; those poor people died needlessly; so that we realize how f***ing lucky we are now; a reminder that humanity must not make this mistake again; an eye-opener; it is appropriate to have a great commemoration, but it does not need to be a red-letter day; this is a huge, big, black stain on humanity; people need to be a little ‘traumatized’; it is a ‘reality check’; it is important to see how organized and brutal [the Holocaust] was; perhaps it is good that there is a special day of remembrance, as they accounted for the majority of the victims, but… it is good as it is… there are commemorations, and quite a few films have been made, both documentaries and fictional films; Often, one gets the feeling that they want to monopolize the victim role of World War II… For example, there are many reports that there are countries that still have to pay reparations… Yes, lives were lost there, families were destroyed, but let’s not take money out of the pockets of Hungarian children 80 years later so that Hungary can pay reparations to Israel; recently… I read that they wanted to punish MÁV /Hungarian Railways/ because… it participated in the deportations, but I think there is a limit to everything; in any case, it was a shocking event for hundreds of thousands, millions of people, which we cannot ignore … /the memory/ is burned into generations; It is important to remember, because if we look around at the world today, treating people differently based on their skin color or sexuality is still present, perhaps even worse, because social media has come along and we receive a lot of encouragement to this effect every day… this is still the case today: we condemn those who are different in any way ; learning about different cultures should also be part of this, so that we can better understand other people’s situation.

How do you view the terrorist attack carried out in Israel on October 7, 2023, and the events that followed?

Three respondents asked this question, while the others either did not venture to do so or did not find the circumstances appropriate for asking it. None of the respondents condemned the terrorist attack by HAMAS, while several held Israel responsible for the conflict and others remained neutral.

Specific responses: I don’t know; the situation in France is the worst; the world is now at a stage where this can be resolved through diplomatic means; this obsession with territorial expansion is a bit medieval…; I don’t even know exactly what the goal is here, I mean with the genocide; one would think that if a people has already gone through such a tragic thing, they wouldn’t repeat it; they were the victims, and now they are the ones doing it; To be honest, I haven’t really looked into this, I’m not that interested in the subject… Even if you were really into it, it would still be really hard to decide who is right… We’ll probably never decide whether the Israelis or the Palestinians are right; practically since the beginning of time, they have always been at war with each other… I couldn’t take sides, as far as I’m concerned, both sides are to blame; The worst thing about it, and there are many such topics, is that the more I delve into the subject, the less I know about it… I can say that anyone who says it’s only this or only that is an idiot… anyone who can stand up for something so strongly doesn’t know enough about it; the Israelis had an excuse to finally attack Palestine, while the Palestinians just want their country; I honestly am not that well informed about what exactly is happening, but I don’t like that it interferes so much with current politics (i.e., it excessively influences the daily political situation – ed.), to the extent that other countries are following suit or interfering in the conflict… for example, Trump also… stuck his nose in, or I don’t even know what he did exactly; war is always bad, no one comes out of war victorious; it’s shocking that people … can argue over territory, which also costs human lives; there will never be real peace.

Students’ personal impressions

Some of the university students also reported on their personal impressions while the interview was being conducted.

One student indicated that the interview proceeded calmly. Another reported that the interviewees were fearful of the topic, but also curious, and that the conversation meant stepping out of their comfort zone. At the beginning of the interview, the interviewees were reserved, emphasizing that “I don’t know anything about this,” but later they loosened up somewhat.

They encountered reserved interviewees, enthusiastic, nervous, or indifferent respondents, and some were surprised at how close the tragedy was to village life.

In one village, neo-Nazi activities were taking place, characterized mainly by anti-Semitism, the adoption of Nazi ideology from the Third Reich, and generally hatred of anything different. Everyone who lived there knew about it, but no one took action against it; instead, indifference, a feeling of “whatever,” and the attitude that “it’s someone else’s problem” were the norm. There was a lack of desire for knowledge; they did not want to know more about the issues raised, saying, “don’t waste our time.”

After the interview, in some cases, positive feedback was also received and relief followed.

Thanks

The Jewish Roots in Győr Public Benefit Foundation is very grateful to the six university students, external experts, and university lecturers for organizing and running the course, as well as for their active participation in it. Special thanks go to the management of Széchenyi István University for making this course possible.

December 2025

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[1] (1), (2), (3)

[2] “Kiáltó csend – a holokauszt helyi emlékezete Magyarországon” (Screaming Silence – Local Remembrance of the Holocaust in Hungary), György Csepeli és Richárd Papp, Múlt és Jövő, Budapest, 2025

The photo is an illustration only.

The tenth child of a repair tailor, and a laundress

Compiled by Péter Krausz

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Hungarian radio, which began broadcasting in December 1925, an article in the December issue of Győri Szalon cultural magazine drew my attention to Ernő Winter, whose name, in my opinion, has been undeservedly forgotten in Győr.

I confess and am ashamed to say that, as a resident of Győr, I had never heard of him before. I am grateful to the magazine and the author of the article for recalling the life of this outstanding technical intellectual, who was born in Győr. ^[1] Without him, radio would have taken much longer to become widespread in Hungary.

This piece is based on an article published in Győri Szalon and other sources. In several cases, I copied the information I found verbatim. I have indicated sources other than Győri Szalon separately.

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Beginnings

He came from an old Jewish family in Győr. Nándor Winter was born in Győr on March 15, 1897, as the tenth (youngest) child of Nándor Winter, a repair tailor, and Regina Dringler, a laundress. He died in Budapest on June 2, 1971.^[2]

“At the age of fourteen, I was the sole breadwinner for my family,” he said in 1969. ^[3]

In 1915, he graduated with excellent results from the State Secondary School in Győr (now the Miklós Révai Gymnasium). His headmaster was Pál Pitroff, mathematics teacher Béla Kallós, and natural history teacher Sándor Polgár (see our previous announcement about the latter – ed.).

After graduating from school, several members of his class enlisted in the army, and he served as a volunteer in Bosnia until 1918.

After World War I, he began working at the Meister Soap Factory in Budapest and, while working, completed his studies at the József University of Technology, where he earned a degree in chemical engineering in 1925. He borrowed money and travelled also to Brno, Breslau, and Dresden to deepen his studies. ^[3]

In 1925, he joined the chemical laboratory of the United Light Bulb and Electric Company (later Tungsram), where his career began and flourished.

The development of the modern radio tube

His name is associated with several inventions, including the development of the so-called reduction barium metal vapor process. The result of this was the barium-magnesium radio tube (P 415, a high-power Tungsram tube) developed in 1927. With this product, Hungarian radio tube manufacturing immediately jumped to the forefront, ahead of Philips and Telefunken. Hungarian-made tubes based on Ernő Winter’s invention were also installed in French, Belgian, German, Austrian, and Dutch radio sets.

Tungsram manufactured 200 million electron tubes based on Winter’s patents. However, when he asked the factory management for a raise in his modest salary, they refused. He then took up a position as a “chemist with professional experience” in the Netherlands, where he was offered a five-year contract with excellent remuneration^[3] at the Philips factory in Nijmegen (Nijmegen is a Dutch town where Philips operated a light bulb factory called Splendor as early as the 1930s).^[4] – ed.) “Our homesickness grew ever more intense in our hearts,” his wife said in 1969.^[3] After two years, Lipót Aschner, president and CEO of United Light Bulb and Electric Company, lured him back home.^[2]

Thereafter, he developed the indirectly heated cathode and, together with his colleagues, several original radio tube designs. He also invented the globally used method of coating the grid with gold to prevent secondary emission.^[2]

In addition to his work, he was a passionate alpinist and rock climber: he climbed the highest peak in the Eastern Alps, the 3,899-meter-high Ortler^[5] (which is the highest peak in the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, located today in Italy, in South Tyrol – ed.).

In 1944, despite his Jewish origins, he was granted protection on account of his merits, but was assigned to Building 17 of the United Light Bulb Company as his place of forced residence.^[2]

His achievements after World War II

After the war, a telegram arrived from Philips, which read: “Please let us know if Winter is alive.”^[3]

But Ernő Winter remained in Budapest. His work contributed to the development of an independent electron tube industry in Hungary, which ensured production many times superior to that of the old industry. In 1950, he became an employee of the Telecommunications Research Institute, and in 1962, he headed the electron physics department of the Technical Physics Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

He developed the low-consumption battery and direct-heated tubes. After 1950, he also worked on the development of microwave tubes: he invented a particularly long-lasting, high-performance cathode.^[2]

He received the Kossuth Prize twice for his achievements (1950, 1953), and was elected a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1951 and a full member in 1956. He was a founding member of the National Technical Development Committee (OMFB) in 1961.

Further awards: Hungarian Order of Merit for Work (gold, 1948 and 1950), Order of Merit of the Hungarian People’s Republic (1952), Order of Merit for Work (gold, 1967).^[5]

His wife was Lívia Barta (1902–1994), daughter of merchant Sámuel Barta and Margit Frischmann, whom he married on December 23, 1926, in Budapest. His children were Péter Ada-Winter (1923–2020), a computer scientist; Mihály Winter (1940–1976), a doctor and PhD candidate; and János Winter (1941–?).

Major works: Vacuum Technology (Budapest, 1954), Selected Chapters on Ferromagnetism (Budapest, 1955), Single Electron Generated Current Pulse in a Vacuum Diode (Budapest, 1964)^[2]

Ernő Winter, a prominent figure in Hungarian communications and vacuum technology research, whose more than seventy Hungarian and nearly two hundred foreign patents were protected, died in Budapest on June 2, 1971. He is buried in Farkasréti Cemetery, and his grave was declared a protected site by the National Memorial and Remembrance Committee in 2002.

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Sources

[1] Ernő Winter, the Founder of Hungarian Radio Tube Manufacturing; László Veres, December 1, 2025, Győri Szalon

We would like to thank Győri Szalon for allowing us to freely use the various compilations appearing on its website.

[2] Winter Ernő, Wikipedia

[3] From the Journalist’s Archive – The „cathode Winter”; László Kulcsár, March 30, 2024, Infovilág

[4] Industrial city, the arrival of NV Philips, Into Nijmegen

[5] Ernő Winter, Névpont.hu

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Cover photo: Lampes pour radio Tungsram, Suisse, circa 1930 (Source: Galerie123.com)

English translation: P. Krausz

Review

The 3^rd publication of the „Szülőföldünk Honismereti Egyesület” (Homeland Society) and the Gyula Bedécs Society of Győr, Győr-Csorna, 2024, supported by the Jewish Roots in Győr Public Benefit Foundation and Mazsihisz.

Available in Hungarian only.

In her book, published on the eightieth anniversary of the Holocaust, Ágnes Aszt, an archaeologist and museologist from the town of Csorna, reconstructs the life of the local Jewish community, which once made up ten percent of the population. The idea to write the book was random: the Jewish Community of Moson organized an exhibition of János Kass’s etchings entitled “Jewish Holidays.” Ms. Aszt thought it would be worthwhile to bring the exhibition to Csorna and combine it with an exposition of the history of the local Jewish community. The book is the result of several years of research.

Ágnes Aszt graduated in archaeology and museology from the Faculty of Humanities, Eötvös Loránd University in 2000. After graduation, she started her career at the Hanság Museum in Mosonmagyaróvár. Her work has been highlighted by the creation of a new permanent local history exhibition, the establishment of the Szili Castle Museum and the organisation of the exhibition “Life – The History of the Jews of Csorna”. Currently, she is heading the Integrated Community and Service Dept. of the Municipality of Kisbajcs. Ágnes Aszt has published fifty-three works, including three independent volumes.

For her research, the author used records from the Csorna Museum, documents from the Sopron Archives, Yad Vashem, and documents from the Arolsen Archives, which are the worldwide archives of victims and survivors of National Socialism in Germany. She also used photographs, documents, and oral testimonies provided by individuals. With these, she gave faces to the many forgotten people.

The book begins with a chapter on the history of Hungarian Jewry from a legal perspective. Jewish relics date back to the 2nd and 3rd centuries, and Jews arrived in the Carpathian Basin during the so-called Conquest. From the Middle Ages onward, they were sometimes discriminated against and persecuted, sometimes privileged and protected until the so-called Reconciliation in 1867. Although they became equal to the majority society under the law, anti-Semitic sentiment did not disappear. Unlike other minorities in the Monarchy, who proclaimed their independent identity, the Jewish people considered themselves Hungarian citizens of the Israelite faith. During WWI, Jewish patriots made the same sacrifices as Christian citizens and experienced the same terror under the Soviet Republic. Then came the anti-Jewish laws of the 1930s: exclusion, marginalization, and finally, deportation to death camps and labor battalions. Many of those who survived the Holocaust emigrated; only a fraction remained in the country. The history of the Jews of Csorna reflects the events that took place throughout the country.

The year 1853, the year of the foundation of the Csorna Jewish Community, is a recurring date in the section “The History of the Csorna Jewry” but also throughout the entire book. In the first third of the 1800s, Israelites comprised only one percent of the population, but by the end of the century this number was already around ten percent. Jews took their share in the local economic life. Their numbers remained more or less stable until the 1940s, then dramatically dropped as a consequence of the Shoah and remained low after the war. Many of the survivors emigrated or left illegally in 1956. 

“Jewish Sacrifice of Csorna in the Great War”: Jewish organizations explicitly supported their patriotic duty in WW1. Of the seventy-two Jewish men from Csorna who enlisted, seventeen were killed in battle. The local Jewish community supported the army not only by providing soldiers but also by financial contributions. Despite this, it was poorly remembered, and anti-Semitic actions were committed, such as vandalizing the memorial plaque to the fallen.

“The Framework of Religious Life in Csorna: The Synagogue’s Yard” recounts the history of the Orthodox synagogue and the stories of its rabbis and other notable community members. The school had two classes and was attended by both Orthodox and Neolog children.

The chapter “Jewish Community Life in Csorna” reveals the importance of charity, training, and cultural clubs in the daily life of the community. The oldest, largest, and most active of these was, of course, the Chevra Kadisha. The “Penny Society” (Filléregylet), which supported war orphans after WW1, developed into a nationally important association. Anti-Semitic regulations ruined these flourishing associations.

“House of Life: The Csorna Jewish Cemetery” explores funeral customs, gravestone design, and the texts and symbols inscribed on them.

The “Jewish Memorial and Plaques of the City” begins with the funerary rites as well. As a shocking example of latent Jew-hatred, the memorial plaque for the WWII martyrs, inaugurated in 1990, bears the name of only one of the city’s 655 Jewish victims. After much controversy and despite several anti-Semitic voices, the country’s first public Holocaust memorial, which includes the names of all those who were murdered, was unveiled in the city center in 2005.

“Selection of Jewish Remains” describes the fate of various everyday objects and Judaica. Many items went missing during the ghettoization. They were stolen, “requisitioned,” or given to others by their original owners. What remained is now in private or museum hands.

“Family Stories” makes up about half of the book and is perhaps the most valuable part. Through family reconstructions, Ágnes Aszt ensures that their memories do not fade into oblivion. She uses civil registrations, certificates, other documents, as well as oral accounts. The Jews of Csorna were primarily merchants or engaged in various intellectual occupations. Almost all of these families experienced the same tragedy. Most of their members were sent to death camps or subjected to atrocities during labor service. Very few survived. They gradually left their hometowns. Some made Aliyah or migrated west after the war; others relocated within the country. The Gestetner family, who have lived in Csorna since the 18th century, are often mentioned in the book. David, the inventor of the stencil machine, is one of the most famous citizens of Csorna, although he left the country in the early 20th century and eventually settled in London. The author specifically discusses those who converted to Christianity due to the persecution of Jews. Unfortunately, this did not save them from being murdered.

Museologist Ágnes Aszt is to be credited for her in-depth processing of the multifaceted source material. Thanks to her work, the memory of Csorna’s Jewish heritage will not disappear.

“Life: The History of the Jews of Csorna” can be obtained for a 2,500 HUF donation directly from the Homeland Society via this email address: kovacs.balazs.gyor@gmail.com. The review was originally published in the newsletter of the „Szülőföldünk Honismereti Egyesület”, and is a shortened version.

Written and translated by György Polgár

Presentation material from interviews conducted by Patrícia Pataki, a student at Széchenyi István University in Győr

At the Apáczai Csere János Faculty of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences at Széchenyi István University in Győr, six students majoring in social pedagogy and sociology conducted a series of interviews as part of their course entitled “Jewishness – Acceptance – Exclusion” launched at the initiative of our Foundation in September 2025.

Patrícia Pataki conducted her interviews in Szentpéterfa in November 2025. Szentpéterfa is a small village on the Hungarian-Austrian border with less than a thousand inhabitants. The Jewish population was also deported from here in 1944.

Below, we present the PowerPoint presentation prepared by Patrícia for the closing session of the course, held in Győr on November 14, 2025. We thank her for allowing us to publish her summary.

The editor has made only the most necessary changes to the answers to the questions to aid clarity.

Other PPTs by Győr university students: Barbara Mágocsi – Pápa, Boglárka Dombi – Tihany

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Cover photo: Szentpéterfa – D. Zsolt Mészáros Nyugat.hu

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Ed. and English translation by Peter Krausz

Presentation material from interviews conducted by Boglárka Dombi, a student at Széchenyi István University in Győr

At the Apáczai Csere János Faculty of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences at Széchenyi István University in Győr, six students majoring in social pedagogy and sociology conducted a series of interviews as part of their course entitled “Jewishness – Acceptance – Exclusion” launched at the initiative of our Foundation in September 2025.

Boglárka Dombi conducted her interviews in Tihany in November 2025. This village at Lake Balaton has never really been populated by Jews, therefore Boglárka briefly reviewed Jewish roots in Balatonfüred, a neighbouring settlement at the lake.

Below, we present the PowerPoint presentation prepared by Boglárka for the closing session of the course, held in Győr on November 14, 2025, which, in addition to the questions asked in the interviews, also provides a slide about the history of the Jewish community in Balatonfüred. We thank her for allowing us to publish her summary.

The editor has made only the most necessary changes to the answers to the questions to aid clarity.

Other PPTs by Győr university students: Barbara Mágocsi – Pápa, Patrícia Pataki – Szentpéterfa

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Cover photo: Tihany – Utazik.hu

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Ed. and English translation by Peter Krausz

Presentation material from interviews conducted by Barbara Mágocsi, a student at Széchenyi István University in Győr

At the Apáczai Csere János Faculty of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences at Széchenyi István University in Győr, six students majoring in social pedagogy and sociology conducted a series of interviews as part of their course entitled “Jewishness – Acceptance – Exclusion” launched at the initiative of our Foundation in September 2025.

Barbara Mágocsi conducted her interviews in Pápa and, to a lesser extent, in the neighbouring villages of Vinár and Nemesszalók on 7 and 11-12.

Below, we present the PowerPoint presentation prepared by Barbara for the closing session of the course, held in Győr on November 14, 2025, which, in addition to the questions asked in the interviews, also provides a brief overview of the history of the Jewish community in Pápa. We thank her for allowing us to publish her summary.

The editor has made only the most necessary changes to the answers to the questions to aid clarity.

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Ed. and English translation by Peter Krausz

The history of the renowned Győr factory of covering fabric in pictures

These slides, which we publish together with comments made by students during its presentation, is about the history till the present day of the Graboplast factory founded by the Jewish Grab family 120 years ago. It was presented by the student team Levente Bekő, Bálint Burkus and Levente Csíkász, as supported by Melinda Kazóné Kardos, history teacher, of the Technical Highschool Pattantyús-Ábrahám Géza at the 2024 high school contest “Their fate – our history” organized by the Jewish Roots in Győr Public Benefit Foundation on Jewish memories in Győr and its surroundings. With this and other works, they won the title of best vocational high school.

The beginnings in Czechia

Czechia is famous not only for its beauty, but also for its industry. The Grab family was one of the players in this industry, investing most of their capital in various businesses during the dualist era (end of the 19th and early 20th century – ed.), such as Graboplast, which is still known by this name today.

A prominent member of the Grab family was Miksa Grab, who studied law in Prague and then worked mainly as the manager of companies established by his family. He continued this latter activity in Hungary, which brought him to Győr.  However, most of his family moved to the United States after World War I. In 2005, on the 100th anniversary of the factory’s founding, it was possible to locate descendants of the Grab family still living in the Czech Republic.

Founding the factory

The factory was founded in 1905.

Previously, there was a brick factory on the site of the factory, which was purchased by Miksa Grab. He founded the company together with his sons, Hugo and Emmanuel. The so-called “clock tower” of the original building can still be seen today.

The factory initially produced waxed fabrics, then large government orders came in. First, they produced railway upholstery for MÁV (Hungarian State Railways). This order ensured a secure future for the company.

The Grab family in Győr

The Grab family’s villa in Győr was built right next to the factory. Its etched glass windows were created by the famous Czech artist Alphons Mucha, whose major works are on display at the Mucha Museum in Prague.  His piece entitled “The Four Seasons” was placed in the villa. According to the accounts of former staff, Spring and Summer fell victim to air pressure during World War II, while Autumn and Winter remained intact. The villa was the last to be built, preceded by the so-called Czech houses, where specialists brought from the Czechia lived, whilst the engineers’ apartments were built next to it. 

According to the founders’ intentions, the villa served as both a reception area on the ground floor and a residential building, as the owners’ apartments were located upstairs. Staff apartments were built in the basement, and interestingly, these apartments were in use until the 2000s. The villa was surrounded by a garden modeled after an English park. There was also a vegetable garden on the factory premises, which supplied the factory workers with fresh products. Today, none of this remains, and in its place, there is a SPAR grocery store and parking lot.

After 1945, service apartments were established in the villa. Today, the building is a condominium in need of renovation. 

During World War I and after

During World War I, the company manufactured chemical protection equipment, raincoats, and tent fabric. After the war, the business was unable to recover, as the Czech parent company went bankrupt during the global economic crisis. Arnold Teltsch and István Rudó bought and saved the factory, which only began to recover in the 1930s.  

During World War II and the years after

From September 1939, production was placed under military control.  The factory was not spared from Allied bombing, although the bomb that hit it did not claim any lives and the building was not seriously damaged.

The company was nationalized in 1947.

After the 1956 revolution, the plant struggled with a shortage of raw materials. The iconic blue building was constructed in the 1970s. At this time, it began manufacturing artificial leather for Volkswagen, Fiat, Renault, Ford, Skoda, and other car manufacturers. The plastic roof of the Sopron swimming pool as held up by air pressure was developed at Graboplast.

In 1969, Graboplan was separated from the mother company, with tent manufacturing as its main profile.

The company had its own nursery, kindergarten, medical clinic, and workers’ hostel.

An outstanding leader in the 1960s and 70s

The history of Graboplast cannot be complete without mentioning the work of Nándor Jankovich.

Nándor Jankovich was born on August 29, 1926, in Pozsony. Between 1940 and 1945, he served in the artillery division in Győr and was taken prisoner by the Americans. Upon his return in 1946, he joined Graboplast as a yard worker. By 1948, he became a trade union leader, and by 1952, he rose to the position of plant manager. In 1957, he obtained a degree in textile engineering. In 1966, he was elected to the County Council, and a year later he obtained a degree in mechanical engineering. In 1970, he received the most prestigious award of the era, the Gold Order of Merit for Work, and his work was also recognized with a State Award. In 1972, he became CEO. In 1974, he earned a degree in industrial engineering from the Bánki Donát Technical College.

The Graboplast factory was his life. Even on Sundays, he would go over from the neighbouring villa, which had been converted into staff accommodation, and walk around the factory.  In his spare time, he grew rare plants. One of these, a species of cactus, can still be seen in the factory courtyard today, and its rare flowering is a local attraction. He passed away on December 18, 1985. His son, Nándor Jankovich, was a teacher at our school for many years. In addition to technical subjects, he also taught music. 

After the political regime change

In 1990, under the leadership of Péter Jancsó, Graboplast Textile and Artificial Leather Manufacturing Joint Stock Company was founded, boasting 30% Western capital. By 1994, its shares were already being traded on the Budapest Stock Exchange. The company acquired the Sopron-based carpet manufacturer SOTEX Rt, followed by the purchase UNIONTEXT Kft. Parquet production was launched in Kecskemét, and the parent company’s products began to be manufactured also in Tatabánya. Production in Sopron ceased in 2008, in the 99th year of the factory’s existence. 

Graboplast not only operates as a factory in Győr, but also supports various sports activities, the most successful of which was the ETO women’s handball team. In addition, water sports in Győr and the Győr Ballet also enjoyed its support.

In 2005, the 100th anniversary, a commemorative book detailing the history of the company was published.  The factory and the city celebrated this anniversary with a spectacular series of events, culminating in a Republic pop concert in Széchenyi Square.

Recently, a significant investment was made in the Győr unit: a new plant management building was constructed.

During the tour of the factory, we got to see one of the early machines used to produce artificial leather. It was nice to see that a piece of the factory’s past is being preserved as a real treasure. Interestingly, there are only two working paternoster elevators in Hungary, one of which operates in this office building.

Graboplast will be 120 years old in 2025. It has been in continuous operation since its founding.

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Edited and translated into English by P. Krausz

Apor Vilmos

This post was written by students of the Czuczor Gergely Benedictine High School in Győr, Lili Flinger, Anna Hordós and Dorottya Kispál, for the 2024 high school contest organized by the Jewish Roots in Győr Charitable Foundation on the Jewish heritage of Győr and its surroundings entitled “Their Fate – Our History”, under the guidance of history teacher Tamás Cséfalvay. The group came in second place in the contest.

We have already published a post of similar contents about Bishop Apor on our website. Given his outstanding personality and his very honourable, even self-sacrificing, exemplary conduct during World War II and especially during the persecution of the Jews, we consider it justified to present him again, this time through the writing of Benedictine students from Győr.

Vilmos Apor is one of the most important figures in Hungarian Catholic Church history. Although attempts were made to erase his memory from the Hungarian public consciousness during the one-party rule, he occupies an important place in the hearts of the people of Győr. The fundamental question of Christian theology and philosophy is freedom. Apor’s Christian nature gave people freedom in itself. In the spring of 1945, he sacrificed his own life to protect defenceless women. Martyrdom also means that one’s life path has converged at a single point, which is another path to enlightenment. In a theological sense, martyrdom gives meaning to his life, but history focuses much more on his life. It is not the circumstances of his death that give meaning to the high priest’s life, yet this tragic event continues to give hope to many believers to this day.

The Beginnings

Vilmos Apor was born on February 29, 1892, in Segesvár into a noble family. His father, Gábor Apor, was a senior county administrator and later a ministerial secretary. His mother, Fidéla Pálffy, kept a firm hand on the family but raised her children with love. His father died unexpectedly when Vilmos was six years old. From an early age, Vilmos consciously prepared himself for a career in the priesthood. When he joined the Jesuit order, he undertook a rigorous training program. He studied theology in Innsbruck and was ordained a priest in Nagyvárad in 1915. He began his priestly service in the town of Gyula, later serving as parish priest. During the World War, he took the fate of the fallen and the destitute to heart. He interceded on behalf of the citizens of Gyula who had been deported during the Romanian occupation. In his good service, Apor always looked at the person, never at their origin or religion. From 1920 onwards, he carried out serious pastoral and social work. He ran a soup kitchen and organized collections for the impoverished. Social status was not important to him; contrary to the social spirit of the time, he also helped the poor. He sided with the legitimists, who recognized Charles IV and his successors as the legitimate heads of the Hungarian state, which is why his relationship with Horthy was somewhat ambivalent.

The Bishop of Győr and the Holy Cross Association

A major turning point in his life came when Pope Pius XII appointed him bishop of Győr. He was consecrated on February 24, 1941. He arrived in Győr on March 1, and his official inauguration took place the following day. In early 1941, Archbishop Serédi appointed him president of the Hungarian Holy Cross Association. The Hungarian Holy Cross Association was an organization representing the interests of Jews who had converted to Roman Catholicism between 1939 and 1944.

               “… I am not averse to accepting the position of president of the Hungarian Holy Cross Association, although I know it will be a difficult task. However, before I make a final decision, I would like to learn more about the association’s activities to date. May I ask Your Eminence to keep the matter pending until I have had sufficient time to gather the necessary information?”

Finally, Apor accepted the position of president. The archbishop formally worked within the association to ensure that the community, which had converted to Catholicism, could survive this period with the least possible losses.

His humanity during World War II and the Persecution of the Jews

During the war, in 1943, Serédi also entrusted him with the organization of the emerging modern Catholic political movement. On August 26, 1943, Catholic public figures of the time gathered at the bishop’s palace in Győr to discuss the possibilities of Christian politics, in opposition to the political course of the era. As a compromise between the new forces and the old players, he created the Catholic Social People’s Movement, of which he became the patron and sociologist Béla Kovrig, rector of the University of Kolozsvár (Cluj), became the president. Later, this community formed the Democratic People’s Party.

The German occupation of Hungary on March 19, 1944 brought about a significant change in the situation of Hungarian citizens classified as Jews and foreign Jewish refugees, who, despite all the attacks and deprivation of rights, had survived the war almost unharmed and whose lives were not in danger. The Nazis’ plan was to deport Jews to concentration camps, and they counted on the Hungarian gendarmerie and police to help carry out the plan. The new Sztójay government, which served the Germans, issued a multitude of decrees aimed at segregating Jews, restricting their livelihoods, and depriving them of their property. After the ghettoization of the Jews, deportations began, which took place between May 14 and July 19, 1944. The Archbishop protested behind the scenes to the government against the measures affecting the Jews, but the episcopate was divided on whether they should give guidance to the faithful by going public. Some of the bishops, including Vilmos Apor, represented the latter opinion. 

“And whoever rejects the fundamental law of Christianity concerning love and claims that there are people, groups, and races that it is permissible to hate, and proclaims that it is permissible to torture people, whether they be Negroes or Jews, no matter how much he boasts of being a Christian, is like a pagan and a public sinner.”

Endgame in Győr

Vilmos Apor protested against the establishment of the Győr ghetto and persistently urged the publication of a circular letter from the bishops. When he received the Archbishop’s circular letter, he wrote to him that he was saddened by his decision not to issue a joint pastoral letter, because the government would interpret this as weakness and take it as encouragement to “continue on the dangerous path it had embarked upon. “The faithful cannot be made aware of the bishops’ principled position and practical steps, “and so we are also responsible for the fact that many people, with more or less good faith, participate in the implementation of cruel and unjust measures and approve of reprehensible doctrines,“ Apor warned. He stated that he was aware that going public could have consequences, including newspaper debates, smear campaigns against priests, financial restrictions, deprivation of rights, and possibly even imprisonment and torture. “However, I am convinced that we must take this risk, and that in the end, the faith of our followers will be strengthened and the authority of our church will be consolidated as a result of this struggle.”

In his letter to Jusztinián Serédi dated June 15, 1944, Vilmos Apor wrote: “How will we stand up to history if we remain in apparent agreement and polite relations with a government that tortures hundreds of thousands of people across the country with the utmost cruelty, deprives them of all their human rights, and assists in their deportation to slave labour and death?”

In his letter dated June 17, 1944, Bishop Vilmos Apor of Győr once again emphasized this pastoral point of view to Archbishop Jusztinián Serédi: “In the confessional, the question arises whether it is permissible to feel sorry for those poor, tortured Jews. Yesterday, elderly, religious woman told me, almost fearfully and in a whisper, as if she had committed a sin, that she had given bread to people locked up in the ghetto. […] We need to provide our faithful with consistent and decisive teaching and guidance on current issues. The faithful must know that state control that places race above moral and individual responsibility, that preaches hatred and revenge instead of love, that tortures innocent children with its methods, is wrong. They must know that sin must not be promoted or endorsed, even if it is committed by state authorities. They must know what the universal human rights are, which even the state must not violate. My conscience compels me to bring all this before Your Highness with the words “Ceterum censeo…” that we must go before the general public “importune opportune” with those eternal moral truths that are now urgent, that now give a firm direction to doubting and misguided minds”.

He tried to intercede on behalf of those who had been ghettoized and imprisoned with Jenő Apor Koller, mayor of Győr, and Richárd Kászonyi, senior county administrator. He also tried to gain access to the collection camp on Budai Road, but ultimately failed because, although Andor Jaross initially granted permission, State Secretary László Baky overturned the decision.

After the German occupation and the Arrow Cross takeover, Bishop Vilmos Apor stood up for the persecuted regardless of their religion or ethnicity. He harshly criticized and condemned the existing order, personally defending the vulnerable against the German and Arrow Cross leaders (1945). However, his protests, petitions, and telegrams sent on behalf of the Jews remained ineffective. He hid some of those who turned to him, or sent them on to Nuncio Angelo Rotta, who issued thousands of letters of protection, or to his sister, Gizella Apor, head of the Hungarian Red Cross. He also helped the city’s civilian population, working with monastery leaders to provide shelter for many refugees, especially after the bombing of Győr in April 1944. During this period, he developed close ties with Lajos Shvoy, Bishop of Székesfehérvár, and József Mindszenty, Bishop of Veszprém, both of whom served in Transdanubia.

On March 28, 1945 (Holy Wednesday), the siege of Győr began. The retreating Germans also fired on the city, hitting the cathedral. The bishop took in all the refugees, and hundreds of people found shelter in the cellars of the Bishop’s Palace. He celebrated his last Mass here on Maundy Thursday.

On March 30, after refusing to hand over the women who had taken refuge in his residence, a Soviet soldier fatally wounded him during a scuffle. Sándor Pálffy, the bishop’s nephew, who was 17 at the time, jumped in front of his uncle and was hit by three bullets. The bishop was also hit by three bullets, one grazing his forehead, the second piercing his cassock and shirt cuff on his right arm, and the third—the fatal bullet—penetrating his abdomen. Vilmos Apor was transported through the besieged city to a hospital, where he was operated on by the light of a kerosene lamp, but he died of his injuries at 1 a.m. on April 2, Easter Monday. His exemplary life and martyr’s death elevate him to the ranks of the greatest figures of Hungarian Christianity.

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References

Berkes Tímea: The “Final Solution” in Győr-Moson-Pozsony County. Thesis. JATE BTK Department of Modern and Contemporary Universal History. Szeged, 1995.

Jubilee Years and Catholic Renewal. Selected Writings of Balázs Csíky. METEM, Budapest, 2021.

Viktor Attila Soós: The Activities of Vilmos Apor, Bishop of Győr, in 1944-1945. Saving Lives During the Holocaust. In: Martyrs and Rescuers (ed. László Szelke). Szent István Társulat, Budapest, 2022.

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Edited and translated into English by Péter Krausz

Conversation with Mihály Meixner’s grandson, who rescued Jews from Győr

The Righteous Among the Nations award is an honour bestowed by Israel upon non-Jews who demonstrated extraordinary courage by risking their lives to rescue Jewish people during the Shoah. This distinction is bestowed upon individuals by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority. As of 1 January 2023, a total of 28,486 awards have been presented, 869 of which to Hungarian citizens. One of them was Mihály Meixner from Győr, the late owner of the Hotel Royal, now Hotel Rába, whom we have previously written about. In his capacity as the ghetto commander, he endeavoured to enhance conditions, procured additional food for the forced labourers, and helped them escape. We spoke with his grandson, who shares the name Mihály, to learn how they honour the memory of his heroic grandfather.

“My grandfather passed away before I was born, so I know about his story during the Holocaust only from family narratives. It was not until much later, perhaps around the time of the regime change, that the topic began to be discussed within the family,” the 74-year-old grandson begins.

What do you know about your grandfather?

For him, personal integrity and moral principles were of the utmost importance, regardless of whether this person was a Jew, a Gypsy*, tall or short, good-looking or ugly or anything else. This remains an integral part of our family’s mindset. I share this perspective. He was quite a daring man. He died in November 1948. Among family and friends, the consensus was that it was definitely better this way, because at least they didn’t take the hotel away from him during his lifetime, which was nationalized in 1949. He would certainly have defended it with weapons. His determination also saved a woman in labour in the ghetto: he let excavated a passageway beneath the fence and helped her escape during the cover of the night. He then transported her to the hospital in his commander’s car and forced the doctor to assist her in the delivery of the baby.

How did he become ghetto-commander?

He was a professional soldier, a captain. He sustained a serious injury to his right shoulder during World War I, which resulted in his discharge from the military. Then, he was redrafted during World War II. He was present at the Transylvanian invasion in 1940. He was subsequently reassigned to the hinterland, where officers were in high demand. At that point, he was appointed to oversee the ghetto and the forced labourers. Later, he was taken captive by the Russians.

Was the war ever discussed in your family?

No. During the communist era, it was not recommendable to talk about those times. Being member of the former “Royal-hotel-and-café family” was not the best recommendation at the time anyway. My grandmother shared numerous anecdotes about the family’s past, including details about the hotel, and all kinds of other stories. For example, she told me how she had a room restored in 1945 in the hotel that had been hit by a bomb, and subsequently stood at the train station with a small sign announcing that the Royal Hotel was in operation again. However, the war years were never spoken about. Actually, neither in the affected Jewish families. Their underlying concept probably was, that if this man had helped us, his descendants should not face any repercussions because of that. For example, I had a Jewish classmate. She only learned about my grandfather’s courageous deeds when a report about the award ceremony appeared in the daily paper ‘Kisalföld’. Yet her family was directly implicated. It was then that her parents told her about the incident with the pregnant mother. It had happened to one of their relatives.

Who initiated the recognition of the Righteous Among the Nations and how did the process unfold?

I was on a business trip abroad. The phone rang at home, and my wife answered it. They were looking for Mihály Meixner’s son. My wife gave them the number of my uncle László, who had witnessed the events and could provide detailed information. He was living in Budapest at the time. Unfortunately, I am unaware of the individual who initiated the process. Twelve or fifteen families provided testimony. Among those saved were Mihály Röder, Ignác Löwinger (later Yitzchak) and Ernő Weisz (later Yehoshua Ben-Ami), all of whom made Aliyah.

Did the Jewish community in Győr ever express appreciation for your grandfather’s actions?

No, never. However, those who survived Auschwitz, including the deputy director of the local National Savings Bank branch, Dezső Rudas, or the chief accountant of a county retail company, Berci Krausz, and a few others, took note of me, presumably out of gratitude for my grandfather. By this I mean that after graduating from commercial college, when I got a job at Áfész they kept an eye on me from the background, so that if anything would have gone wrong, they could help. (Editor’s note: Áfész, or General Consumer and Sales Cooperative mainly provided commercial, agricultural and other services in rural areas before the regime change.)

And the state or the local government?

They did not address the matter either. The only public recognition of my grandfather’s memory was the presentation of the Righteous Among the Nations award at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences on 6 September 1998, a ceremony which was attended by several hundred people. The award was presented to my uncle by the Israeli ambassador. We still have the commemorative plaque, but the certificate of honour got lost, along with many other documents. We do not hold any special commemorations in the family. My ascendant relatives are no longer alive. We, the current family, have stored away in our hearts the memory that we once had such a great, humanistic ancestor.

Recorded by György Polgár

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* The word ‘gypsy’ is not considered an insult in Hungary.

English translation by György Polgár

Works of art submitted to the 2024 secondary school contest organized by the Jewish Roots in Győr Public Charity Foundation

Our foundation announced its 2024 student contest on the Jewish heritage of Győr and its surroundings under the title “Their fate – our history.” We already reported on the results last year.

Below, images of the submitted works are presented in alphabetical order by school. The jury did not evaluate these works separately because they were part of a complete contest material, which included a comprehensive essay on a broader topic and a more narrowly focused study, as well as a PowerPoint presentation.

These creative works, created with heart and artistic ambition, definitely deserve our attention.

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Kálmán Baksa Bilingual Secondary School, Győr (Enikő Zsófi Antal, Zita Horváth, Blanka Luca Mecséri, with the support of Dr. Attila Szilárd Tar, history teacher)

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Gergely Czuczor Benedictine High School, Győr ( Lili Flinger, Anna Hordós, Dorottya Kispál, with the support of Tamás Cséfalvay, history teacher)

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János Hunyadi Technical College, Csorna (Judit Orsolya Kozalk, Luca Orosz, Regina Sinkai, with the support of Balázs Szalay, history teacher)

Jewish memorial sites in Csorna, video, film clips, János Hunyadi Technical College, 2024

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Ferenc Kazinczy High School, Győr (Harai Zsombor, Takács Áron, Boldizsár Hanna, with the support of Pintér Ildikó, history teacher)

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Sándor Lukács Vehicle Industry and Mechanical Engineering Technical College, Győr (Marcell Felsővári, Botond Gábor, Bence Kassai-Schmuck, with the support of Veronika Vincze, history teacher)

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Pannonhalma Benedictine High School, Pannonhalma (Levente Deák, Máté Dániel Drozdik, Barnabás Tibor Sepsi, with the support of Tamás Németh, history teacher)

Holocaust memorial design, digital design concept, fragments, Pannonhalma Benedictine High School, 2024

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Pannonhalma Benedictine High School, Pannonhalma (Ambrus Bertalan Barcza, Attila Schrődl Farkas, Vilmos Vida, with the support of Judit Csertán, history teacher)

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Pannonhalma Benedictine High School, Pannonhalma (Benedek Gutowski, László Gellért, György Róka-Madarász, with the support of Judit Csertán, history teacher)

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Ábrahám Géza Pattantyús Technical College, Győr (Levente Bekő, Bálint Burkus, Levente Csikász, with the support of Melinda Kazóné Kardos, history teacher)

The history of the Synagogue in Győr, video, film fragments, Ábrahám Géza Pattantyús Technikum, 2024

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Miklós Révai High School, Győr (Emma Csizmazia, Sára Herczeg, Leona Kovács, with the support of Artúr Ladich, history teacher)

Ghetto for mixed couples and exempted people at the Miklós Révai High School, video, film fragments, Miklós Révai High School, 2024

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Miklós Révai High School, Győr (Helka Belecz, Jana Jázmin Csuppely, Flóra Hegyi, with the support of Artúr Ladich, history teacher)

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Compiled by Peter Krausz

An important topic for local and family history, architectural and fine arts research

Talk with Vilmos Tóth, historian at the Rómer Flóris Art and History Museum in Győr and researcher of Győr’s cemeteries

Prepared by Péter Krausz

I read your article on the „Cemeteries of Győrsziget” with great interest [1], as well as your book entitled „Credo vitam aeternam”, subtitled ‘A record of Győr’s burial sites’ [2]. In this extremely thorough and informative database, which spans religions and cemetery fences, I was amazed and saddened to discover entries relating to the graves of people from my childhood and youth in Győr, including classmates, teachers, artists and public figures I had known.

PK: Why is it necessary to study cemeteries at an academic level? What motivates historians and museologists to research cemeteries, and how does this specific ‘field’ fit into other areas of the study of history?

VT: Exploring cemeteries is an important task of local history research everywhere. This is primarily due to the source value of gravestone inscriptions and the biographical and other information that can be found on gravestones. Another important aspect is the inventory of the historical and artistic value of cemeteries. Furthermore, cemeteries are an extremely important source for family history research. This has been confirmed in my previous books, including the one that was the first of historical studies to present the Jewish cemetery on Salgótarjáni Street (in Budapest – ed.), the former cemetery of the Pest Jewish community.

PK: What are the most important sources of information for cemetery research? How accessible are they?

VT: The most important sources are the gravestones themselves. It is always worth starting a complete survey of a cemetery by walking around the area and examining each grave. The most important written sources are cemetery records. These are not usually kept in archives, but are stored at the cemetery itself. Their accessibility varies accordingly and depends on the permission of the cemetery’s operator. It is generally the case that, for data protection reasons, it is becoming increasingly difficult to access these records. At the same time, more and more cemeteries have online grave search engines. Other important sources include death records and obituaries.

PK: Your book covers church burial sites and the 18 cemeteries in Győr. One of these is the Jewish cemetery on Győr-Sziget, which you describe in great detail. What similarities and differences do you see between Christian and Jewish cemeteries in terms of layout, the style of the gravestones, their decoration and inscriptions?

VT: The unique Jewish burial culture is primarily represented by Orthodox gravestones, which have been the subject of considerable academic research. I find Neologue burial customs more interesting, where Jewish families have adopted many tombstone patterns from Christian cemeteries and combined them in extremely interesting ways with Jewish burial traditions. For example, distinct Jewish symbols have been preserved, but alongside them, general symbols have also appeared that can be found in any other cemetery. One of the most characteristic groups of urban mausolea are those of Jewish bourgeois families, a form of burial that was also incorporated from Christianity, and more distantly from antiquity. Figurative representations also appear on Neologue tombstones, although significantly more subtle than in Christian cemeteries.

PK: How would you evaluate the importance of the Jewish cemetery in Győr-Sziget from the perspective of local history research and through the lens of the study of history?

VT: From a local history perspective, the Jewish cemetery in Sziget is the second most significant cemetery in Győr today, after the cemetery in Nádorváros. From a historical monument perspective, it is the most significant, as it is the only surviving 19th-century cemetery in Győr. Our knowledge of the Jewish community in Győr is still quite limited, and the gravestone inscriptions are a huge help in filling in the gaps.

PK: Let me ask you about some special gravestones. In many cemeteries in Győr, including the Jewish cemetery, groups of graves and memorials have been erected in memory of those who were deported and murdered en masse, soldiers who fell in battle, and forced labourers. What are the main characteristics of such memorials?

VT: World War I gravestones are much more representative and spectacular than the later ones, with extensive inscriptions that in many cases can be considered mini-biographies. Memorials to World War II are, for understandable reasons, completely different. Next to the modest gravestones of forced labourers are the names of those who were deported and killed, symbolically carved on family graves, and most importantly, the martyr memorial, which in a dignified manner preserves the memory of those who were deported and killed from Győr.

KP: Is it true that the poet Miklós Radnóti [3] was first laid to rest in the Jewish cemetery in Győr?

VT: The Radnóti question has become something of a hornet’s nest, similar to the Petőfi [4] question, which I would rather avoid. According to the traditional narrative, Radnóti’s first grave was in the mass grave in Abda, and that is where the “Bori notebook” [5] was found. After that, for a short time, a few weeks, the exhumed bodies were indeed placed in the Jewish cemetery in Győ-Sziget, and the remains attributed to Radnóti, but no longer identifiable, were taken from there to the cemetery in Kerepesi Road in Budapest. Nowadays, more and more people are questioning all this, and I don’t want to get involved.

PK: Among the unique tombs in Győr is the grave of Bishop Vilmos Apor, who died a martyr’s death, in the Győr cathedral church. During the Holocaust, this Catholic prelate, who stood up also for persecuted Jews both verbally and in writing and helped many of them physically by hiding them, was buried here in 1945?

VT: No, because the Cathedral suffered war damage and its physical state did not allow it. Vilmos Apor was originally buried temporarily in the Carmelite church in Győr. His tomb was completed in 1948, but the planned reburial was banned by the authorities. Thus, the Bishop’s remains were only transferred to the Cathedral in 1986, and even then, almost in secret, to the beautiful tomb that had been erected for him.

PK: In the database I couldn’t find the grave of my grandfather shared with his two sons, my father and uncle, in the Jewish cemetery in Győr-Sziget. My grandfather was a metalworker at the Győr wagon factory, but true neither his occupation nor that of his sons was engraved on their tombstones. What were the criteria for selecting the gravestones shown, and did your research extend to the graves of “ordinary” people?

VT: First and foremost, the list includes well-known individuals and interesting tombs, followed by representatives of occupational groups that traditionally make up the political and intellectual elite. In addition, I made a special effort to include the merchant class, which played an extremely important role in the life of the city, as well as important and small-scale craftsmen in my book, which contains a total of approximately 3,000 names in its data section. This is obviously only a selection, as is the case with all similar compilations.

PK: Do you see any possibility of undertaking a survey of the graves in the Orthodox Jewish cemetery in Győr-Révfalu? If so, what are the preliminary conditions for making such research possible?

VT: The most important condition would be the involvement of an expert who can read and interpret Hebrew inscriptions. This also applies to the Jewish cemetery in Győr-Sziget, where there are also a large number of graves with inscriptions only in Hebrew.

PK: How does the use of computers and even artificial intelligence applications help cemetery research today, and how can it help in the future?

VT: Computers are, of course, a colossal help in organizing and recording the data collected and in preparing manuscripts and volumes. Artificial intelligence, however, has not played any role in my research, nor do I plan to use it in the future.

PK: In which bookshops can your book be purchased?

TV: In Győr, at the Lokálpatrióta Belvárosi Könyves Polc bookshop, which is located on Baross út, in the library building. Another option is to purchase it directly from the publisher, at the Diocesan Archives building on Káptalan-domb.

PK: Thank you for the interview.

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Edited and English translation by Peter Krausz

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[1] ARRABONA 53–56. 2015–2018. Regional Scientific Yearbook

[2] Publications of the Győr Diocesan Archives; Sources, compilations 29. 2021

[3] Miklós Radnóti, one the most outstanding Hungarian poets in the 20th century, killed in forced labor camp (ed.)

[4] Sándor Petőfi, one the most outstanding Hungarian poets in the 19th century; circumstances of his death and burial site have long been subject of hectic debates (ed.)

[5] Radnóti’s last poems hand-written in a notebook found on his dead body named after the labour camp’s site in Serbia (ed.)

Address by Bence Pintér, Mayor of Győr, at the Holocaust memorial ceremony held at the Jewish cemetery in Győr on 22 June 2025

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today, I would like to talk about a topic that unfortunately recurs from time to time in history and takes on new forms: the phenomenon of fascism. Although we often talk about it in the past tense, the reality is that fascism is not a dusty memory, but a living threat. It is an ideology that always finds a way to return – under new flags, with new slogans, but always with the same oppressive essence.

One of the main features of fascism is the selective treatment of human dignity. It is the conviction that some people have more rights to life, land and security, while the mere existence of others can be interpreted as a ‘menace’. When a system declares certain groups to be scapegoats while treating others as “natural rulers”, the seeds of fascism have already been sown.

Another characteristic is the institutionalisation of violence. Fascism does not merely oppress; it legalises, normalises and even morally justifies oppression. When it becomes commonplace in a society for people to be deprived of their homes, their freedom of movement, their right to water, electricity, education or medical care, then it is not simply injustice that is taking place, but authority opting for inhumanity.

The third distinguishing feature of fascism is the maintenance of a permanent enemy image. This system can only survive by instilling fear, by constantly directing people’s attention towards an ‘external’ or ‘internal’ enemy. Such systems need walls, fences and checkpoints – not only physically, but also in people’s minds. This is how the other becomes a stranger, the stranger becomes an enemy, and the enemy becomes a subhuman being whose suffering no longer matters.

And finally: fascism always relies on silence. It can only grow stronger if the world does not ask questions, does not pay attention, does not raise uncomfortable issues. If we accept the false promise of ‘restoring order’ at the expense of truth. If we do not dare to call things by their name just because it is inconvenient.

Friends, history does not repeat itself – but people are prone to making the same mistakes over and over again. That is why we must recognise and reject all forms of fascism in time – not only where it marches openly, but also where it builds walls in the name of ‘security’ and where human rights are suspended due to ‘exceptional circumstances’.

Freedom, equality and human dignity cannot be relativised. If even one person’s freedom is trampled underfoot, we are all threatened. Because where human dignity can be taken away, sooner or later everyone will follow suit.

Thank you for listening.

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Bence Pintér

Born in Győr in 1991. Studies at Révai Miklós High School, Győr, University of Szeged (BA) and Eötvös Lóránd University in Budapest (MA) (link)

Mayor of Győr since 2024.

Previously President of the Tiszta Szívvel a Városért Egyesület (With Heart for the City Association), journalist, father of three children. (link)

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Cypresses planted on 6 July 2024 by participants of the Jewish Roots in Győr World Reunion at the Jewish cemetery on Győr-Sziget in June 2025 – photo: pkr

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Invitation to the Holocaust memorial ceremony held on 22 June 2025 at the Jewish cemetery on Győr-Sziget – support for the maintenance of the cemetery: link

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Edited and translated into English by Péter Krausz

Address by Titusz Hardi

at the Holocaust memorial ceremony held at the Jewish cemetery in Győr on 22 June 2025

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is difficult for me to speak. But I feel it is my duty.

It is very difficult for me to speak because the loss is so great.

I love history, but right now it is so difficult to remember. To remember our loved ones, to remember the loss, to face our responsibility. Where should I begin to remember?

On 9 July 1944, Lieutenant Colonel Ferenczy sent the following report to the Minister of the Interior:

“Since the start of deportations:

From 14 May 1944 to the present day, a total of 434,351 persons of Jewish origin have left the country on 147 trains.”

And he continues with boundless cynicism:

„No reports of abuse, assault or misconduct by Hungarian law enforcement agencies during the collection and transport in the area mentioned above have been received.”

According to these accounts, Lieutenant Colonel Ferenczy did not consider it abuse to deprive people of all their possessions, beat them with swords, herd them into cattle cars and cram them in so tightly that many of them did not survive the journey yet on Hungarian soil. The dead were disposed of in Kassa, and there the transport was taken over by the German authorities.

The tragedy did not begin on 14 May 1944. By then, the Jews had already been confined to ghettos.

The tragedy did not begin with the ghettoisation. By then, our compatriots had already been marked and forced to wear yellow stars.

The tragedy did not begin with the wearing of yellow stars. By then, they had already been deprived of their jobs, their livelihoods, and their human dignity. They were robbed under the cover of state laws. The robbery became systematic. Wide segments of society were drawn into this plundering, turning large masses of the population into accomplices of the regime.

When I wanted to find out exactly which laws and regulations restricted the lives of Jews between 1938 and 1945, I was shocked to discover that the text of these shameful regulations alone would fill a medium-sized book.

The tragedy did not begin on 29 May 1938, when the First Law on Jews came into force. By then, the majority of public opinion had been convinced that there was a ‘Jewish question’. And if there was a Jewish question, then it had to be solved.

It is very difficult for me to continue, but I cannot avoid mentioning the responsibility of the churches, the historical churches, the Catholic Church.

In our country, the historical churches failed this test. Because they remained silent, because they fuelled murderous fires with their ambiguous or openly anti-Semitic speeches. I thought long and hard about whether to quote from church speeches from the 1920s and 1930s. They are so shameful, so disgraceful, that I am unwilling to repeat the words spoken by bishops, loudmouth parish priests, or ‘Hungarist’ individuals who claimed to be Christians and were not ashamed to write them down. There are volumes of anti-Semitic incitement in our libraries. These speeches and writings paved the way to the Holocaust, and when the opportunity arose, the tragedy occurred.

St. Benedict wrote about such people 1,500 years ago in the Regula:

‘It is better to remain silent about their miserable way of life than to speak of it.’

This era rejected the Nazarene, to whom it constantly referred. It rejected Jesus, who never abandoned his people, who, in his own words, did not come to abolish the Torah, but to fulfil it. We are familiar with the story of when a man of the law asked Jesus which was the greatest commandment in the law. He received the following answer:

וְאָ֣הַבְתָּ֔ אֵ֖ת יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ בְּכׇל־לְבָבְךָ֥ וּבְכׇל־נַפְשְׁךָ֖ וּבְכׇל־מְאֹדֶֽךָ׃

וְאָֽהַבְתָּ֥ לְרֵעֲךָ֖ כָּמ֑וֹךָ

“Love your neighbour as yourself.”

I am unable to comprehend how Hungary’s legislature, which claimed to be Christian, could have overlooked this sentence when, between 1938 and the end of 1943, it passed not just three or four laws against Jews, but a whole series of laws and decrees, which gradually excluded its citizens of Jewish origin from society, stigmatised them, made their lives impossible and robbed them. By the time the Nazi army marched into Hungary in March 1944, everything was ready for the ghettos to be set up within weeks and the deportations to begin. The murderous machinery was set up by the Hungarian authorities.

All this was watched silently by the Christian Hungarian society, or carried out eagerly, or awaited with complicity so that they could take their share of the loot. Few stood up against it, but some did. We must mention them for two reasons. On the one hand, because they show that things could have been different; on the other hand, because they encourage us: by following their example, future can be completely different.

Some individuals deserve to be named :

Andor Lázár, Minister of Justice of Hungary in 1938. He refused to sign the First Law on Jews. His conscience would not allow it, and he resigned.

Ferenc Kálló, dean and camp chaplain. He was a leading figure in the anti-fascist movement. He hid countless Jews in military hospitals, declaring them sick so they could be saved, and they were then able to leave with Christian papers. After Szálasi seized power, the dean, who was bedridden, was executed by the Arrow Cross on 29 October 1944.

Sára Salkaházy, Margit Slachta. The entire community of Sisters of Charity consistently stood up for the Jewish people from the very beginning. Sister Sára hid her Jewish brothers and sisters until one day she was shot along with them by the Arrow Cross into the Danube.

When we sprinkle ashes on our heads and acknowledge the guilty silence, and sometimes complicity, of our churches in the tragedy of the Shoah, I also say that we must look to the past for the great examples mentioned above: it was possible to act differently, to remain human even in the midst of the greatest inhumanity.

Jewish brothers and sisters,

I would like to tell you that a new generation has grown up. We see you differently in our hearts. We received the Torah, the Prophets, and the Scriptures from you. We received our Master, the Rabbi of Nazareth.

We look up to you with the respect and devotion that a younger person feels for an older sibling. Because they are smarter, wiser, more experienced. And above all, we would put our hands in the fire for them, because they are our only older sibling, bound to us by unbreakable ties of love. This is how we see you. We belong to one family. And from here I send you this message: if anyone ever tries to hurt you again, they will have to go through us first. Our role models are Angelo Rotta, Áron Márton, Gábor Sztehlo, Sára Salkaházy, Krizosztom Kelemen, Raoul Wallenberg, and I could go on and on.

Allow me to conclude with a prayer:

Eternal God,

Your ways are inscrutable. We often do not understand them.

Now we present to you our brothers and sisters who should be resting here, but whom we lost 81 years ago.

אָבִֽינוּ מַלְכֵּֽנוּ שׁ֝וֹמֵ֗ר יִשְׂרָאֵֽל

We confess that You are Israel’s guardian!

You who are the Lord of Life, remember the souls of your children who have passed into eternity!

May they be bound in the bonds of eternal life, together with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah, and the immortal spirits of the glorified pious, in the land of eternal salvation, AMEN.

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Titus Hardi

Titus Hardi OSB, Director General of the Saint Benedict Schools, is, as his title suggests, a Benedictine monk, priest and teacher. He is an extraordinary MAN and a wonderful personality. A Humanist.

He was born in Budapest in 1962 and spent years of his childhood with his parents in Algeria. He graduated from the University ELTE with a degree in Hungarian and French languages and literature. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1986. He is the recipient of numerous honours (e.g. Knight of the French Palm Academic Order, Ember Mária Award, Knight’s Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit). (link)

He has been on several charity missions to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where his brother, Richard Hardi, an ophthalmologist, became an eye doctor for millions of poor people at a clinic built with donations. (link)

Father Titusz provided indispensable assistance to our foundation, the Jewish Roots in Győr Public Charity Foundation, in its 2023-24 student contest ‘Their Fate, Our History’ organised on the 80th anniversary of the deportation of the Jews of Győr, in which three teams from the Pannonhalma Benedictine High School took part alongside teams from Győr and Csorna. (link) Their team has also entered our 2025 project on the theme of “Jewry, acceptance and exclusion ‘25”. (link)

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Cypresses planted on 6 July 2024 by participants of the Jewish Roots in Győr World Reunion at the Jewish cemetery in Győr-Sziget, June 2025 – photo: pkr

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Edited and translated into English by Péter Krausz

by Péter Krausz

Recently, my brother, Andrew, drew my attention to a large, ornate 1941 publication in his possession, entitled ‘The Golden Album of Hungarian Jews in Military Service’, which commemorates the First World War of 1914-18 and the Jewish soldiers who were called up for military service. [1] Browsing through the album, I am sharing a few excerpts in this short article, which I admit is not intended as a scholarly work. Where possible, I have highlighted details relevant to Győr. I supplement the book review with findings from a recent study on the same subject, which support the statements made in the publication more than 80 years ago.

The intention of the authors and editors of this ‘golden album’ in the 1940s was clear: to use the example of the First World War to show that the anti-Semitic accusations of Jewish disloyalty, which were growing at the time and later culminated in tragedy, were completely unfounded.

The First World War broke out 111 years ago. The album warns that ‘the list of losses in the world war in statistical terms remains an unsolved problem to this day’. [2]  With this reservation, it states that 4.5% of the Hungarian Empire’s army of 3.5 million soldiers, a total of 160,519, were of Jewish origin. [3] (In 1910, the Jewish population of the entire Kingdom of Hungary was 932,458. The population of the Kingdom of Hungary, including Croatia, was 20,836,681 at that time. The Jewish diaspora thus represented 4.47% of society. [4] The number and percentage of Jews in the counties of Győr, Moson and Pozsony was 7,930, or 4.1%. [5])

Distribution of Jewish conscripts in 1918:

Service	Number
on the front	134 640
sick and in military hospital	25 879
Total	160 519

The proportions are similar on the victims’ side. The total number of heroic dead of the Hungarian Empire was 660,821 (prisoners of war: 734,316, wounded: 743,359), of which 29,936 were Jewish heroic dead (prisoners of war: 33,043, wounded: 33,448). [6]

Compared to the total male population, the proportion of Jews killed, wounded and disabled is relatively lower than that of other religious affiliations. At the same time, within the working male population (the examination of which the editor of the book, Márton Hegedüs [7], considers to be of paramount importance), the number of Jewish victims in certain occupational groups shows higher rates of death, injury and disability in relation to the Jewish population than in other confessions. [8]

Győr municipal register of frontline soldiers of the Jewish faith – source: The Golden Album of Hungarian Jews in the War, Budapest, 1941, pp. 248–249

The number of heroic dead in Győr is 85. [9]

Győr municipal register of Jewish war dead and disabled veterans – source: Golden Album of Hungarian Jews in the War, Budapest, 1941, pp. 250–251

The Hungarian officers of Jewish descent who served in World War I are definitely worth mentioning. I am not aware of any high-ranking officers with roots in Győr. Here are some of the highest-ranking individuals: [10]

Name	Rank	Other sources
br. Simon Hazai	Lieutenant General ret, former Minister of Defence	link
Gyula Bauer of Krupiec	ret. General	link
Adolf Kornhaber of Pilis	Field Marshal
Chevalier Schlesinger	Major General	link
Manó Inselt of Görle	ret. General
Henrik Léderer of Borcsewszka	Lieutenant General in ret.	link
Chevalier Károly Schwartz	Major General
Simon Vogl nobleman	Major General
Márton Zöld of Sióagárd	General	link

Sociologist Péter Róbert [11]addresses the same issue in his work entitled Equal Rights to a Heroic Death – Hungarian Jews in the First World War,[12] published on the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the war. I quote his thoughts below.

He writes that during the 1848-49 war of independence, Kossuth spoke highly of his 20,000 Jewish soldiers.

According to Róbert, 455,000 Jews from the countries of the Central Powers enlisted as soldiers during the World War, of whom 54,000 died heroically. Of the 320,000 Jewish soldiers from Austria-Hungary, one in eight fell (i.e. approx. 40,000). These figures are naturally higher than those published in the ‘golden album’ because they refer to the Monarchy and not just Hungary. In Germany, 12,000 out of 100,000 Jews remained on the battlefield, and their names were removed from memorial plaques barely 20 years later. Most Jews enlisted in the Russian army, 650,000 of them, but they could not become officers, and here the ratio of casualties was the highest, 100,000 people. The reason for this was the practice that Jews could only serve in the most dangerous posts.

The number of Jewish reserve officers rose steadily, writes Péter Róbert, while they were assigned more and more tasks. One in six of them was of the Jewish faith (and even more were of Jewish descent).

Róbert’s research also confirms that a significant number of Jews attained high military ranks in the Austro-Hungarian army. He corroborates the compilation of the ‘Golden Album’ of high-ranking officers of Jewish origin. He mentions the following military leaders by name: chevalier Schlesinger, artillery engineer, general, head of department at the Ministry of War; Adolf Kornháber, field marshal from Pilis (baptised as a major); Ede Schweitzer, lieutenant general; Simon Vogl, major general (former Jewish theology student). The following achieved the rank of colonel: Gyula Bauer, commander of the 44th Infantry Regiment (the famous ‘rosebbakák’ of Somogy [13]), Alajos Eisenstädter, lieutenant colonel, Ármin Fischer, and János Mestitz. Márton Zöld of Sióagárd was commander of the 308th Honvéd Infantry Regiment, later becoming a general, retaining his rank in Horthy’s army and attending the synagogue on Nagyfuvaros Street in uniform. Lieutenant colonels: Jenő Balla, commander of the 3rd Honvéd Infantry Regiment in Debrecen, Weichert, chief engineer of the navy. The following became majors (retired as lieutenant colonels): Izidor Deutsch, Emánuel Krausz (killed in action), and Gusztáv Singer. We should also mention Baron Samu Hazai, born Sámuel Kohn (1851-1942), a colonel general who was baptised as a cadet and went on to have a distinguished career in the Hungarian army, serving as Minister of Defence from 1910 to 1917. As chief of the army’s logistics, he was second in command of the Monarchy after the chief of the general staff in 1917-18.

Despite the facts, the Jewish community was heavily criticised during the war. This criticism was based on the exaggeration and distortion of certain facts. It is true that a relatively large number of Jews were assigned to military supply, the artillery, clerical work, etc., but this was due to their usefulness and education. Of course, the economic knowledge of Jews was put to good use in the war. Jews ‘did not play as prominent a role in the operation of any war economy as they did in Hungary,’ writes Péter Bihari (Lövészárkok a hátországban [Trenches in the Home Front, Budapest, 2008]).

On 11 November 1914, the first call for war loans was issued. A significant amount was subscribed by financial institutions and insurance companies in the capital, which were known to be in Jewish hands.

Unfortunately, there were those who abused the situation (e.g. delivery of the so called “paper boots”), but this was not limited to Jewish entrepreneurs.

The temporary advance of the Tsarist Russian army caused masses of Jews to flee. Their appearance, although their modest provisions were generally provided by the Jewish communities, increased the already growing anti-Semitism. Dezső Kosztolányi wrote a beautiful article in Egyenlőség (Equality, a periodical), reminding readers of the basic principles of humanity, but to no avail. People considered the number of fallen Jews to be too low and the profits of the military suppliers too high – although the latter were not all Jews!

The hatred that flared up at the end of 1918, when the collapse and revolution brought about the end of order and public security, manifested itself in pogroms. Jews were looted and assaulted, mainly in ethnic regions. The need for a self-defence organisation arose. Volunteer armed units were formed from Jews who had served at the front, mostly reserve officers, and were also called Zionist guards. They went out to the villages where atrocities had been reported and restored order. Their disciplined, military-style arrival was usually enough to disperse the mobs.

Later, when individual settlements erected memorial columns in memory of their fallen heroes, there were villages where the names of the Jews who had died were not to be included.

To counteract anti-Jewish propaganda, the Jewish press devoted considerable space to keeping track of the number of war victims. A prominent, albeit rather late example of this is the “Golden Album” presented in the first half of this article.

Unfortunately, the self-sacrifice shown in the “Great War” did not save anyone from the terrible persecution of 1944! We recall the fate of Manó Adler from Győr, who fought throughout the First World War, attained the rank of lieutenant, received a silver medal for bravery and the Charles Cross. In 1942, he was summoned to the military command in Győr, where he was “ceremoniously” stripped of these honours. [14]

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Footnotes and sources

[1] The Golden Album of Hungarian Jews in Military Service, In Memory of the World War of 1914-18; Edited by Márton Hegedüs, in cooperation with the Editorial Board of The Golden Album of Hungarian Jews in Military Service; 1941, Budapest, Publisher: Dr. József Fodor, Hungaria Nyomda R.T. Budapest

[2] The Golden Album … p129

[3] The Golden Album … p 137-139

[4] Jews in Hungary, Wikipedia

[5] The Golden Album … p 154

[6] The Golden Album … p 137-139

[7] Presumably: Márton Hegedüs (1982-1952), journalist, economic and statistical affairs

[8] The Golden Album … p 141-150

[9] The Golden Album … p 154

[10] The Golden Album … p 25

[11] Péter Róbert, sociologist

[12] Equal right to a heroic death – Hungarian Jews in the First World War, Bookline and Remény

[13] The Great War in Words and Pictures

[14] The history of my family, the Adlers until 1945, by György Adler, April 2025 – link

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I would like to thank my brother, Andrew, for preserving and passing on The Golden Album of Hungarian Jews in Military Service for this publication.

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English translation by Peter Krausz

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.

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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

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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

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Edited and translated into English by Peter Krausz

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Written by Petra Borbély, student at the Richter János Music Highschool in Győr

Based on an interview with Gabriella Polgár

Jackals are scavenging and omnivorous mammals belonging to the dog family, which, like hyenas, search for prey by emitting sharp cries. This definition may be familiar when reinterpreted in a historical context, with a large pack of golden jackals chasing an even larger herd of gazelles.

Many Hungarian gazelles emigrated early with the help of Zionist rabbis, one of whom was Emil Róth from Győr. Gabriella was also born in Palestine, where they were safe from the gathering jackal army for a while, and there, far beyond the Hungarian border, they hardly sensed the impending doom.  After a few years, they had a good life, a nice house and stable jobs, but their existence in the hot country of the East was surrounded by constant tension. Her mother heard the jackals howling at night and was terrified. She had no idea that one day she would find herself face to face with these terrifying predators in human form. Her fear grew, so she took her only daughter and ‘fled’ to Hungary, where this howling menace was not native. At that time, anti-Semitism was still only a faint murmur, like the hum of a refrigerator at night, and it passed unnoticed by the otherwise alert ears of the gazelles. The father had no choice but to also flee and seek refuge in the ‘safety’ of his motherland.

They ended up in Győr because his father got a job in this city, which had once been partly built by Jewish hands. The neologue group of gazelles attended prayers at the Synagogue in Győr-Újváros, at that time still in large numbers. Gabriella was unable to attend university because the jackals had infiltrated public life: ‘Jews are not allowed to pursue higher education.’ Shortly afterwards, the gazelles were rounded up and taken to Győr-Sziget, where they were forced to live in dilapidated apartments. They had no food or security, and the jackals came out at night. After the curfew, everyone on the streets was devoured.

The starving people were transported to Auschwitz in cattle cars, unworthy of humans, let alone gazelles. Upon their arrival in Auschwitz, the jackals made the prisoners play Ravel’s Bolero to ‘calm’ the new arrivals.  It is a resounding music, pure but at the same time clashing, which frightens gazelles with its unusual dissonance. Here, life was a constant struggle, full of bare brutality with just a glimmer of hope. Inhuman, gazelle-less.

Where you’ve fallen, you will stay. 
In the whole universe this one 
and only place is the sole place 
which you have made your very own. 

The country runs away from you. 
House, mill, poplar – every thing 
is struggling with you here, as if 
in nothingness mutating. 

But now it’s you who won’t give up. 
Did we fleece you? You’ve grown rich. 
Did we blind you? You watch us still. 
You bear witness without speech.

This is how Pilinszky writes in his poem ‘On the Wall of a KZ Lager’ x). The females, who in Jewish-Arab culture are metaphors for beauty, crouched on the latrine, their hair shorn, while the males toiled with broken horns, obeying the howling pack of jackals.

Gabriella was transferred to another camp, where she awaited liberation with many of her fellow prisoners. In 1945, the ragged gazelles were finally freed. Then came more than three years of silence, patience and freedom. The surviving gazelle families reunited in Budapest, Győr and all over the world.

A pack of jackals can never catch up with a herd of gazelles; when they tire, they give up their tasty prey. The gazelles are still with us today, but will the jackals ever fall silent?

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x) English version by Clive Wilmer and George Gömöri

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See also

• The Return

• Interview with Gabriella Polgár

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Edited and English translation by Peter Krausz

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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 Deák, Máté Drozdik and Barnabás Tibor Sepsi

Pannonhalma Benedictine High School

Supporting teacher: Tamás Németh, history

Press publications that appeared in Győr in the ten years encompassing also World War II show that certain accusations, topics, statements, and conspiracy theories directed against Jews changed from time to time, but never disappeared completely, only giving way to other accusations and different manifestations of hatred. The main aim of this thesis is to examine these trends and the people as well as events behind them. We have divided the period into three distinct phases: the first from 1919 to 1935, the second from 1935 to March 5, 1938, and the third from 1938 to 1945.

First phase (1919–1935)

István Domán’s work, “The History of the Jewish Community in Győr”, considers the 1934 publication “Üzen a Hargita” (“Hargita’s message” – Hargita: a county in Transylvania – ed.) to be the first anti-Semitic press product. 1/

In contrast, our research found mention of a series of leaflets entitled “Mire várunk még?” (What are we waiting for?), which was linked to Jenő Pohárnok, later editor of the Győri Nemzeti Hírlap, and was already in circulation in 1919. In the same issue in which Pohárnok’s article “The Jews are gone, but the poisoning of souls continues” appeared, another article, written by István Porond, listing the property owned by Jews who had been deported, noted: “We saw books thrown at each other by Ferenc Molnár, Ernő Szép, Szomaházi (István Szomaházy, 1864-1927 – ed.), countless pornographic works, as well as Jewish weekly newspapers and Hebrew books; among the illustrated magazines piled up on one of the carts, we spotted a few copies of our editor-in-chief Jenő Pohárnok’s anti-Semitic newspaper from 1920 entitled ‘What are we waiting for?” 2/ However, we found a photo 3/ where ‘What are we waiting for? appears as a leaflet already back in December 1919, which leads us to believe that this press product may have been a relatively long-running series of leaflets.

As for the other newspapers, in line with Domán’s statement, we did not find any press publications relevant to the subject prior to “Üzen a Hargita”. In any case, the influence of these early press products was negligible, 4/ and we are not aware of any significant impact they may have had before 1935.

The press sympathetic to the Jews (or at least not anti-Semitic) was only able to effectively oppose the above-mentioned newspapers and pamphlets only in the first two phases. After the Arrow Cross takeover, this practically ceased. Among these papers there were genuinely pro-Semitic papers (typically maintained by Jews) and newspapers that tried to avoid the subject.

Second phase (1935–1938)

From 1935 onwards, the situation outlined above changed: anti-Semitism became “fashionable”.

Anti-Semitic articles often referred to one of the basic tenets of anti-Semitic ideology: the disproportionate economic influence of Jews. The Győri Nemzeti Hírlap (GyNH, daily in Győr – ed.), founded in 1936, revived this cliché in its very first issue and promised to “pay special attention to the problems of small merchants and craftsmen.” 5/ This was followed by a series of articles against Jewish shopkeepers: in less than a year, between 1937 and 1938, the GyNH published at least eight articles against Jews running shops where Christians did their shopping. Journalists found fault in everything: some pointed out that although the posters advertising any commercial action could only be put up only on Monday mornings, a Jewish-owned shop had already displayed one on Sunday evening. This campaign laid the foundations for the rise of the anti-Semitic press in Győr.

Despite (or perhaps because of) the GyNH’s anti-Semitic outbursts, it became the most widely read daily newspaper in Győr. There are numerous signs that anti-Semitism appearing in the press soon escalated into hysteria, such as a letter to the editor (allegedly written by children) proves in the GyNH Forum column on July 23, 1937: “We have time during vacation. Walking down the street, we are making a list of acquaintances who do their shopping in Jewish stores.”

This period came to an end with the announcement of the Győr Program, which paved the way for widely-spread anti-Semitism in politics. In his speech in Győr on March 5, 1938, Prime Minister Kálmán Darányi announced that, in addition to a 600 million Pengő military spending, he would “solve the Jewish question.” Darányi saw the solution in a so-called “change of guard,” which essentially meant pushing Jews to sidelines of the economy. Although Darányi was not a radical anti-Semite, the fact that he spoke about the “Jewish question” as head of government gave free rein to anti-Semitism in politics.

Third phase (1938–1945)

Darányi’s program in Győr marked the beginning of a new era in the escalation of anti-Semitism throughout the country, including Győr. Although most articles up to this point had attacked Jews as “usurers,” now the Hungarian identity and even the humanity of Jews began to be questioned.

Of course, this only intensified the propaganda campaign, which did not spare Christians shopping in Jewish stores: in April 1939, the Turul Association (an extreme right movement – ed.) in Győr announced a photo contest. The winner was the “patriot” who took the best photo on a predetermined theme (i.e. Christians shopping in Jewish shops – ed.). An important criterion in the judging was the recognizability of the subject’s face. 6/

The tone became increasingly harsh. By early 1945, short news items appeared, such as “Jews at the head of the Romanian police,” 7/ which claimed that the Soviets were torturing Romanians with the help of Jews, as well as longer, half-page articles such as “Jewish letter about Jews.” This article published a (possibly fictitious) letter from a Jew addressed to converted Jews. According to the author of the letter, Jews who had converted under political pressure could be described as follows: “Judaism has not lost much and Christianity has not gained much with them.” It goes on to note that things would not have developed this far if Jews had “paid more attention to social problems.” The “writer of the letter” then remarks that there are many factories “where workers still work for starvation wages, while others pocket huge profits.” The letter is signed: “A Hungarian Jew.” In addition to this letter, the author of the article points out that a Jew cannot be a Hungarian, as he is unable to resist profit.

Pohárnok (Jenő Pohárnok, 1898-1962; Arrow Cross journalist – ed.) took over the GyNH in 1940, and its inflammatory activities remained as intense as ever. In 1944, one month after the deportation of the Jews, Pohárnok wrote an article entitled “The Jews are gone, but the poisoning of souls continues.” 8/

Pohárnok’s article begins by describing how the Jews are ” moving into ghettos of real work” “the place of their well-deserved punishment,” where they will experience the eternal fate of “millions of Hungarians.” Despite this fair punishment, three Christian men sighed and shouted farewell to the Jews with cries of “Goodbye!” in the streets, so the officers drove these men into the ranks of the Jews, a move, that immediately dampened sympathy for the Jews. Pohárnok then draws attention to the fact that “liberals, Jew-lovers, half-Jews, and Jews without stars” like these men pose a threat to the Hungarian nation. In order to counter their influence, Pohárnok says that the Hungarians are now punishing the Jews for their past crimes, and that they are completely justified in doing so.

The entire article is actually a kind of self-justification. It is as if Pohárnok is trying to convince his own conscience, obsessively preoccupied with the fate of the Jews. Incidentally, the article was written a month after the deportation of the Jews, as it would otherwise make no sense to mention the event. It is possible that the “three Christian men” mentioned in the article are not real, but merely a figment of Pohárnok’s imagination.

Let us move on, however, and examine Pohárnok’s excuses. The first argument is essentially the dehumanization of Jews: there is no need to feel sorry for them, they are disgusting and filthy anyway. The second argument is presented at the end of the first column: they are only going to work, it won’t really be bad for them (at this point, most of Hungarian society was probably already aware of the extermination camps). After this, Pohárnok essentially attempts to dull his own conscience and that of his readers by offering various analogies to suggest that the Jews actually deserved what they got.

This brings us to one of the key points in Pohárnok’s thinking: how is this different from the hanging of communists? It is important to understand that Pohárnok and his contemporaries had lived through World War I, followed by the Red and White Terrors, and at the time of writing, there was another war going on. Pohárnok’s generation was therefore accustomed to violence (or at least to the proximity of violence), and settling matters through murder had been normal for twenty years, so why was it any different now? He then goes on to emphasize that “the Jews are guilty, they are getting what they deserve, and indeed, this is only fair.” “We did not kill a single Jew; we did not torture a single Jew.” With all this, Pohárnok already considered the Holocaust a thing of the past in 1944.

Many distinct elements played a role in creating this atmosphere, a number of which appeared even within a single article. The idea of “racial hygiene,” which was the rallying cry of anti-Semitism in Hitler’s Germany 9/, appeared rarely or only in the form of references in anti-Semitic newspapers in Győr (e.g., in the GyNH or Felső-dunántúli Hétfő, another paper in the region – ed.). A much more common method was to portray Jews as saboteurs, as “Galicianers” who stole from and lived off the “Hungarian worker,” who wanted him dead, who were immoral and who pulled the strings of the Western powers. The image of Jews presented by GyNH, Felső-dunántúli Hétfő, and their counterparts belonged to the “völkisch” (ethnic) variety of anti-Semitism, and it is a fact that there was not much of Hitler’s pseudo-scientific anti-Semitism in any of them. Jews appeared in these newspapers on a daily basis, often in just half a sentence, but major anti-Semitic articles were also published at irregular intervals. The end of this era is easy to determine: as soon as the Soviet occupation forces arrived, the GyNH and other similar newspapers were banned, and Pohárnok fled abroad as a war criminal.

Conclusion

The recurring motif in all three phases was envy of Jewish wealth. Pohárnok’s pamphlets were already “fighting” against Jewish businesses in 1920, and in 1944 articles about confiscated Jewish property appeared one after another, clearly aimed at stirring up envy. 10/ This furious envy served as the basis for the astonishing level of hatred that was further fuelled by other conspiracy theories.

Anti-Semitism that unfolded in the Győr-based print media was therefore fundamentally different from Nazi racial theory, as it was based on much simpler emotions and its main target audience was made up of less educated people with simpler mindset. Jenő Pohárnok’s article mentioned earlier is an excellent example of this.

All we can do against the narrative constructed by Pohárnok and the anti-Semitic press, which presents the Holocaust as insignificant or justified, is to not let the topic fade into oblivion, to not ignore it, and to exercise solidarity in our considerations behind any position we take.

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Literature used

Books, studies: Frank N. Schubert: The Past Is Not Past (see: here – ed.); Paul Johnson: A History of the Jews (see: here – ed.); István Domán: The History of the Jewish Community in Győr (see: here – ed.); István Nagy: Quiritatio – Scream. The Jewish Tragedy in Győr 1938-1945 (see: here – ed.)

Newspapers, websites: various issues of Győri Nemzeti Hírlap, Felső-dunántúli Hétfő, and Dunántúli Hírlap

Wikipedia: Jenő Pohárnok: born in 1898, he became a teacher after serving in the military. In 1927, he joined the Kisfaludy Literary Circle, founded by Vilma Popper (see: Vilma Popper, Győr’s forgotten writer; the Popper-Pohárnok “contradiction” is discussed in detail in F. N. Schubert’s book The past is not past – ed.). It is certain that he knew Popper and was aware of her Jewishness. Popper was deported in 1944, Pohárnok was declared a war criminal and fled to Bavaria. During his lifetime, he wrote numerous poems, youth novels and plays in Hungarian and German. He died in 1962.

Notes

1/ István Domán: The History of the Jewish Community in Győr 1930–1947, National Representation of Hungarian Jews, Budapest, 1979, p. 20

2/ István Porond: Mozgó műremekek a győri utcákon (Moving masterpieces on the streets of Győr), Győri Nemzeti Hírlap, July 23, 1944, p. 8.

3/ István Nagy: Quiritatio. Scream. The Jewish Tragedy in Győr, 1938–1945, Jewish Community of Győr, Győr, 2010, p. 66

4/ Domán: op. cit., p. 20

5/ A Nemzeti Hírlap útja (The Mission of Győri Nemzeti Hírlap), Győri Nemzeti Hírlap, 18 October 1936, p. 1

6/ “Unmasking the nominal Christians” (letter to the editor), Győri Nemzeti Hírlap, April 12, 1939, p. 4

7/ Jews at the head of the Romanian police, Győri Nemzeti Hírlap, January 6, 1945, 5.

8/ Pohárnok Jenő: The Jews are gone, but the poisoning of souls continues, Győri Nemzeti Hírlap, July 23, 1944, p. 5.

9/ Paul Johnson: A History of the Jews, Európa, Budapest, 2001, p. 565

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Edited and translated into English by Péter Krausz

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A book about Győr bus transportation history in preparation

The foundation of Győr’s bus transportation system dates back to 1926, when István Csillag established the Star garage, and later a bus company with a partner. Ágoston Winkler, an Associate Professor at the Department of Transportation at Széchenyi István University, researches the history of bus transportation in Győr over the last hundred years. We spoke to him about his forthcoming book on the subject.

Ágoston, what was your motivation for undertaking this research?

My interest in public transportation dates back to my childhood. Following my university graduation, I commenced my professional journey at Kisalföld Volán, where I remained employed for nearly seventeen years, including its succeeding entities. My responsibilities were timetable planning, network planning, and the development of passenger information systems. I teach these subjects to students majoring in transport engineering. As the years went by, I became more and more interested in the past: how did the bus transportation in Győr start, who founded it, what challenges did it face? At first, I just did a random search for old newspaper articles and read studies on the subject. As I delved deeper into the subject, I found myself increasingly drawn to it. I decided to conduct thorough research to identify unpublished aspects of this topic, and then publish the results in a book.

Which topics are you are excited about, that haven’t been covered yet?

About the individuals who have pioneered this process. In studies, they are usually mentioned only by their names. However, I am also interested in understanding their lives.I want to show the faces behind the stories. In addition, my research focuses on the route network: when and where the local buses ran in the Győr area.

How did you collect the data?

The most extensive and time-consuming part of the process was reviewing daily papers. The Arcanum database proved to be a valuable resource. Timetable books from the 1950s are available, but unfortunately, there are no older ones. Luckily, changes were usually announced in the newspapers. I also reviewed articles spanning from the 1800s to the 1950s, in the Győr library. Especially, from the 1920s onward, when bus transportation was introduced. I have also read earlier studies on the subject, but I focused mainly on primary sources in my search to eliminate possible inaccuracies. I created an extensive Excel spreadsheet with nearly three thousand rows to organize the information. Regarding the individuals, I consulted family tree research websites.

Have you managed to find descendants who could help you?

Locating them was a challenging endeavor! Most of them were very kind and helpful, providing me with biographical information and photos, for which I am extremely grateful. I was given an old timetable too.

How did public transportation start in Győr?

First, in the 1860s, the need to find a better way to reach the Kiskút resort area, without having to walk along the dusty road, came up. However, these were omnibuses, i.e. horse-drawn carriages, that ran occasionally during the summer months, primarily on behalf of local innkeepers. Subsequently, in 1905 and 1907, the city leased a boat to provide transportation to Kiskút. Several trolleybus and tram lines were planned, but they never materialized.

In the 1920s, modern bus transportation, which did not require overhead wires or tracks, began to expand. Discussions regarding the potential implementation of these continued until August 1926. Then, István Csillag and Elemér Békefy joined forces and established their business. In addition to the bus service, there was a gas station, a repair shop, and a rest area for motorists. They also offered driving courses. I have found newspaper articles containing short passionate stories written about bus rides. The introduction of zone tickets was met with such enthusiasm, that it inspired the writing of a lovely, little poem.

Had the already prevalent fierce anti-Semitism had an impact on the start?

Of the two partners, István Csillag was of Jewish descent. I have not found any evidence that this has caused any problems. During the initial years of operation, the company was very successful. The city expressed interest in participating, but the ministry did not approve the request, for reasons that are still not known. In 1931, the STAR Garage and the bus company were merged, and in 1932, the Győr General Transport Company was created, combining all the related activities of the owners.

In 1939, Csillag made a difficult decision: he chose to depart from the company he had founded, in order to avoid any potential complications that might arise from his personal background. He subsequently sold his share to an entrepreneur, called Béla Árpád Tárnok. Later on, there were several changes in ownership. The company name was maintained until after World War II, at which point the company was nationalized and integrated into a nationwide organization, comprising MÁVAUT, AKÖV, and ultimately Volán.

What happened to István Csillag and his family during the Shoah?

Unfortunately, most of them were sent to Auschwitz, with some being sent to other locations. Very few returned. All that is known about István Csillag himself is, that he was forced laborer in the construction squad in Birkenau and, according to his nephew János Csillag, a Holocaust survivor, he was last seen at the end of 1944. He was 54 or 55 years old. Despite having an opportunity to escape, he chose not to. After the passing of his wife, he began a relationship with a Christian woman who offered to hide him. But he thought that the Germans only needed cheap labor, he didn’t think that the deportation would be fatal. He voluntarily decided to go and help other family members who might find it hard to manage there, because he was in good shape. According to the information I got from his family, he was a physically strong man. He was active in sports.

Are there any commemorative references to István Csillag or the STAR Garage at Volán?

When there was the 50-year anniversary of the founding of Volán – which counts the history of the company from 1948 – a book was published that briefly outlines the beginnings. Additionally, the STAR Garage is referenced in the aforementioned studies. My aim is to inform more people in Győr about the history of transportation in the area, including the period before Volán and its development up to the present day.

As far as I know, there were also other transport entrepreneurs with Jewish roots in Győr.

László Inkei, the technical manager of the STAR Garage and Bus Service, was also Jewish. In recognition of his excellent work, he was given a share in the company. From then on, he held the position of managing director together with Csillag and Békefy. In 1941 he sold his share, and in 1942 he had to leave the company completely. For some reason he was not deported in 1944, but had to flee in the autumn of that year. He sought refuge with his family in the caves of the Vértes and Pilis mountains, and later near Lake Balaton. In 1945, he played a major role in helping restore the transport company, which had been almost completely destroyed in WWII, and revive the bus services.

Another story originates from the pre-bus era. Vilmos Schneider, an entrepreneur from Moson, operated an omnibus service between Moson and Magyaróvár – at that time two separate settlements – for almost 20 years with great success. He launched a similar service in Győr in 1895. Initially, it was a popular choice among the residents of Győr, likely due to its novel features. As months passed, the number of passengers using this service decreased, shrinking only to people who arrived at the train station with large luggage. For others, the distance of a kilometer or two was not worth paying. The service did not last a year.

What happened to him later?

He died of natural causes before the Holocaust, having lived to an advanced age. Many of his descendants were sent to Auschwitz. There is a book by Lucy Adlington titled ‘The Dressmakers of Auschwitz’. One of the protagonists is Márta Fuchs, who was the granddaughter of Vilmos Schneider. She worked in the sewing workshop there, because she was a trained seamstress. She was able to rescue numerous people who were under her supervision.

And what happened to Schneider’s company?

In 1925, Mosonmagyaróvár bus transportation was introduced, but he was not involved in it, as it was initiated by the city’s authority. Omnibus was outdated by then, and this part of the business eventually ceased to exist. He got more into freight transport, which did well. He remained active until his old age. It is not known what happened to the business later. It probably could not have continued much longer due to the historical events.

When will your book be released?

I am aiming to have it finalized by 2026 in celebration of Győr’s centenary of bus transportation. It will be self-published.

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Interview conducted and English translation by György Polgár

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Course in preparation at the Széchenyi István University in Győr

At the Széchenyi István University in Győr, a free-choice course on the theme of “Judaism  – Inclusion – Exclusion” will be offered in the fall semester of the 2025/2026 academic year for BA students majoring in elementary education, therapeutic pedagogy, social pedagogy, social work, and sociology with the support of the Jewish Roots in Győr Public Charity Foundation in the spirit of raising awareness to prevent anti-Semitism.

The invited guest lecturers, Dr Richárd Papp, associate professor (ELTE Faculty of Social Sciences), and Dr Anikó Sükösd, assistant professor (KRE Faculty of Economics, Health Sciences and Social Sciences), will explore and interpret the problems of anti-Semitism and other forms of exclusion in interactive lectures and workshops.

The guest lecturers and participating faculty members from the University of Győr will place special emphasis on local Holocaust remembrance, which the guest lecturers have been researching in Hungary and Eastern Europe for many years. During the semester, they will seek answers to questions such as: what is the significance of Holocaust remembrance in Hungary today among different generations and in different communities? What are the reasons behind the silence and concealment? What are the signs that are among us but whose meaning we do not understand?

According to Dr Péter Simonik, associate professor, acting head of department, coordinating the introduction of the course, “it is both significant and disturbing that 80 years after the Holocaust, we still need to talk about different forms of exclusion and the importance of combating anti-Semitism. We trust that the ideas presented during the semester will make the main message of the course clear to the participants, which can be summed up in the words of the late Chief Rabbi József Schweitzer: “It is impossible for us, who are all children of the Almighty, to seek what divides us; rather, we must strive for what unites us.”

The organizers will conclude the preparatory phase of the University Project on May 9, 2025, with an online lecture for prospective participants.

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Works with Jewish motifs – Photographs from the legacy of Bandi A. Schima

In November 2023, we published drawings made by Bandi A. Schima (1882 – 1959), a metalsmith from Győr, for the decorative objects commissioned by the Jewish Community of Győr in the 1930s. Until this time it was uncertain whether these works were ever completed.

Dr. Emese Pápai, art historian and chief museologist at the Rómer Flóris Museum of Art and History in Győr, and researcher of Bandi A. Schima, recently sent us photographs of two of the completed works of art she has now found in the artist’s bequest: a bushel (money-box) and an urn-shaped work (bushel?). They correspond, with slight variations, to the drawings indicated.

The bushel

The urn

The whereabouts of these objects are still unknown.

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Thanks to Dr Emese Pápai, art historian and chief museologist of the Rómer Flóris Museum of Art and History in Győr, for her persistent research work

Edited and translated into English by Péter Krausz

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Jewish life re-starting in Győr after the Holocaust

From Manó Adler’s legacy

A very interesting document about the creation of the Jewish Community Committee of Győr was sent to us by my friend Gyuri Adler, with whom we were friends as kids in Győr in the 1950-60s. The document he found in the archive left behind by his deceased father, Manó Adler, had been typed on a tissue-thin sheet of copy paper.

Earlier, he already sent us a fascinating document from the legacy of his father: a diploma-like letter of appreciation written by Bandi A. Schima, jeweller artist, to Manó Adler, architect, on 18 June 1947, reflecting on the newly inaugurated Shoa Memorial in the Jewish Cemetery of Győr. The son’s notes about his father’s life will soon be published on this site.

Measures to revitalise local Jewish life – optimism and determination

The document on setting up the Győr Jewish Community Committee is only a draft.

There is no information about the origin of the document, its exact date, the identity of the editors, the final document and the implementation of its provisions. However, it is still an intriguing document.

It is probable that in 1945, Jews, our parents, who had survived labour service and the concentration camps and returned to Győr put down on paper a series of organisational measures with the aim of helping to reestablish Jewish civil life locally.

It is quite possible that Manó Adler was one of the editors, since the document was found in his archives, and his active involvement in the life of the Jewish community in Győr after the war is known from contemporary community records. What optimism, vitality and determination is reflected in this document, since those returning from the gates of hell, faced with immeasurable losses, could have justifiably asked the question “Tell me, is there still a home there…?”, as their murdered companion, the poet, did. (Seventh Eclogue – Miklós Radnóti, July 1944).

Steps to set up the Committee

The original document (PDF) is available as follows:

Passages that seem important are highlighted here-below:

– The committee should be composed of ten members and not all of these seats should be filled, to allow for the possibility of later arrivals (from labour service, concentration camps)

– Who is a Jew? Anyone who claims to be one. Everyone who has been victim of earlier regulations on Jews is protected.

– Everyone should do community work in a paid job or for free!

Freethinking and democratic ideas.

The Action Plan for Győr

The draft contains a number of specific, practical measures, such as

• The Committee Board should pay a courtesy visit to the secretariats of the political parties, the Mayor, the chief and deputy Government Representatives, the Police Headquarters and the Russian Military Headquarters.
• These offices should be requested to support future social work of the Committee. Board Members should stress that the Jewish community wants to participate in the reconstruction of Győr and to rebuild its devastated homes.
• The Jewish Committee should be recognized as an official advocacy body. The Mayor, together with the Committee, should issue Hungarian and Russian language Identity Cards to formerly deported Jews to ensure their unrestricted travel. A Jewish Affairs Department should be established in the City Hall.
• A Property Search Committee should be set up in consultation with the City Property Search Department.
• The Russian military command should support the advocacy activities, issue documents and certificates for free travel; returnees should be allowed to use Russian military vehicles for their movements.
• The Committee’s sections were also defined with main tasks in brackets: presidential, legal (the abolition of measures of property expropriation that ostracised Jews, the appointment of trustees for the protection of the expropriated objects and the interests of Jews), technical (repairing damage done to Jewish properties during the war, establishing workshops and warehouses), commercial (the recovery of former Jewish businesses, the replacement of current managers of businesses taken from their original owners, the sale of stocks by the caretaker, the leasing of business premises (the deported person is not obliged to pay the rent for the period of deportation (!)), trusteeship (the search for, inventorying and securing of Jewish valuables), deportation (the assistance of returning and migrating deportees and forced labourers), ritual (the organisation of religious and cultural life)

It is contradictory that the chapter on sections does not refer to the “Committee” as such but the ill-fated “Jewish Council”, a denomination formerly used for bodies run by the Nazis to control Jews to be deported. This is a clear indication of the draft’s lack of elaboration.

Firm action needed

Lastly, the draft recommends that the Committee “take firm action against the official authorities, because we who stand here utterly robbed have a right to expect the fullest support of Christians. We have had the greatest loss of blood in the massacres of fascism … but by firm action we do not mean insolent conduct … it is not necessary to fill emerging vacancies only by Jews”.

So far, the document detailing efforts to establish a Jewish Community Committee in Győr in 1945.

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Epilogue from the editor – the drama of returnees in Hungary

Deported survivors were not usually welcomed with open arms. Neighbours, acquaintances, former business partners and the ostracising communities in general looked at them with suspicion, almost asking “by what right?”. There were exceptional, honest fellow human beings who honourably preserved and returned the property and memorabilia entrusted to them. An honest cabinet-maker from Győr gave my mother a set of furniture that my grandfather had ordered and made for his daughter’s marriage before the whole family was deported. But he was unable to return my mother’s first husband… and let’s remember the post-war pogroms (unbelievable, isn’t it?) in Hungary that turned deadly; see events in Kunmadaras as mentioned in one family story on our site.

Finally, an excerpt from an interview with historian Éva Standeisky on this highly charged subject.

“What was theirs” – Interview excerpts

Éva Standeisky, historian (b. 1948) on Silenced Past and Whitewashed Anti-Semitism, Magyar Narancs weekly, 27 June 2017

Magyar Narancs: So, in most of the places concerned, the return of some of the deported Jews was already traumatic?

Éva Standeisky: Of course, although I would add that in most places, the few Jews who survived the Holocaust did not return to their former homes. That is why we cannot have a complete picture of the arbitrarily dispersed, shattered property and Jewish possessions, because no trace of them remains. Only in those cases where they tried to reclaim what was theirs can we deduce the extent of the loss. From this point of view, we should not imagine the Hungary of the time as a well-functioning constitutional state. When the Jewish survivors returned home from deportation and labour service in the summer of 1945, they found an unformed, disorderly, hectically forming power structure. Nor could they expect support from the Soviet occupiers. They were only interested in one thing: an orderly administration in the smallest settlement, where the population would carry out the wishes of the Soviet commanders, meaning that it would provide the labour for their war targets and would feed the army.

Magyar Narancs: When Jewish Holocaust survivors return home, they meet those who actively participated in the deportations. How often have conflicts arisen out of accountability and denial of responsibility?

Éva Standeisky: It is a difficult question, because the local administration has been partially replaced in several waves in a short period of time. Some were brought before a vetting board, others were interned, sometimes with or without justification. The officials who were held accountable often claimed that they were only carrying out superior orders and that if they did not do so they would be dismissed. However, the locals were aware of those with right-wing or extreme right-wing leanings and others who behaved decently in difficult times. …

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Thanks to György Adler for preserving and making available his father’s papers

Edited, published and English translation by Péter Krausz

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Students and Adults from Csorna visit Auschwitz 2025

Jews settled in Csorna in the 18th century. Before World War II, nearly 800 Jewish citizens lived here integrated into the local society. A good example of this, a drop in the ocean, is the cultural mission of the Csorna Israelite Penny Society, the history of which was presented by students of the Hunyadi János Technical College in Csorna for the student contest organised by the Jewish Roots in Győr Public Benefit Foundation 2023-24.

Tragedy struck the local Jewish community in May 1944, when the Hungarian authorities forced its members into a ghetto. From there, they were deported to Auschwitz.

The students of the János Hunyadi Technical School in Csorna, led by Balázs Szalay, history teacher, made a pilgrimage to the former Auschwitz death camp for the 12th time on 16 February 2025, this time on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the camp. The first group of students from Csorna visited the camp in May 2015. A total of 423 people took part in the visits, including 288 students from the Hunyadi.

The most recent group included the former mayor of Csorna and Member of Parliament, József Papp, who published a report of the trip onthe site inforabakoz.hu on 20 February 2025. This is quoted in full:

József Papp: In the last few days we have seen the beautiful and the terrible

Balázs Szalay, history teacher at the János Hunyadi Technical School in Csorna, has been organizing the Krakow-Auschwitz trip for interested students for more than ten years with the help of his colleague Zsolt Vódli from Sopron. We have already reported about previous trips on the site “Inforábaköz” based on the students’ experiences. Depending on the possibilities of participation, the group is also open to adults and outsiders. That’s how I was included in this year’s travelling group.

Two tiring but unforgettable days.

On the first day in Krakow, we saw a real modern-day metropolis, proud of its history, its royal castle, its unrivalled main square, its centuries-old university, the former Archbishop of Krakow Karol Wojtyla, who became Pope John Paul II, and the memory of the former Jewish population of Galicia, who were almost completely exterminated in the Second World War. We have seen the iconic locations of Spielberg’s Schindler’s List. We Hungarians remembered Hedvig, daughter of King Louis the Great of Hungary, who became Queen of Poland under the name Jadviga and left her fortune on her death to re-found the Academy of Cracow, and István Báthory, Prince of Transylvania, who was King of Poland for 11 years from 1575. A Polish king who is still revered and respected by Poles to this day. We had the chance to stop in front of the memorial plaque to Bálint Balassi (Hungarian poet in the 16th century – ed.).

On the second day we visited Auschwitz. In the concentration camp, we were confronted with the fact that it is one thing to know about something, but quite another to be confronted with it in person. To see the cold barracks, the barbed wire, the miserable cells, the former execution sites, the shorn hair, shoes, clothes, personal belongings and photographs of the people who were killed, to walk through the gas chambers and the only remaining crematorium. To walk along the tracks, where many of the deportees never reached alive, having died in the wagons on the way, and most of those who did arrive were immediately sent to the gas chambers. Those who were selected for forced labour suffered inhuman conditions for several months before their deaths. To read on the sign that 1 million 1 hundred thousand people were killed here, 400 thousand of whom were Hungarians. The monumental structures and instruments of destruction and death.

On the way home, I asked my travelling companions to sum up their impressions in a few sentences and send them to me. Here please read some of them:

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”, wrote the Spanish-born American philosopher George Santayana. I’m trying to process yesterday… During the hike, I felt sick to my stomach, tears were falling, I wanted to run away, but I knew I had to face the past. Yesterday has left a deep mark and I believe that the power of remembering helps us to learn, to become more empathetic and to build a better future. Thank you all for being with us on this journey – the shared experiences and conversations helped us to process what we saw.”

“In recent days we have seen the beautiful and the terrible. A wonderful city that is growing and full of life. Another site that only recalls hopelessness, destruction and end. We were enriched by an experience and on the other side we saw what should NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN. Thank you for allowing me to participate and thank you to those who organised and did everything possible to make the trip a success.”

“Thanks to the excellent organisation of two great professors, we had a great time. The sights of the city were professionally guided, and every detail was taken care of. The films shown on the way there and back helped us to understand the history and importance of the place.

Before the memorial trip, I had already read the recollections of several survivors. From my readings, I had an idea of what to expect. But what I saw in Birkenau was beyond my imagination. The vast camp was divided by a “ramp” on which life and death were decided in a matter of moments. Alongside the existing barracks of the men’s and women’s camps, visitors are shocked by the chimney “forest” of demolished and already collapsed buildings. It shows the true scale of the camp, which, when seen, makes us imagine the hundreds of thousands of people who were forced to live and die innocently in inhumane conditions. It was a refreshing experience to get to know historic Krakow. We got a glimpse of the “bustling” city life in the evening. Thanks to the teachers for the organisation, the useful information and the uploaded material, which complemented and enriched the programme.”

Finally, one more thought. In the camp, the shocking facts and stories told by the guides repeatedly raised the question: how can humans do this? Were they even human?

I am sure of one thing. It is not that ‘by chance’ Germany was then home to a generation of inhumane, sadistic people, as never before or since. Germany, defeated in the First World War, was bleeding from a thousand wounds, with countless seemingly insoluble problems. And then along came an initially small but rapidly growing far-right political force that lied that it would solve the problems. It had no solution, but it did name ‘those responsible’ for making the German people suffer. At first it was the Jews, then everyone who was not Aryan. And as this force grew, it became more and more violent and cruel.

There is no dividing line that we can draw between democracy before and dictatorship now. At first you think it doesn’t affect you; it doesn’t bother you, but it spreads day-by-day, month-by-month, and one day it reaches everyone. Then, when the out-of-control power, with its hate propaganda, takes over everything, the leader gradually becomes a dictator, hope becomes terror, the sympathiser becomes a fanatic, the determined follower becomes a murderer. The increasingly cruel, brutal, evil-minded power will elevate, tolerate or crush. To submit is easy because it promises an easy (albeit false) solution, but to resist is extremely risky. But a choice must be made. Even if it is dangerous. Not everyone in Germany was a Nazi. There were resistants, rescuers of Jews, simple decent people. They had to choose. They resisted even in the death camp. You can’t blame everything on circumstances.

The poem we met on the trip is also about this issue, written by Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996.

Twenty-seven bones

Thirty-five muscles

Nearly two thousand nerve cells

They are in all five fingertips.

That’s more than enough

To type “Mein Kampf”

Or “Pooh Bear”.

Post Scriptum: Is any resemblance to the world today purely coincidental? That’s why everyone should visit Auschwitz at least once in their lifetime.

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Edition and English translation by Péter Krausz

Results of a survey among participants of the Jewish Roots in Győr World Reunion to mark the 80th anniversary, held in Győr, Hungary, from 4-7 July 2024

WHEN
The survey was conducted in the month of December 2024.
WHO
Our questionnaire was sent out by email to registered participants of the World Reunion. Forty-seven anonymous responses were received, which may reflect the views of about twice as many participants, as there are several participants behind one email address, sometimes entire families. The survey is therefore sufficiently representative to reflect the views of about half of the total number of those previously registered (170).
MAIN COCLUSIONS
The main findings are:
•	The overwhelming majority of respondents (95.7%) considered the World Reunion a worthy commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Holocaust and judged the preparation and the organisation of the events to have been of a high technical standard (91.5%).
•	Of the events that took place, the "Planting of memorial trees and Shoah commemoration in the cemetery" was the most appreciated (78.7%), followed by the "Memorial Conference" (72.3%), the "Opening of the Jewish Excellence Exhibition Győr and Concert" (68.1%), the "IWalk promenade in the Jewish Quarter Sziget" (46.8%) and the "Unveiling of a memorial plaque on Budai út" (42.6%).
•	Most of the participants (95.7%) made old and new friends among the participants, whom the majority (57.4%) are still in contact or plan to establish contact (23.4%) with.
•	Among the suggestions made by respondents aimed at strengthening the network of contacts established, the regular publication of the Foundation's Newsletter (83%) and the maintenance of its website (74.5%) were the most preferred options. Several individual suggestions were also made, e.g. organising similar meetings, sharing family stories, etc.
•	All respondents (100%) support the implementation of the Foundation's 2025 programme to combat exclusion, including anti-Semitism, in secondary schools in Győr and at Széchenyi István University. 
•	Finally, among other proposals, it is worth to mention the offer to organise a similar commemoration in Israel. Another initiative aims at identifying each gravestone in the cemetery, digitally processing the information and making all the material freely accessible.

THE DETAILS

1. Was the World Reunion in Győr, on 4-7 July 2024 an appropriate way to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Holocaust? (1=not appropriate; 5=appropriate)

2. Which event of the meeting did you find the most outstanding? Several events could be marked.

The exact denomination of the events mentioned in question 2: Reception by the Mayor of Győr; Watch the movie “1945”; Memorial Conference; Friday evening prayer; IWalk promenade in the Jewish Quarter Sziget; Inauguration of a memorial plaque in Budai út; Opening the Jewish Excellence Exhibition Győr and concert; Joint tree planting and Shoa Commemoration in the cemetery; Farewell lunch; Other

3. If you ticked the “Other” option in question 2, what specifically do you mean?

I loved all of it but also having the opportunity to meet and get to know others from around the world. ; Meeting so many people from around the world with common backgrounds and stories. ; Congregating with our bretheren. ; Meet people, get to know other people, have discussions.

4. How did you find the preparation and running of the Meeting? (1=bad; 5=excellent)

5. Did you manage to meet old and new friends and acquaintances at the Reunion? 

6. Do you keep in touch with the participants of the Reunion?

7. How to strengthen the network of the newly established Jewish community in Győr? One could tick more than one response.

8. If you ticked “Other” in question 7, what is your specific proposal?

Organising meetings. ; If possible, it would be wonderful to hold another gathering in 3-5 years. ; Children are the future. We must sponsor understanding and Győr Jewish history in schools. I would personally be happy to sponsor an annual prize for the best book review by students aged 13 of “The pebbles of memory” by Eva Klein. ; The meeting itself, meeting other people, making friends, talking. ; Facebook group. ; All participants will be asked to introduce themselves digitally. Describe your family history, share your experience of being in Győr and other related thoughts.

9. Do you agree with the Foundation’s 2025 educational project on “Jewry-inclusion-exclusion” to be implemented in Győr high schools and university, which aims to combat anti-Semitism? Check it out here! You can tick more than one response.

10. If you (also) suggest other activity for question 9, what is it?

I am happy to sponsor an annual prize for 13 year old kid.

11. Do you have any questions, suggestions or proposals addressed to the Jewish Roots in Győr Charitable Foundation? See our activities here: Website + Facebook 

We would like to discuss the possibilities of cooperating in the commemoration activities in Israel. I would be happy to coordinate a conference call on this topic. ; Once again, congratulations for the excellent organisation and execution. ; Thank you very much for the opportunity! May God bless your work. ; Get funding from George Soros. ; Achieve the identification of each gravestone in the cemetery, digitally file it and make it freely available.

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The survey was conducted using Google Forms by Péter Krausz

Speech by Mátyás Fekete, Győr Synagogue, 29 December 2024

A trenderli or dreidel is a four-sided spinning wheel played on the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.

The four letters of the Hebrew alphabet appear on the sides of the dreidel, which when read together in the correct order form the abbreviation“נ ס גדול היה שם” (Nes Gadol Haya Sham), meaning “A great miracle happened there”. נ (Nun), ג (Gimel), ה (Hei), ש (Shin),

The letters also correspond to the rules of the game of fortune played with the trenderli: נ (Nothing), ג (All), ה (Half), ש (Except)

Some Jewish Torah commentators attribute symbolic significance to the signs of the trenderli. For example, one of them links the four sides of the trenderli to the four historical exiles of the people of Israel: those caused by the Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and Romans.

The customs and observances associated with Hanukkah have been expanded in the past to include a number of other customs, one of which is playing with the trenderli. After lighting the Hanukkah candles, it is still customary in many homes to play trenderli: each player starts with 10 or 15 coins (real or chocolate) or peanuts, and one is put in the talon. The first player rolls the trenderli and then, depending on which side it falls on, either wins the talon or has to put in his part.

The trenderli is thus a characteristic feature of Jewish tradition and contemporary customs that, while evoking the history of Judaism, is also a fun game for children and adults.

This memory, game and symbol is also a way for a community to express its gratitude to all those who have tirelessly helped the Győr Jewish Community over the decades and continue to do so today. For the festive occasion, such as today, the Jewish Community had a special porcelain version of the trenderli made, which cannot be played with, but can serve as an everlasting reminder to its owner and his family that his work has not gone unrecognized.

Allow me to briefly introduce you to a man who has been known to many of you for a long time, a well-respected, now retired master photographer whose studio was known and visited by many in the city centre. Fewer people know that his activities were much more than photographing family events, taking ID photos and laboratory work for amateur shots, for he is the chronicler of Jewish history and of the Jewish Community of Győr, who has been documenting our festive events, compiling exhibition material and writing books for the past ten to twenty years. For example:

• In 2010 he published Quiritatio (Scream), edited with the help of Gábor István Benedek
• Ten years ago, in 2014, he took an active part in putting together an exhibition at the Menház. He made a lot of family tableaux using original photographs and documents of the contributors.
• In 2016 and 2017, he photographed all the gravestones of the Győrsziget Jewish Cemetery one by one. This material was used to complete the restoration of the gravestones.
• In 2024, the translation of the Hebrew-language gravestones into Hungarian began. This work will probably continue in the coming year.
• Two publications were produced to mark the eightieth anniversary of the Holocaust. One of them presents the work of painter Éva Quittner. The other publication contains the recollections of eight Holocaust survivors, which convey a moving insight into the events of the past for present and future generations.

And now the moment has come, I ask master photographer István Nagy to accept the token of thanks from the Jewish Community of Győr, the porcelain trenderli with his name on the box – and it is fully deserved. We wish him in his family and amongst us inexhaustible strength and continued good health!

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István Nagy is dedicated to helping the remaining Jews of Győr and thus contributing to the preservation of their memory and the survival of the community. He also helped to prepare the Jewish Roots in Győr World Reunion (Győr, 4-7 July 2024), organised by our Foundation on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the deportations. Among other things, he was in charge of the publication of the book “The Pictures Tell a Story – Jewish Past and Present captured by József Glück and István Nagy”, which was distributed to all participants of the World Reunion in July. Prior to that, in July 2023, we published a life interview with him, see this link. Some of the publications he edited were also supported by our Foundation.

Thank you, István.

Péter Krausz, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Győr Roots of Jews Public Benefit Foundation

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Cover image: link

(1860-1932)

Entry to the “Their destiny, our history” student contest initiated by the Jewish Roots in Győr Public Charity Foundation (2023-24), edited version

by Marcell Felsővári, Botond Gábor, Bence Kassai-Schmuck

Lukács Sándor Automotive and Mechanical Engineering Technical Hich School and College, Győr

Supported by Ms Veronika Vincze, history teacher

“I’ve just stuck with the great historical styles. In my temples and secular buildings, I’ve always started from a traditional idea of architecture. But I was never a servile copyist.” [1]

Wave of synagogue construction

In the 19th century, like in most other European countries, the emancipation of the Jews took place in Hungary. Thanks to the openness of the ruling class, most of the Jews in Hungary were absorbed into the Hungarian nation. After the political Compromise (between Austria and Hungary – ed.) in 1867, the Parliament passed the Law on the Civil and Political Equalization of Jews, removing restrictions on them and allowing them to fully exercise their civil rights, including the right to free enterprise and access to education. Emancipation not only brought legal changes but also promoted the cultural and social integration of the Jewish community. The laws led to increased immigration from neighbouring countries. The Jewish population at the turn of the century was close to 1 000 000.

The need to build synagogues arose among the emancipated, assimilated, and economically successful Jewish bourgeoisie. For the first time in the world, the Neologue movement gained ground in Hungary, where Jews held their services in Hungarian and wanted to build imposing and impressive temples with their own individual character. They were no longer satisfied with the style of Ludwig Förster, who had designed the Dohány Street synagogue.

Most of the synagogues built in Hungary at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries were designed by Lipót Baumhorn, who, as a designer and entrepreneur, understood the needs of the Neologue Jewish communities and became one of Europe’s most important synagogue architects. In total, he designed 26 synagogues in historic territory of Hungary, 22 of which were built.

Baumhorn the synagogue builder

Lipót Baumhorn was born in Kisbér (40 kms from Győr) in 1860 [2].

He married the 19-year-old Blanka Schiller (1874-1958) in 1893, in the early years of his career, and the family lived at 43-45 Király Street in the 7th district at the turn of the century. Their children were Margit (1894-1956) and Kornélia (1900-1958). [3]

He attended his schools in Győr [4], thereafter he studied architecture at the Vienna University of Art and Design under Professors Ferstel, König and Weyr. After his return home (1883), he worked for 12 years in the design offices of Ödön Lechner and Gyula Pártos. It was here that he acquired his generous, effortless draughtsmanship and his knowledge of fine and rich detailing. In contrast to the academic, historicist style of Ignác Alpár, the Lechner design bureau sought to create a boldly modern, national style inspired by Hungarian Art Nouveau and folk art. Based on the experience he had gained here, Baumhorn developed his own individual style: he used Oriental, Renaissance, Baroque or Art Nouveau ornamentation to complement his eclectic formal language. Almost on all his buildings we can observe Lechner’s brick arches with accentuated vertical lozenges running along the façade. His Art Nouveau solutions for large domed spaces are unique. Like all synagogue builders, his benchmark was the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, a symbol of ancient Jewish architecture.

Baumhorn’s oeuvre can be divided into three main periods: the beginning of his career (1888-1900); the turn of the century, when he was already a recognised and successful artist, with Jewish communities almost competing for his services (1900-1914). His last period of creative activity came after the First World War, when major architectural commissions became rare and even during the Horthy era, certain anti-Semitic manifestations could be observed, but he did not remain without work. From 1926 onwards, he and his son-in-law and fellow architect György Somogyi [5] began to design together. He would work continuously until his death (1932). [6]

Major sacred works

Back in 1888, one of Ödön Lechner’s architect colleagues, the talented, young and agile Lipót Baumhorn, was commissioned to design the synagogue in Esztergom. In the spirit of late Romanticism, it was designed, originally as a single-storey building, but eventually as a two-storey one. It had a gallery for women. In 1888 it was inaugurated by the rabbis Ignác Weisz of Esztergom and Imánuel Lőw of Szeged. This was the first independent work of the 28-year-old young man, and it was the building’s architectural elements that made him famous.

In 1894 he opened his own design studio. The synagogue in Fiume, built in 1895, is the first of his independent works, which already strongly reflects the specific features of Baumhorn architecture. It can be seen as a forerunner of the synagogue in Szeged, which he considered to be the main creation of his life.

The buildings of this period are characterised by oriental and neo-renaissance features. The synagogues of Nagybecskerek (1896), Szolnok (1898) and Temesvár (1899) were built in this spirit, reflecting the influence of his study trips to Italy. The snow-white synagogue in Szolnok, with its jagged walls, was built in an eclectic, romantic-Moorish style. The metal-framed dome, reminiscent of the one in the Museum of Applied Arts, stands out from the mass of the building. The pillars of the outer facade end in towers. The large rose windows are reminiscent of the Gothic style. The two-storey interior is decorated with stuccoes. The site is enclosed by an ornate fence. A winter prayer room and offices were built next to it.

In 1899, the synagogue in Budapest’s Lipótváros was awarded third place in the framework of a tender invitation, but the building was not completed partly because of professional disputes on architectural aspects, but mainly due to economic reasons. The plans far exceeded the building costs and Baumhorn’s design proposal was shelved with the other entries.

By the turn of the century, Baumhorn was a famous architect, winning commissions after commissions. In three years, in 1903, he completed the pinnacle of his oeuvre, the Szeged Synagogue, the second largest synagogue in Hungary and the fourth largest in the world. The building is 48 metres long, 35 metres wide and 48.5 metres high, and its dimensions radiate monumentality. The temple is eclectic in style, with Art Nouveau, Moorish-Arab-Mediterranean, Baroque, Gothic and Romanesque elements, expressing the diversity of Judaism. Built on an iron structure, the church follows a Greek cross-based, central basilica structure, with a high drum-roofed main dome in the centre and a domed corner tower at each of the four corners of the building.

The building’s interior is dominated by blue, gold and buttery colours, creating an elegant yet light and airy effect. The most beautiful part of the synagogue is the dome, which symbolises the world. The 24 columns of the dome represent the 24 hours of the day. The golden stars painted on a blue background in the top part of the dome, with the Star of David in the middle, represent the sky. The other main jewel of the temple interior is the Nile acacia wooden ark in which the Torah rolls are kept. The candelabra are modelled on the Roman Arch of Triumph of Titus. The glass dome and stained-glass windows, depicting the most important events according to the Jewish faith, are works of Mano Róth. The building stands in a beautiful garden. From an architectural point of view, the domes of Florence and Pisa can be considered as its predecessors. Immanuel Löw, the scholarly Chief Rabbi, played a major role in the creation of the synagogue, and Baumhorn implemented his ideas with humility. The synagogue was largely built with donations from wealthy citizens of Szeged, whose names are inscribed on the glass windows.

After the failure of the synagogue in Lipótváros, he designed the synagogue in Arena (Dózsa György) Street (1909), which, despite its small size, has a monumental effect. The building consists of a central square central square, a hall and a sanctuary. The central square is covered by a circular dome. The interior walls were decorated with geometric motifs in yellow, blue, red and brown.

The Eger Synagogue was built between 1911 and 1913 in late Art Nouveau-Eclectic style. Its form and style reflect the characteristics of Baumhorn architecture. It is related to the synagogues of Szeged and Újvidék. Its monumental dimensions, together with Eger castle and the Turkish minaret, made it a dominant feature of the early 20th century townscape.

The synagogue in Pava Street (1924) was built during Baumhorn’s last phase. It is the only Orthodox synagogue designed by Baumhorn. The blue, white and yellow colours of the interior are reminiscent of the Szeged synagogue. The two pillars of the sanctuary represent the two pillars of the Temple of Solomon. The female choir is decorated with lilies.

Dedicated in 1930, the monumental, eclectic synagogue of Gyöngyös was the last work of Lipót Baumhorn. The building reflected the optimism and economic strength of the local Jewish community of 2000 people at the time, during the years of the Great Depression. The synagogue has a modern reinforced concrete structure. The traditional arches have been replaced by a modern dome structure supported by reinforced concrete beams. The overall appearance is one of a smoother and more cohesive mass, while at the same time retaining the medieval and oriental elements in its details, combining modernity with traditional and historical features.

He worked until his death, his last work being the extension and rebuilding of the Budapest Bethlen Square synagogue, which he completed with his son-in-law. [7]

His secular works

Although Baumhorn is the greatest figure in Jewish sacral architecture, his secular architecture is also outstanding. In four cities, Budapest, Szeged, Temesvár and Újvidék, he enriched the cityscape with his savings banks, schools, residential and apartment buildings.

The eclectic building of the Szeged-Csongrád Savings Bank, which still functions as a financial institution, should be mentioned in the first place.

The Vasalóház (Szeged) has been a pharmacy on the ground floor from the very beginning. Gusztáv Wagner’s residential building was also designed by him. The building was the first apartment building in Szeged to have an elevator.

Together with his secular buildings, the Baumhorn oeuvre consists of 90 works.

The fate of the synagogues in Baumhorn

Out of curiosity, we found out what happened to Baumhorn’s synagogues, since there was no Kristallnacht in our country, and the synagogues were not set on fire.

During the Second World War, the disaster (of the Hungarian army – ed.) in the Don River region made it clear that it was in Hungary’s interest to get out of the war. Horthy dismissed PM Bárdossy and replaced him with Kállay, who secretly made contact with Great Britain, while still in the German alliance. It was agreed that Hungary would unconditionally lay down arms to the Allies already present in the Balkans. After the Germans had learned of the secret negotiations, Hitler invaded Hungary on 19 March 1944, and the deportations began in May 1944. In less than two months, some 450,000 Jews from the countryside, including about 6,000 from Győr and the surrounding area, were deported, most of them to the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

Only a few of them were able to return home. The synagogues, with its communities dwindled in number, could not be maintained and were taken over by the state, often used for undignified purposes, and deteriorated. The restoration and renovation of synagogues began after the change of regime (at the end of the 1980s – ed.). Of the 22 Baumhorn synagogues, 12 are located in Hungary and 10 outside our borders. Of the 12 synagogues in Hungary, the ones in Gödöllő, Kaposvár, Makó and Eger were demolished. The synagogue in Nyíregyháza in its entirety, while the Budapest synagogue in Páva Street and the one in Szeged partially are used for sacral purposes by the Jewish community.

Another group of synagogues has become a place of cultural sanctuary, namely the synagogues in Esztergom, Szeged and Szolnok. The synagogue in Páva Street in Budapest has been turned into a Holocaust Memorial Centre. The Gyöngyös synagogue is under renovation. The synagogues in Cegléd and Aréna (Dózsa György) Street in Budapest are now used as sports facilities.

Beyond our borders, 10 Baumhorn synagogues were built, of which the ones in Fiume and Nagybecskerek were demolished during, while Szatmár and Muraszombat were demolished after World War II. The synagogue in Brasov remains a sacral synagogue, while the synagogues in Újvidék, Nyitra and Losonc are cultural centres. The synagogue in Liptószentmiklós is in a dilapidated state, while the renovation of the synagogue in Temesvár has already begun.

“The fate of the master and his works can be seen as a metaphor for the modern Jewish experience in Hungary: optimism, brilliance, decay, oblivion, and then, since the fall of communism, rediscovery and revival.” (Ruth Ellen Gruber) [9]

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Further parts of the contest submission by the team of the Lukács Sándor Automotive and Mechanical Engineering Technical High School and College in Győr:

• Highlights of the exsiting Jewish memorial sites in and around Győr: synagogues, cemeteries, schools, memorials, memorial plaques
• metal sculpture (artwork)

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Editing, English translation and insertion of additional photos for illustrative purposes by Péter Krausz

Cover photo: csodalatosmagyarorszag.hu

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[1] Inscription on the tomb of Lipót Baumhorn in the Jewish cemetery in Kozma Street, Budapest, Köztérkép – ed.

[2] Son of a teacher from Győr, Mór Baumhorn (1827-1903); his mother’s name: Mária Rhonberg, his siblings: Henrik and Ármin; (Mazsihisz, szecessziosmagazin.com) – ed.

[3] Wikipedia – addition by the ed.

[4] Baumhorn attended the Győr Royal Hungarian State High School, i.e. the present Révai Miklós High School (Wikipedia and szecessziosmagazin.com) – ed.

[5] György Somogyi (1893-1980) architect, husband of Baumhorn’s daughter Kornelia from 1926 (szecessziosmagazin.com) – ed.

[6] Baumhorn dies in Kisbér, his birthplace (szecessziosmagazin.com) – ed.

[7] According to important information related to the Győr synagogue, Baumhorn participated in the tender for the design of the synagogue extension in 1925, but the winning design was submitted by the Budapest architect Dávid Jónás, while the realisation was based on two works prepared by the Budapest architect Sándor Hegyi, the second and third prize winner. These were used by the architect Arnold Bachrach from Győr, who was commissioned on 24 January 1926 to draw up the construction design.

[8] He also participated in the design tendering for the building of the Savings Bank of Győr.(szecessziosmagazin.com) – ed.

[9] Ruth Ellen Gruber, contemporary American author and journalist (ruthellengruber.com/) – ed.

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Sources and literature:

Baumhorn Lipót – Wikipédia

Baumhorn Lipót – Zsidó Kiválóságok Háza

Faragó Vera: Baumhorn Lipót, a zsinagóga építő – Remény

milev.hu

Baumhorn Lipót síremléke – Köztérkép

A zsinagógától a Vasalóházig – Baumhorn Lipót épületei Szegeden – kultúra.hu

Nemzeti Örökség Intézete – Baumhorn Lipót

Esztergomi zsinagóga – Wikipédia

Szolnoki Galéria – Wikipédia

Új Zsinagóga – Szeged Tourinform

Dózsa György úti zsinagóga – Wikipédia

Egri neológ zsinagóga – Wikipédia

Páva utcai zsinagóga – Wikipédia

Gyöngyösi zsinagóga – Wikipédia

Part of the Second Prize winning entry to the “Their destiny, our history” student contest initiated by the Jewish Roots in Győr Public Charity Foundation (2023-24)

by Lili Flinger, Anna Hordós and Dorottya Kispál

Gergely Czuczor Benedictine High School, Győr

Supported by Tamás Cséfalvay, History Teacher

High school life during the war

According to the yearbooks, the euphoria of the 1938 Vienna Decision had a great impact on the life of the school community. Pupils and teachers organised a collection for the sister school in Komárom and, as a symbolic gesture, 43 flags were sent by the pupils to Komárom, which was celebrating its liberation (from Slovakia – editor).

Furthermore, the new law on defence and the introduction of compulsory Young Soldier Exercises (HU: levente kötelezettség – editor) had a stimulating effect on school scouting. “During negotiations in Komárom in October, the Scout Alliance called on the troops to be ready to march simultaneously with the army. This did not happen, but many exciting negotiations preceded our visit to the liberated Komárom on 4 December.” A collection was also started among the pupils for the benefit of the liberated Komárom sister institute. In addition to the enthusiasm generated by the growth of the country (manifested e.g. in book collection for Transylvania and Carpathia), the approaching dark shadow of war highly influenced school life from the 1939 school year onwards. The yearbooks contained introductory studies on patriotic education, the unification of Hungarian youth and the school tasks of the Young Soldier Exercises. Pupils over the age of 14 could be required by the authorities to serve in the air defence service.

According to the School Yearbooks, “parents also began to be very anxious, especially about the situation of the town Győr on the frontier; one frightened the other, fearing for the lives and safety of their children, and it was difficult to dissuade them from taking their sons to a safer place. Small school absences did occur as a result of the sudden panic.”

In the chronicle of the 1941-42 school year, we can read that ‘the present troubled and difficult times are beginning to have a detrimental effect on the youth. Fortunately, we were able to protect the great majority of our pupils from the dangers […]”

In the 1943-44 school year, this made school work almost impossible. Following the German invasion, a notification of 31 March stated that our school had been requisitioned for German troops and 480 people were housed in the building. Teaching was of course suspended.

On 13 April 1944, Győr was heavily attacked by air. The students of the high school went above and beyond to help the victims of the bombing. They were mainly involved in fire-fighting and rubble clearance, but there were also students who learned to defuse unexploded incendiary bombs.

The school building was then requisitioned on 25 April to replace the bombed-out troop hospital.

The Benedictine monastery was briefly at the centre of events when Géza Lakatos, the deposed Prime Minister, arrived in the city on 12 December 1944 and took refuge in the Győr monastery. At the dawn of his arrival, the house was surrounded by Arrow Cross legions, where Lakatos was held as a prisoner. (Soon Lakatos left for Sopron at the urging of the Arrow Cross related government commissioner of Győr – editor;  historiamozaik)

At the end of March 1945, with the Russian invasion, the school building was once again turned into a hospital. From 8 May, the community was able to use its own building again. In the school teachers’ board minutes of 4 May 1945, the Soviet presence and the preparation for the changed circumstances can be felt. According to the minutes, “besides teaching, our great concern is educating for the new times. Besides, our pedagogical approach has always been democratic. We have always fought against the spirit of the times, against racial and religious hatred, we have not differentiated between rich and poor children to the detriment of the latter, but in school evaluation practices only individual merit and achievement counted. We are convinced that our Christian principles, to which, of course, we are unswervingly attached, can be brought into the fullest harmony with the ideals of the new democratic world.”

Implementation of the Laws on Jews

Since the introduction of the Laws on Jews, the Director General of the Székesfehérvár School District has repeatedly instructed schools to comply with these laws and to present certificates. According to Article 5 of the law of 1939: IV. t.c. (i.e. the second Law on Jews), all teachers, including the headmaster, were obliged to declare whether they, their parents or grandparents were members or had been members of the Jewish community. If they were exempt from the above law for any reason, they were required to state the reason in their declaration. On 13 June, a special decree (4300/1939) called on church-run schools to make a declaration. For this administrative task, the Minister for Religious Affairs and Public Education established a table of origin for the persons concerned.

In October 1940, the institution received another request for the submission of certificates on Jewish origins. The request stipulated that the declaration was not obligatory for ordained clergy, but for nuns!

According to the December 1940 notice, the certificate for those born after 1 October 1895 had to include the parents’ birth certificates. Repeated requests suggest that the declarations required by the laws on Jews were delayed by the Benedictine community, either for lack of the appropriate documents or for other reasons. The last such request dates from June 1944.

As regards the admission of Jewish students, in a letter of April 1940, the Directorate General of Catholic High Schools asked for the 6% rate laid down by law to be observed, with the addition that a baptised pupil was not counted as a Jew. The November letter further clarified the number limitation, stating that 6% meant 2-3 pupils in the first class. In schools where there were no Jewish pupils in the primary classes in the previous academic year, not even 1% could be admitted. In March 1944, the Catholic Directorate General of Education contacted the school to inquire whether refugees from the annexed territories had been admitted. However, refugee status did not apply to those who were subject to the laws on Jews.

The Jewish students of the school

According to the yearbooks of the Gergely Czuczor Catholic High School in Győr, Jewish students were continuously present at the school between 1939 and 1945 (Figure 1). The figure shows a decrease in the number of Jewish students, which may be partly be due to assimilation and baptism of Jews, changing schools, and possibly the interruption of studies (as well as the dramatic deportations of the Jewish population in June 1944 – editor). Some students were conscripted as soldiers and sent to the front. From the German invasion of 1944 onwards, the school year was truncated, lasting only four months in 1944-45.

Év	Összes diák	Ebből izraelita diák
1939-1940	636	24
1940-1941	631	18
1941-1942	626	17
1942-1943	606	14
1943-1944	610	12
1944-1945	337	1

Individual destinies

László Biringer was born on 18 December 1924 in Győr.

He was born the son of János Biringer. According to the yearbook, his mother’s maiden name was Gabriella Herzfeld. His father was a timber merchant and László, or as his friends called him, Laci began his secondary school studies in 1935 at the Czuczor Gergely Benedictine Secondary School in Győr, where he studied diligently, all his marks were excellent, the only less favourable mark he got was in the seventh grade for his behaviour, which is surprising because he was already working as treasurer of the school sports club that year and received a prize for his paper on the writer Ferenc Herczeg.

The Volumetric Physics Department of the Self-education Group had 24 student members, and at one of its academic conferences Biringer presented a paper on the vibration of strings. The chronicle of the academic year 1941-42 points out that Biringer was commended for his work on the topic ” The influence of 18th century thinkers on the functioning of the state “. He was therefore a versatile and diligent student. He graduated with distinction and was awarded a distinction.

Although there is no evidence of a direct family connection, it can be assumed that he was related to Károly Biringer, the owner of Győr’s first permanent cinema. Tivadar Biringer (Károly’s brother – editor), later the owner of the cinema, also graduated at the Benedictine grammar school in 1933.

The Apollo Cinema, owned by the family, opened in December 1909 at 6 Bisinger Promenade with 372 seats. In addition to evening music programmes, the cinema played moving pictures with background music in the mornings and held a morning screening on Sundays.

Ottó Hárs wrote in his diary “The Wanderer Passing Through” that on 8 May 1944 János Biringer was deported after the German occupation. On 26 May, Germans moved into their house, which was one of the most prestigious buildings in Győr.

Although the sources contradict each other somewhat, it is likely that László, then 20 years old, did not die in the same place as his father. László was deported to Auschwitz and his father to Mühldorf. The boy probably died in the gas chamber and his father died of blood poisoning.

The Csillag family was an old and well-known Jewish family of Győr. Several members were students of the Benedictine grammar school. Antal János Csillag was born on 21 March 1925 in Győr, the son of the famous surgeon Dr József Csillag and Jozefa Korein.

Dr József Csillag, the father, was a member of the School Board of the Jewish Community of Győr, and participated in the work of the Győr Committee on Legal Affairs as an important tax payer until 1942. His membership was terminated by the Ministry of the Interior. According to the name register of the Highschool, the family lived at 20 Árpád út in Győr, in the same building where the Sanatorium was located. On his mother’s side, Dr Sándor Korein (1899-1989), the grandfather of Antal and Ferenc, was also a renowned internist and worked together with Dr Csillag. Antal had three siblings: Hedvig (probably named after her father’s sister who died prematurely), Gizella Lujza and Ferenc Mátyás. Antal was in the same class as László Biringer and they graduated together.

Antal excelled in rowing in the 1938-39 school year. In the following school year he distinguished himself in fencing, taking first place at school. At a sports department reunion in 1941, he won the title of president of the fencing department together with classmate Rudolf König. His younger brother Ferenc also chose fencing as his special subject. In addition to the compulsory subjects, Antal passed his French language examinations with good results, according to the maturity examination board.

The family was ghettoised at the end of May 1944, the Sanatorium closed its gates and in June the family was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau together with the first group of Győr Jews. József Csillag and his three children, including Antal, survived the Holocaust, but his wife and Ferenc were murdered in the death camp.

Tibor István Fehér was born in Győr on 20 September 1922. He graduated from the Czuczor Gergely Benedictine High School in Győr in 1940 under the direction of Dr Barnabás Holenda. He finished his secondary school years with mostly good grades. His mark for behaviour was excellent.

On 4 October 1943, Tibor Fehér was drafted to Komárom for labour service. After six days, he and his squad were assigned to the electric power works in Bánhida. He was kept here until spring, then he was transferred to Vértesszőlős. By his own admission, they were treated cruelly there. They were forced to work in deforestation and the working conditions were inhumane. They lived in underground bunkers, were constantly starving and the working conditions were unbearable. In his diary, he mentioned by name his guards, platoon leader János Székely, Sergeant Sándor Alföldi (who he said was also from Győr) and Sergeant Imre Sarló, who treated them most cruelly. They beat and punched innocent people and treated them like slaves.

In October 1944 they were returned to Bánhida and remained there until Christmas. As the Russians approached, he managed to escape with one of his companions. They hid in a shepherd’ hut hut but were eventually captured. Tibor was held in three camps between March and May 1945. He was first sent to Neumarkt on 12 March, then transferred to Mauthausen on 28 March, where he was detained until 12 April, and from there to Gunskirchen, where he remained until 4 May.

We do not know the circumstances under which he returned home, but his account was recorded in Budapest in August 1945. According to the minutes of the National Committee for the Care of Deportees of August 1945, he was working as a sugar confectioner’s assistant, presumably at Győr Keksz Co. ltd. We found only traces of information on the fate of other Jewish students of the school. István Reichenfeld, who had graduated from the high school in 1938, was transported to Bergen-Belsen on 1 February 1945.

György Faragó attended high school until the 1939-40 school year, and died in the collection camp (possibly in the barracks of Budai út, Győr – editor) on 15 June 1944.

Tibor Szabó graduated in 1944-45, he possibly survived the holocaust.

Miklós Komlós possibly died in Auschwitz in June 1944.

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Further submissions from the students team of the Czuczor Gergely Benedictine High School in Győr:

1. Life of Vilmos Apor (special research topic, description)
2. Two paintings (artwork)

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Edited, translated into English and additional photographs inserted for illustrative purposes by Péter Krausz

Coverpage: The Győr Benedictine Church and High School today, Photo: Győri Szalon

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Literature

Cséfalvay Tamás: A holokauszt tanítása – emberi sorsok tanítása; ujkor.hu

Egy átballagó vándor Hárs Ottó naplója Győr 1944. évi bombázásának mindennapjairól. NKA, Győr, 2022.

Lakatos Géza: Ahogyan én láttam. Extra Hungariam. Európa-História, Budapest, 1992.

Némáné Kovács Éva: Az Apolló mozi, Győr első állandó filmszínháza; Győri Szalon

Tóth István Konstantin: A győri bencés gimnázium története az 1944-től 2021-ig terjedő időszakban A tanév végi évkönyvek (beszámolók) tükrében; czuczor.hu

Vargáné Blága Borbála: A győri Csillag Szanatórium és alapítója, dr. Csillag József; Győri Szalon

Sources and Databases

A Czuczor Gergely Bencés Gimnázium és Kollégium dokumentumgyűjteménye, évkönyvei, törzskönyvei és tablói

International Tracing Service (Arolsen Archive)

Yad Vashem -The Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names 

USHMM (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) Holocaust Survivors and Victims Database

Deportáltakat Gondozó Országos Bizottság – National Committee for Attending Deportees

Centropa adatbázisa

Dokumentumok online gyűjteménye (bővített dokumentumtár)

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The Life and Work of a Teacher of the Kazinczy Highschool in Győr

Part of the first prize winning entry to the “Their destiny, our history” student contest initiated by the Jewish Roots in Győr Public Charity Foundation (2023-24)

by Zsombor Harai, Áron Takács and Hanna Boldizsár

Kazinczy Ferenc High School and College, Győr

Supporting teacher: Ms Ildikó Pintér

Dr Ignác Kovács, a prominent scholar and teacher of the predecessor of the Kazinczy Ferenc High School in Győr, played an important role in the teaching of natural sciences and the development of the high school’s natural science laboratory. The finest pieces of his collection are still on display in chemistry, biology and geography classes: the preserved specimens of his collection of nearly a thousand minerals and rocks are still indispensable teaching tools.

The beginnings

He was born on 29 June 1882 in the village of Cece in Fejér County, the son of Mihály Karpelesz and Száli Sterk. He completed his secondary school education at the State High School in Budapest District VI from 1892 to 1897, and then at the State High School in Székesfehérvár until 1901.

He was tuition-free throughout his secondary school years.  His school reports and certificates show that he was a hard-working man with a thirst for knowledge and a generous spirit: during his studies in Budapest, he was a regular member of the Student Self-Help Circle and made several donations to the school coin collection. In Székesfehérvár, he was the recipient of several book grants in recognition of his outstanding academic achievements.

He began his higher education at the Faculty of Humanities of the Royal Hungarian University of Budapest in 1901 and graduated in 1905. During his university years he changed his name from Karpelesz to Kovács. He received his teacher’s degree in natural history and geography on 20 November 1907 and in chemistry on 21 October 1922.

He was awarded his Doctor of Philosophy degree on 29 December 1909 for his doctoral dissertation entitled “The oro-hydrography of the Low Tatras”.

Jewish school in Vágújhely – start the career

On September 1, 1910, he began his teaching career at the State-aided Israelite High School in Vágújhely (town in Slovakia today – note by the editor). He taught geography, natural history, gymnastics, history, Hungarian language and shorthand. He also lectured at the school’s Workers’ High School and gave interesting lectures on earthquakes and the North Pole, illustrated with projected images, at the school’s free lyceum. In 1911, he passed his examination as a fire officer.

Active participant in study trips. In addition to his work as a teacher, he was also a keeper of geography and natural history cabinets and compulsory afternoon games instructor. During these afternoons and in the gymnastics lessons, military drills and marches were often held. His patriotism is reflected in his speech at the 15 March celebrations and the 50th anniversary of the school.

First World War

At the outbreak of the First World War, he was the only one of the school’s teachers to enlist during the first mobilisation. He was assigned to the 17th Hungarian Infantry Regiment in Székesfehérvár, and later to the 14th Hungarian Infantry Regiment in Nyitra, where he served as a lieutenant. He was wounded in action at Lublin in the eastern part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire on 2 September 1914. After his recovery, he was appointed as a training officer and was promoted to lieutenant on 1 September 1915. He then served for more than eight months as a company commander in the Northern Front.

Even during his military service, he kept in close contact with his school: in his letters he encouraged his students to do good and good deeds, and sent home 210 crowns to help young people who excelled in geography and natural history. For this, he received ministerial recognition.  In 1915, he gave lectures on the popularisation of the sciences to wounded soldiers.  He also studied in the trenches, using quieter hours to deepen his knowledge of shorthand. He returned home on 20 May 1916, exhausted, ill and with a frazzled nervous system. In May 1916 he was awarded the silver Signum Laudis with swords. After May 1916, he served as an off-duty officer in Bratislava. Between June 1916 and 1917 he was awarded the Charles Cross. In 1917, he donated 60 crowns to the synagogue in Vágújhely and 30 crowns to the school association. During the war he served a total of 30 months at the front.

Győr – the trajectory is being completed

He could not return to Vágújhely after the Paris Peace Treaty, and the Ministry of Religion and Public Education transferred him to the Győr Hungarian Royal State Girls’ High School. He began his activities here on 17 April 1919.

The curriculum of the girls' school, which started in 1908, puts the emphasis on teaching literature and history, but also gives high priority to the natural sciences. The Ministry of Religious Affairs and Public Education provided well-equipped classrooms, which were later continuously improved and supplemented by donations from the school's teachers, pupils and supporters. It was in such circumstances that Dr Ignác Kovács, an excellent teacher of geography, natural history and chemistry, arrived at the school from the annexed territories.

Almost immediately, he set about expanding the natural history cabinet, which he financed himself: over the years, he bred nearly 40,000 silkworms, and spent all the proceeds from the sale of these – 300,000 crowns – on beautifying the department and adding to the collection.

He added nearly 1,000 pieces to the collection of rocks and minerals making it the second largest collection in the city.

He also created the school’s botanical garden. “The garden consisted of three sections, one directly adjacent to the other, in one of which were the most notable trees and plants of the forest, in the other important ornamental plants, and in the third, besides cereals, fodder and food crops, such flowering and non-flowering plants as are mentioned in the textbooks.” The plants were cultivated by the pupils and they took full care of them under the supervision of a teacher.

To demonstrate the chemical processes, he collected Hungarian industrial products, which he also used to decorate the classrooms. In his early years in Győr, he taught geography, natural history and chemistry.

On 4 September 1923, the Minister of Religion and Public Education appointed him as a full teacher at the High School. Throughout his life he worked to secure the prestige and authority of chemistry, biology and geography. His work clearly shows that the only way to teach the subject of the material world effectively is to maximise its visualisation in the classroom.

On 29 May 1925, he was appointed treasurer of the Győr branch of the National Association of Secondary School Teachers, and its successor organisation.

Shorthand – a passion

He taught shorthand at the Commercial High School (now Révai Miklós Gymnasium) as a guest teacher from 1918 to 1931.

Between 1921 and 1933, he was a member of the School Board of the Jewish Community’s Elementary School in Győr. During this time, he made several donations to poor pupils and outstanding students.

The reward for his patriotism: the “most valuable member” of the institute is dismissed

As a result of the second law on Jews of 1939, he was was forced to retire from his teaching post on 1 February 1940.

Dr Géza Gábor, the school’s director at the time, bade him farewell with a very courageous statement:

„With his departure, the Institute has lost one of its most valued members, a true teacher’s soul, who knew and fulfilled his duty at all times and in all places. Under his guidance, the instruction of stenography was placed at the very top of the national ranking. His reorganisation of the natural history and botany departments, his exemplary orderliness, his collection of 20,000 plants and his unstinting care of them, have earned him unparalleled merit. At the end of his career, the trials of life demanded a new sacrifice, which he accepted with the serenity of a religious soul. May the uplifting consciousness of conscientious work, the esteem of his peers, and the respect of his disciples, be a worthy reward for his honest labours, and may they bring to his children the joy which a life of honour and work deserves. May God’s blessing be with you for the rest of your life.”

He died suddenly on 7 July 1943 and his funeral was held two days later, on 9 July, at the Jewish cemetery in Győr-Sziget.

Ignác Kovács’s life’s work is exemplary for today’s students, because although the storms of history made his activities almost impossible, he always worked for his country, his family, his students and science.

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Edited and photos added by Péter Krausz

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Further submissions by the Kazinczy Ferenc High School team:

• Pebbles of memory – in memoriam Dr. Kovács Ignác (film)
• Our fellow students’ life in the shadow of the laws on Jews (PPT)

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Literature used:

A győri Apponyi Albert Leánygimnázium évkönyve, 1939 Kazinczy Ferenc Gimnázium Könyvtár

A győri zsidóság története, különös tekintettel a holocaustra. Dokumentumgyűjtemény. Szerk. Bana József. 

A magyarországi holokauszthoz köthető magyarországi és külföldi fényképek https://holokausztfoto.hu/ 

A Vágújhelyi Államilag Segélyezett Izraelita Reáliskola értesítője 1910-1917, http://www.arcanum.hu

A Zsidók Győri Gyökerei Alapítvány honlapján található, a győri zsidósággal kapcsolatos link gyűjtemény https://jewishgyor.org/hasznos-linkek/ 

Berkes Tímea: A Győr-Moson-Pozsony megye zsidóságának története 1944-ben. In: Holocaust Füzetek, 4. évf. 5. sz. (1996), p. 6-42. Braham, Randolph L.: A magyarországi holokauszt földrajzi enciklopédiája. 1. köt. Budapest, Park Kiadó, 2006. p. 478-482. 

Biczó Zalán: Életrajzi Lexikon a győri Leánygimnázium tanárairól, Győr 2013

Budapesti VI. Kerületi Állami Reáliskola értesítője 1892-1896, http://www.arcanum.hu

Cseh Viktor: Zsidó örökség. Vidéki zsidó hitközségek Magyarországon. Szerk.: Fenyves Katalin. Budapest, Magyar Zsidó Kulturális Egyesület, 2021. p. 615-619

Czvikovszky Tamás: Győri utcák könyve, Győr 2021

Deportáltakat Gondozó Országos Bizottság http://www.degob.hu/ 

Domán István: A győri izraelita hitközség története, 1930-1947. Budapest, Magyar Izraeliták Országos Képviselete, 1979. 68 p. (A magyarországi zsidó hitközségek monográfiái, 9

ELTE Almanach 1902-1903, https:// www. arcanum.hu

Enciklopédia az Egyesült Államok Holokauszt Múzeum gondozásában, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/hu

Felső Kereskedelmi Iskola értesítője 1918-1946, https:// www. arcanum.hu

Győr, Duna-táj Magyar-Izraeli Baráti Kör, 2005 (Győri holocaust füzetek, 1.) 

Győri Állami Leánygimnázium Évkönyv, 1918-1920

Győri Izraelita Hitközség Népiskolája értesítője, 1921- 1935

Győri Nemzeti Hírlap, 1923. szeptember 4.

Győri Nemzeti Hírlap, 1935. május 31.

Győri Nemzeti Hírlap, 1943. július 9.

Győri Újság, 1923. szeptember 04

Kazinczy Ferenc Gimnázium Jubileumi Évkönyve ,1908- 2008

Kemény József: Vázlatok a győri zsidóság történetéből, Győri Zsidó Hitközség, 2004 (reprint kiadás) (eredeti megjelenés: 1930) 

Kovács Ignác: Az Alacsony- Tátra oro-hydrographiája, Erzsébetfalva, Müller Mátyás könyvnyomdai intézetéből, 1909

Lónyai Sándor: A Holocaust győri gyermekmártírjai. In: Holocaust Füzetek, 8. évf. 13. sz. (1999), p. 118-131. 

Lónyai Sándor: A Numerus Clausustól Auschwitzig. A Holocaust 3621 győri mártírjának, és az egykori Győr megye falvai 732 deportáltjának teljes anyakönyvi adatsora. Budapest, LaborPress, 2004

Nagy István: Quiritatio. Sikoly. Győri zsidó tragédia, 1938-1945. Győr, Győri Zsidó Hitközség, 2010

Quittner, Eva: Az emlékezés kavicsai, Győr, Print-Tech Kft., 1996

Soá Alapítvány Vizuális Történelmi Archívuma http://vha.usc.edu/login, Centropa https://www.centropa.org/hu/home 

Szakál Gyula: Vállalkozó győri polgárok 1870-1940 között. Sikeres történeti modellváltás. Budapest, L’Harmattan Kiadó, 2002. Ujvári Péter (szerk.):

Magyar zsidó lexikon. Budapest, 1929. p. 332-333.

Székesfehérvári Magyar Királyi Állami Főreáliskola értesítője 1897-1900, www. arcanum.hu

USC Shoah Foundation: https://vha.usc.edu/testimony/37817?from=search

Táncrend holokauszt után, Szombat, 2023. július 12. szerda

Peaceful small-town Jewish everyday life in Hungary

Research work submitted to the “Their destiny, our history” student contest

By Orsolya J. Kozalk, Regina Sinkai and Luca Orosz

Sopron SzC Hunyadi János Technical Highschool, Csorna

Supporting teacher: Balázs Szalay

This student contest was launched by the Jewish Roots in Győr Public Charity Foundation, 2023-24

We would like to present the cultural life of the Jews of Csorna (a small Hungarian town 30 km from Győr) in the period between the two World Wars through the activities of the Csorna Israelite Penny Society. (Csorna lies 30 km from Győr – editor).

The beginning

The Society was founded in 1903 for charitable purposes. (The Csorna Museum presents on its website the development of the town’s social institutions up to the present day. It mentions the early Chevra-Kadisha Society and the Israelite Women’s Society of Csorna, founded in 1893, but unfortunately does not speak about the Israelite Penny Society – editor)

The aim of the Society was to help and support Jewish children and brides in Csorna with scholarships and the bride’s coffer. These activities were financed from the annual contributions of the members and patrons, from the donations of non-members, and from the proceeds of various soirees and balls.

A society had to meet certain criteria. These and other formalities were set out in the “Statutes” of the organisation. The Society was made up of Founding, Ordinary and Associate Members. Founding Members donated a minimum of 25 crowns, while ordinary Members had to pay a minimum of 20 pfennigs a month, or more if they wished. Associate Members donated 2 crowns a year.

During the first World War, the income dwindled and there were problems maintaining the Society. Members tried to build up a new financial base. They did this by providing cultural entertainment for the public at large of Csorna. Every year, new performances were presented, which were so popular that the Society was able to survive on the income so generated.

"During the World War, the Israelite Penny Society of Csorna took its part in duties that were obligatory for every good Hungarian and every patriotic association. [...] The sources of income were very scarce, because the income generated by the earlier events and cultural programmes was not enough, and it could not even secure its budget. [...] The funds dried up, and the members of the Society, together with the members of the other social associations of Csorna, took part in the reception of the military trains and later of the trains of the wounded soldiers. [...] They made winter clothing for our soldiers who had taken part in the war. They took care of [...] the needy relatives of our fellow citizens who had been wounded in the war [...]" ("In memory of the 25 years of the Israelite Penny Society of Csorna", book published by the printing house Rábaközi Nyomda és Lapkiadó Vállalat), László Schwarcz, secretary, Csorna, 2 December 1928)

Society Performances

The most successful performances were “The Rich Girl”, “The Divorcee”, “Mihályi’s Two Daughters” and “The Mouse of the Church” theatre pieces. Several articles about the productions were published in various local newspapers and all of them gave positive feedback.

"The Rich Girl in Csorna
Béla Szenes' highly successful play, "The Rich Girl" was presented to a packed audience on Wednesday evening at the Csorna Movie Theatre by amateur performers of the Israelite Penny Society.  The great interest was quite understandable, because in Csorna, this highly cultured municipality, for lack of a suitable venue, no actors have been performing for the last two years. So, it was only natural that everyone was eager to take the opportunity to see one of the most famous hits of the last winter season in Budapest. The audience in Csorna was thoroughly entertained. As far as the performance was concerned, it was the best that can only be given by amateurs. Mrs V. Dr Molnár impressed with her truly artistic performance and acting, while Rózsi Schwarcz played the title role with the full splendour of her imposing young beauty. But all of them, Ernő Hegedűs, Lajos Németh, Mrs V. Krausz, Lajos Polgár, Lily Herzfeld, József Berger, Jolán Goldhammer, Pali Kovács, Józsa Krausz, Lajos Berger, László Hegedűs and the smaller episodic actors contributed to the extraordinary success of the performance with their fine, well-thought-out performances. Elemér Klein deserves the highest praise for the great and tiring work of the direction and for the splendid set design." (Sopronvármegye, daily, Friday, November 24, 1922)

This play proved so successful that the donations collected during the first two performances exceeded 55,000 crowns gross. At the end of February 1926, preparations began for Ernő Vajda’s three-act comedy “The Divorcee”.  Encouraged by the success of the play, the company continued to present more and more successful presentations until the end of its existence.

Gestetner, the father of the copying mashine

Further charitable actions

After the First World War, the association was reinvigorated and added further charitable activities to its repertoire.

For example, by providing holidays for poor children in the town of Csorna. The children received a warm welcome from the locals, were fully catered for and were able to take part in many activities free of charge. In a newspaper article published in August 1927, the members of the association expressed their gratitude to the individuals who had contributed to the cause. One of them was Károly Kuti, the owner of the cinema at the time, who ensured that the children could attend film screenings without paying a fee. Not only private individuals but also other associations were happy to join in the assistance, such as the Rábaközi Sports Association.

In addition to entertaining children, attention has also been paid to their basic needs. According to another newspaper article, 15 poor school children were provided with winter clothing in December 1927. Mrs Ignác Berger, the president of the association, organised the distribution of these outfits in her own home, demonstrating the importance she attached to the care and safety of children. The clothes were tailor-made for each child. They were mostly made of woven fabrics, and new footwear was also provided. Not only the children but also their teacher was grateful for this act.

The Society also tried to take care of other than Jewish population of Csorna, for example by distributing flour. A correspondent at the time reports that this kind of activity began as winter approached. During the famine, about three sacks of flour were distributed. Of course, it all was handled with the utmost discretion, which is why we do not have much information about it. What we do know is that this was the first in a series of actions and that it was made possible by a large-scale lottery, where many of the Society patrons supported this undertaking with beautiful objects, from which the income was donated to the Society in cash.

The lottery event took place on Saturday evening, 4 December 1927, at the Krausz Café. In addition to the lottery, a tea party was also organised, with a tea and cake ticket redeemable for 15,000 crowns as the entry ticket. The lottery tickets were sold by ladies, one ticket costing 5,000 crowns.

The Society helped those in need in many areas of life, appreciated not only by the Jewish population, but also the general public in Csorna. Outstanding performances were organised, which raised the cultural standard of the town. Numerous contemporary articles report on activities undertaken and the many people the Society inspired to strive for unity and empathy during the years of its operation.

Epilogue

Balázs Szalay, local historian from Csorna, teacher at the SzC Hunyadi János Technical Highschool, Csorna, sent us the following information after the publication of this post:

The Penny Society held a successful Purim evening on 2 March 1931. The evening was peculiar as that before dancing began, the audience was introduced to several old dances, including the menuet, gavotte, mazurka, polka, waltz and the czardas. The association also organised a raffle every year. For the draw on 25 February 1933, more than 250 raffle items were collected. At that time, 1,000 tickets were issued at 20 pennies each. All the proceeds were donated to charity.

In December 1935, the founder of the association, Ignácné Berger, née Mária Klein, died. , who managed the association until her death. Besides her husband, she was mourned by three children and five grandchildren.

Before the deportations, the association had 73 members.

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Other works submitted to the student contest by the Sopron SzC Hunyadi János Technical Highschool, Csorna: “Righteous among the Nations – the Dreisziger couple” – PPT presentation; “Jewish memorials in Csorna and Jewish burial traditions” – video film

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Edited by Peter Krausz

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Additional sources (added by the editor)

Interview with Endre Berecz, Centropa

Dr Endre Berecz: Memories of the Jews of Csorna (Emlékezés a csornai zsidóság történetére), Budapest, 2006

National Film Institute

Awarded the Hungarian Golden Cross of Merit

József Bana worked as an archivist for 48 years, and for 25 years he was the Head of the Győr Archives. He conducted numerous research projects, and his scientific works have greatly helped to better understand the history of Győr. He became an Honorary Citizen of Győr in 2022, and he has been researching and writing ever since his retirement. The current high distinction was awarded to him by the competent Deputy Minister in Budapest, on 16 August this year.

His academic work also covers the history of the Jews of Győr. He has contributed and continues to contribute to the activities of the Jewish Roots in Győr Charitable Foundation in many areas. As an expert and Jury Member, he helped to run a Jewish Local History Contest for secondary school children, which concluded in April this year. He is the Vice-President of the Hungarian-Israeli Friendship Society of Western Transdanubia.

Congratulations on this well-deserved, outstanding honour!

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Sources: Hírstart; Győrplusz

Cover page: Győrplusz

According to information received from the the Mensch Foundation, it is organising a Memorial Tour to Mauthausen to remember the Jews who perished in the Holocaust. It is expected to undertake the first trip with about 50 students from Győr on 26 May 2024.

Coverpage: Times of Israel

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Jerusalem – Győr – Jerusalem

“He recognized his handwriting from 46 years ago and his eyes filled with tears. The Haggadah that he sent to his parents from Jerusalem, in 1934, about a year after he immigrated to Israel as a young man, was found. But the parents, as most of the Jews in this glorious community, ascended to heaven in the smoke of the furnaces… He wiped a tear, sank into contemplation, and after a while decided to call the person who found the Haggadah and ask for its return”.

In 1980, two articles were published in Maariv newspaper in Israel, one month apart, both dealing with a Passover Haggadah and the city of Győr. The story begins in 1933, when Karoly Gluck, born in Győr, immigrated to the Land of Israel. Gluck, who was 21 years old at the time, lived at first in several Kibbutz’s, and later settled in Jerusalem. In Israel, he changed his name to Yehuda Tamir. About a year after his arrival, Yehuda sent a gift to his family who had remained in Győr: an elegant Passover Haggadah, with an olive wood cover, decorated with paintings by the artist Nahum Gutman.

Yehuda wrote a dedication within the Haggadah to his family, in Hebrew and Hungarian:

The connection between Yehuda and his family in Győr was interrupted during World War II. His parents and siblings were among the Jews of the city who perished in Auschwitz-Birkenau in June 1944.

In the autumn of that year, a forced labour brigade, including several Jews, arrived at Győr. Among them was Benjamin (Bela) Grun, who was born in the town of Dunaszerdahely (Dunajská Streda), now in southwestern Slovakia. On Rosh Hashanah of 1944 (תש”ה), Benjamin, along with other Jews from his brigade, went to the deserted synagogue in Győr, to look for prayer books (Machzor) for the holiday. In the synagogue, in a pile of books, the decorated Haggadah caught Benjamin’s attention. Benjamin took the Haggadah with him, and decided that in case he survives, he will bring it with him to Israel.

Benjamin survived the Holocaust years, and afterwards indeed immigrated to Israel, taking the Haggadah with him. Throughout the years, Benjamin searched for the owner of the Haggadah. In 1980, before Passover, Benjamin Grun’s story was published in Maariv newspaper. The article was read by Yehuda Tamir, who immediately recognized the Haggadah he had sent to his family. On Holocaust Remembrance Day 1980, 46 years after it was sent to Győr, the Haggadah returned to its owner.

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If you know any of the persons mentioned in these articles, or rather their families, or have any additional information, please contact us.

Amir Livnat, genealogical researcher from Győr, living in Israel, has discovered this story about the Passover Haggadah from Győr in an Israeli newspaper referenced here below. He has kindly composed and communicated the story for publication on our website.

The Hebrew text of the post without illustrations is published below.

The original articles (in Hebrew) can be viewed here:

The Haggadah that left Jerusalem for Hungary and returned after the Holocaust, Maariv, March 28, 1980, p. 33; The aftermath of the Haggadah story, Maariv, April 25, 1980, p. 25

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מירושלים לג’יור ובחזרה: מסעה הלא יאמן של הגדה

“הוא זיהה את כתב-ידו מלפני 46 שנים ועיניו דמעו מהתרגשות. הנה, נמצאה ההגדה ששלח להוריו מירושלים, בשנת 1934, כשנה אחרי עלותו ארצה כבחור צעיר. אך ההורים, כרוב יהודיה של הקהילה המפוארת, עלו השמימה בעשן הכבשנים… הוא מחה דמעה, שקע בהרהורים, ואחרי זמן החליט לצלצל למי שמצא את ההגדה ולבקש את החזרת האבדה”.

בשנת 1980 פורסמו בעיתון מעריב שתי כתבות בהפרש של חודש ימים זו מזו, שתיהן עסקו בהגדה של פסח ובעיר ג’יור (Győr). ראשיתו של הסיפור בשנת 1933, עת עלה לארץ ישראל קארי גליק, יליד העיר ג’יור. גליק, שהיה אז בן 21, התגורר תחילה במספר קיבוצים, ובהמשך השתקע בירושלים. בישראל, שינה את שמו ליהודה תמיר. כשנה לאחר עלייתו, שלח יהודה מתנה אל משפחתו שנותרה בג’יור: הגדה מהודרת לפסח, עם כריכת עץ זית, מעוטרת בציורי האמן נחום גוטמן.

בתוך ההגדה כתב יהודה הקדשה למשפחתו, בעברית ובהונגרי.

הקשר של יהודה עם משפחתו בג’יור נקטע במהלך מלחמת העולם השניה. הוריו ואחיו היו בין יהודי העיר שנספו במחנה אושוויץ-בירקנאו ביוני 1944.

בסתיו של אותה השנה, הגיעה לג’יור פלוגת עבודה ובה מספר יהודים. ביניהם היה בנימין (בלה) גרין, יליד העיירה דונה-סרדאהלי (Dunaszerdahely) – כיום דונאיסקה סטרדה (Dunajská Streda) בדרום מערב סלובקיה. בראש השנה תש”ה, הלך בנימין, יחד עם מספר יהודים מפלוגתו, אל בית הכנסת השומם בג’יור, כדי לחפש מחזורים לחג. בבית הכנסת, בערימה של ספרי קודש, צדה את עינו של בנימין ההגדה המעוטרת. בנימין לקח את ההגדה איתו, והחליט כי אם ישאר בחיים, יביאה עמו לארץ ישראל.

בנימין שרד את שנות השואה, אחריהן אכן עלה ארצה, וההגדה עמו. בכל השנים, חיפש בנימין את בעליה של ההגדה. בשנת 1980, בסמוך לחג הפסח, פורסם סיפור ההגדה של בנימין גרין בעיתון מעריב. את הכתבה קרא יהודה תמיר, שזיהה מיד את ההגדה ששלח למשפחתו. ביום הזיכרון לשואה ולגבורה, 46 שנים לאחר שנשלחה לג’יור, שבה ההגדה אל בעליה.

אם יש לכם קשר למוזכרים בכתבות הללו, או מידע נוסף, מוזמנים ליצור קשר ולהוסיף.

בכתבות המקוריות ניתן לצפות כאן:

ההגדה שיצאה מירושלים להונגריה וחזרה אחרי השואה, מעריב, 28 במרץ 1980, עמ’ 33

חתימתו של סיפור ה”הגדה”, מעריב, 25 באפריל 1980, עמ’ 25

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József Kiss, poet, was born on 30 November 1843

His father was a poor Jewish village shopkeeper, his mother the daughter of a Lithuanian Jewish cantor teacher who fled to Hungary to escape the pogroms.

He was introduced to literature in Serke, Gömör and Kis-Hont counties, with the help of the Reformed priest Sámuel Balogh Almási. His parents wanted him to become a rabbi, but he escaped to Vienna at the age of 13. Later he returned home, attended a grammar school for a few years, but due to lack of funds he gave up and became a wandering teacher. In 1867, when the Hungarian Parliament passed the emancipation of the Jews, he moved to Pest, in the hope to have his poems published.

From 1890, he was the founding editor of the journal “A Hét” (The Week), one of the forerunners of the periodical “Nyugat” (The West). Among other things, it was thanks to this journal that the history of modern Hungarian literature began. He was elected a member of the Petőfi Society and later of the Kisfaludy Society.

At the beginning of his career, he wrote ballads depicting the life of the village Jews. Later, the city and the modern man became his main themes. The tone of his poems ranged from the solemn to the tragic. Several of his works have been filmed: a film version of his ballad Simon Judith was shown in 1916, and his poem Jehovah was filmed in 1918.

He wrote poems for all Jewish holidays. These poems were first published in 1888 in a volume entitled Ünnepnapok (Holidays), by Révai Brothers Press.

This volume contains his poem Prayer (Ima), with which the poet greets Pesach. Here it is, unfortunately only in Hungarian.

Ima A páska-ünnepre

Rabszolganépet vittél a pusztába, Nyakas, hitetlen, léha tömeget, S nevelted őket győzelmes csatákra, Hogy megvehessék igért földedet. Elhullott mind, ki homlokán viselte És lelkében a rabság bélyegét, De támadt új sarj, a mely megismerve, Híredet egy világra vitte szét.

Múló dicsőség, nyári éjnek álma Volt tűzhelyünk a Jordán mentiben Nemzeti létünk napjai számlálva, Trón s hatalom odalett — de mi nem. Az omladékok felcsapó lángjából, Mely nyaldosá szentélyed ó falát: Egyet menténk meg a nagy pusztulásból: Téged, uram! javaink legjavát.

S mikor a vihar szétszórt a világra És lettünk a vadnál védtelenebb — És a hontalanság keserű átka Bölcsőtől sírig ránk nehezedett: Mikor rettegés volt az űzött álma Véres, villámos, hosszú éjszakán: Akkor tűntél fel teljes glóriádba’, Meg akkor ismerénk csak igazán.

Hogy nagyságod nem oltárkövön épül, S nem templomok márványán az erőd, Ó, hogy te nagy vagy minden jelkép nélkül S eltörpül tér, idő színed előtt. Hogy mit népednek szántál örökségül, Nem elmúló, veszendő földi kincs, Nem láng, mely elhuny, nem jog, mely elévül, De hűséged, melynek határa nincs.

Leborulok ím előtted a porba, Fönségnek istene! te hű vezér! Akinek nagyságán se folt, se csorba, S halandó mérték hozzád fel nem ér. Vezess, vezérelj tovább is bennünket A lét harczában, a mely végzetünk Míg szemeink bízva terajtad csüggnek, Egy világ üldhet – el nem veszhetünk!

József Kiss first published his main work, Legends about my Grandfather, in 1911, and later added new parts to it. There were still some chapters planned, but not written or finished. Its only complete edition was published privately by the poet’s sons in 1926, in 500 copies. Only one library copy of the incomplete edition of 1911 and two copies of the complete edition of 1926 are known to exist in the Hungarian National Public Catalogue (MOKKA).

An interesting detail of the private edition is that it was made possible by contributions also from prominent citizens of Győr who loved culture. Several of them fought for their country in World War I, and many of them later died as victims of the Holocaust. A few names from the list of Győr donors: Dr. Miklós Pfeifer, Kálmán Áldor, Lipót Eisenhartz, Dr. Pál Anhalzer, Dr. Miksa Dukesz, Dr. Vilmos Nobel, Dr. Pál Dezső, Béla Radó, Mihály Fried, Dr. Zoltán Bánki, Jenő László.

The poet was succeeded in his literary career by his son Jenő Sándor Kiss (1885-1944), writer and journalist. He was the editor of the private edition mentioned and wrote a magnificent foreword to the volume. A shocking detail about him: Jenő Sándor Kiss’s daughter Éva, who lived in Caracas, once said that her father was a proud man; when on 16 October 1944 police took Jews away from protected houses (in Budapest – ed.) and he was told to stay because the relevant decree did not apply to people over 60, her father pulled out and said: ‘I am only fifty-nine years old’. They never heard from him again.

In 1913, József Kiss was nationally celebrated on the occasion of his seventieth birthday. The jubilee celebration was organised by the Petőfi Society in the Great Hall of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The celebrations were attended not only by a large number of Jewish representatives, but also by liberal-minded Christians. Mezőcsát, his birthplace, gave the poet the title of honorary citizen. Endre Ady (a highly recognised poet of the early 20^th century – ed.) wrote in Nyugat that the life of the 70-year-old poet was prophetic, even messianic. “In him was expressed and foreshadowed the significant, prophetic and fateful role that fate later assigned to Hungarian Jewry in this backward little country. With his paper, A Hét, he nurtured new writers and new readers. Proud and revolutionary, we fly a flag in our old master’s honour.”

The poet-prince died on 31 December 1921; his resting place is the Budapest Kozma Street cemetery.

His memory was erased by banning his works and shredding his books during the Holocaust. On 15 June 1944, Mihály Kolosváry-Borcsa, State Secretary, who was executed as a war criminal in 1946, had delivered a speech dressed in a decorative costume of former Hungarian aristocrats in the First Hungarian Cardboard Factory in Budafok, over nearly 500,000 volumes:

“This festive act, which we are witnessing here, marks the end of an unhealthy process that has been going on for more than half a century: the domination of Jewish mentality over the Hungarian spirit. This process began in Hungarian literature with József Kiss, who made the first attempt to penetrate Hungarian literature in the late 1860s, but this conquest has always been far removed from the Hungarian spirit and has always remained alien. …

I took on the role of the book-burner, so often condemned and described as barbaric by the liberals, because this literature must be torn out of Hungarian intellectual life. The first step is to smash the books carried here and simply destroy some 500 000 Jewish books. In this way … we will also fulfil a serious national economic task, … [these books] will again become raw material, paper, the raw material of Hungarian intellectual life.”

Kolosváry-Borcsa stressed that the work of cleansing was far from over, since the bookshelves of every Hungarian home must be cleansed of poisonous literature, and then he read a short excerpt from the “race-conscious” Legends of my Grandfather by József Kiss, and threw the volume into the heavy crushing rollers, on which the workers shovelled the other “Jewish worms”.

Today, only a few public squares, streets and statues preserve his memory, and his poetry is awaiting to be rediscovered.

Compiled by András Krausz

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Sources:

All the poems of József Kiss, Singer and Wolfner Budapest, 1920

Arcanum: Hungarian literature in the last third of the 19th century – József Kiss

Országos Széchenyi Könyvtár: József Kiss

Új Hét: József Kiss died a century ago

zsido.com: 100 years after the death of József Kiss, the Jewish poet, by Viktor Cseh

Final day – Synagogue, 19 April 2024

On 19 April 2024, our Foundation’s student competition on Jewish local history in Győr and its surroundings, entitled “Their fate – our history”, will end with a presentation day at the Győr Synagogue. The students’ year and a half-long project is part of the preparations for the “Jewish Roots in Győr World Reunion”, which will take place from 4-7 July this year to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the deportation of the Jews of Győr in 1944.

Of the eighteen three-member teams from nine secondary schools in and around Győr that entered the competition almost two years ago, we are delighted to see eleven teams from eight schools still standing. Their task was to work on a general and a more specific research theme and to create an artwork related to the subject-matter.

The teams will present their main research results and arts work to the jury on 19 April, which will announce the final scores and award prizes that afternoon. The winners will showcase their work at the World Summit conference (5 July 2024).

The public is invited to the Synagogue on 19 April to listen to the students’ slide presentations, each lasting 20 minutes. It is expected that there will be six presentations between 9am and 12 noon and five in the afternoon between 2pm and 4pm.

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This is a must-see portrait film!

In February 2022, an article was posted on our website entitled The Past Is Not Past, introducing a book by Frank N. Schubert, American author and military historian, a veteran of the Vietnam War, then in preparation, but published since, and we quoted some of its excerpts about Győr. Frank’s, or Mick’s, as his friends call him, Grandfather was deported from Vác, Hungary, to Auschwitz, from where he never returned. The Grandfather was killed and could not have known that his grandson, Mick, had been born and was already one year old in America when he was deported to the death camp.

In the film, Mick presents today’s Győr and the former sites of the terrible events that took place there in the 20th century, as he sees them. This is how he introduces the historical sightseeing tour the movie captures:

“There is no memorialisation, there are no traces of any of these “archipelagos” (i.e. networks of sites of dramatic events scattered like a group of islands – ed.) all over Győr. So that’s when we are looking at this city it turns thinking about these “archipelagos”. These networks and specific sites were very important in this city and they don’t exist anymore. There is no trace of them anymore. That’s the point. As if it did not happen. But it did happen.”

Look at the film.

Read again our post The Past is Not Past.

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We would like to thank Mick Schubert for allowing the publication of this protré film.

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Hanukkah Menorahs of Avraham Livnat (Weisz)

By Amir Livnat

Hebrew version below

A Little Bit of Light Dispels a Lot of Darkness (Baal Shem Tov)

Even in this current difficult period, Hanukkah is a unique holiday in our family, due to a special connection to my grandfather, Avraham Livnat, who was born in Győr. For many years, Avraham used to build wooden Hanukkah Menorahs (Hanukkiah’s), in a variety of shapes and designs, with many sources of influence. The story of Avraham and his wife, Marta née Spiegel, will be told separately. For now, towards Hanukkah, we will focus on the Hanukkah Menorahs he created over the years.

Avraham was born in 1915 in Győr as Arnold (Noldi) Weisz. As a teenager, he joined “HaNoar HaZioni” (“Zionist Youth”) youth movement, and gradually began to plan his immigration to the Land of Israel. After graduating from high school in Győr, Avraham sought to acquire a profession that could be beneficial in Israel. He chose carpentry, and enrolled in a professional woodcraft school. This profession will accompany him throughout his life.

At the age of 21, Avraham served in the Hungarian army for two years, as part of mandatory military service. Avraham worked as a carpenter in the army as well. Among other things, he built facilities that were used for training purposes.

Avraham and his wife Marta left Győr in 1941, the same day they got married, and immigrated to Mandatory Palestine: the Land of Israel. In the first years in Israel, Avraham worked as a carpenter for the British army. In 1942, during the time he was stationed at a military base in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Avraham designed and created his first Hanukkah Menorah, with a tiered structure and a Star of David on top.

In the years following World War II, Avraham continued to work as a carpenter, sometimes as an independent business and at other times as an employee in various factories. During these years he focused on his various working positions, and did not have time to create Menorahs. In 1962 he joined the teaching staff of the “Ort” school, first as a teacher in carpentry course, and later as the head of the course. During this period, he resumed creating many Menorahs: every two years or so he would design a new model.

Avraham created his second Hanukkiah design in 1964. This Hanukkiah consists of a jug of oil next to a trunk of an olive tree. Over the years, Avraham created copies of his Menorahs which served as gifts to family members and friends. This Menorah, being one of the first that he designed, was duplicated with a large number of copies.

Every finalized Hanukkiah was preceded by weeks, months and sometimes even years of thought and planning. Every Hanukkiah began its journey with several drawings and sketches. These were usually copied onto drawing papers or cardboard templates, and from them onto pieces of wood.

We will now focus on some Hanukkah Menorahs that Avraham designed over the years, and examine the sources of inspiration for these models. In 1970 Avraham created a Hanukkiah with the pattern of the Western Wall. This Hanukkiah commemorates the liberation of the Western Wall and the unification of Jerusalem, its planning most likely began closer to the end of the Six-Day War. Another Hanukkiah related to Jerusalem shows a wall with a gate.

Avraham was constantly looking for new ideas for Menorahs. Sometimes he made wooden Menorahs based on existing metal models. An example of this is a decorated Hanukkiah, which was inspired by a metal Menorah that was in his home.

A menorah with rounded pedestals topped with a Star of David was inspired by a newspaper photo, in which former Israeli Prime Minister, Levi Eshkol, is seen holding a similar metal model. Avraham kept the picture of the Prime Minister together with the sketches of this Menorahs.

As already seen, Zionism was part of Avraham’s worldview from a young age. Zionist motifs are also evident in many of his Hanukkah Menorahs. For example, a Hanukkiah inspired by the “Tower and Stockade” early Zionist settlement method. Another model depicts the shape of a Star of David with a pair of lions.

In 1990 Avraham retired, and was now more vacant to create many more Menorahs, usually once a year. He continued to use Zionist motifs, and continued to be influenced by metal designs that he saw or had in his possession.

Over the years, the creation of Hanukkah Menorahs became challenging and complex. After his retirement, Avraham worked mainly in his home. When he had complicated structures to build, he would ask his former students to use tools found in their workshops. In addition, he had to have a supply of wood: sometimes he would use and recycle old wooden products he found on the street. Throughout the years, Avraham continued prepare Menorahs, and other wooden objects, as gifts to relatives, friends and acquaintances.

Until his death in 2010, Avraham created about 30 different models of Hanukkah Menorahs. Nowadays, his Menorahs decorate the homes of his children, grandchildren and acquaintances, and preserve his memory. In these dark times for Israel and the entire Jewish world, we may find some comfort by the light that Avraham’s Hanukkah Menorahs continue to spread.

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All photos: © Amir Livnat

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Drawings in the legacy of Bandi Schima

by Peter Krausz

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Many thanks to art historian Dr Emese Pápai

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A month ago, we published an article about Bandi Schima A. (1882-1959), a nationally renowned metalsmith from Győr.

Dr Emese Pápai, art historian and chief museologist at the Rómer Flóris Museum of Art and History in Győr, an excellent expert on the artistic legacy of Bandi A. Schima, one of the authors and the editor of a book of studies on the artist, approached us with the following thought following the publication of our previous article on Schima:

“The fascinating topic has kept me intrigued and under the impact of the new perspective (i.e., possible other works by Schima related to Jewish culture – the ed.) I did some more research in the museum legacy of Bandi A. Schima.

As a result, I found two money-box plans from 1932 and 1936, as well as plans for a Torah pointer and an urn from 1932 and 1941, respectively.

I would be delighted to see these incredibly painstaking and detailed, meticulously worked out, elaborate blueprints published, and even more so if something could be found out about their afterlife and whereabouts of the objects, which were presumably executed.”

We are happy to comply with this request, both because Schima’s sophisticated and spectacular drawings demonstrate an interest in and affinity with Jewish cultural traditions, and because we are also wondering whether it is possible to trace the objects made from these drawings, if they were indeed commissioned by the client and accomplished by the artist. If they were, could these special, artistic objects have survived the extermination of a large part of the Jewish population of Győr?

In any case, anyone who knows anything about Schima’s latent works, please let us know.

Money-box (1)

The artist’s notes in the margins of the design give us the following information about the background of the object.

“Designed by Bandi Schima, metalsmith, Master of the Gold Ribbon of Hungary, by order of the Honourable Lipót Pollák, Treasurer of the /Jewish/ Community, in memory of the late Chief Rabbi Dr Mór Schwarz.

Symbols:

The front of the box: an illustration … (illegible term – ed.), a relief in silver, cold embossed and appliqué, referring to a philanthropic-minded Chief Rabbi who lived a life of faith and science.

Below the handle: the chiselled figure of Moses, prophet and leader of the people of Israel (the deceased was also the leader of the Israelites of Győr).

On the lid: on the lid of the modern urn-shaped funerary box, in a three-legged tripod (tripod vessel – ed.) ending in goat nails a fire is burning over the memory of the deceased. – The roses symbolize the beauty of life and the rays the glow of a happy lifetime.

Győr, 9 January 1936

(The owl, the stone tablets, the pen and the book – a Bible? – obviously refer to the scientific and theological work of Dr Mór Schwarz – ed.)

Natural size, with lock, yellow bronze.

Production price:

1. entirely in bronze – P 165.- (P = Pengő, Hungarian national currency of the time – ed.)
2. with silver relief – P 185.- “

Money-box (2)

The artist’s notes in the margins of the design give us the following information about the background of the object.

“It was commissioned by the Honourable Lipót Pollák, merchant, and designed by Bandi Schima, metalsmith.

Győr, 23 March 1932

Shape: funerary urn

Size: natural size

Decoration: on one side, a symbol of the deceased’s personality able to entwin hearts, and on the other side, a decorative expression of his love for his vocation and that of his achievements. (Inscriptions are for indication only – ed.)

Material:

900 silver, first class finish – P 320. –

bronze material, first class finish – P 125.

(The drawing shows the opening for the insertion of money – ed.)”

Torah pointer

The artist’s notes in the margins of the design give us the following information about the background of the object.

“Designed for the Jewish Community of Győr, commissioned by Lipót Pollák, Treasurer of the Community, by Bandi Schima, metalsmith, Győr, 1932.

Material:

900 silver – P 65.-

900 bronze silver-plated – P 28.- “

Urn

The artist’s notes in the margins of the design give us the following information about the background of the object.

“For the Jewish Community of Győr in memory of Dr Henrik Kallós, President of the Community

Commissioned by the Honourable Lipót Pollák, merchant, designed by A. Bandi Schima, craftsman, master smith

Győr, 25 April 1940

Size = 1:1

Material: yellow or red copper

Technique: appliqué in metal

Motif: on the front plaque the synagogue of Győr, with the coat of arms of Győr in the background (symbolising the Jewish community of Győr), on the back the 10 commandments, or the figure of Moses, or the Menorah, etc.

Finishing: patinated, polished, varnished (lacquered – ed.)

Structure: security coin slide on the inside and a strong hinged door with security lock and 2 keys on the bottom

Finish: first class, artistic – P 380.- “

Is there a Jewish tradition of similar metalwork?

About the money-box

Money was needed to run the Jewish school and the Synagogue, to maintain the cemetery, to provide minimum care for the sick, orphans and widows, to marry off poor brides, etc., to be covered from charitable donations, cedakahs, collected from all members of the community. The donations were collected in locked boxes. Both the closed box and the open bowls were made of various types of metal depending on the financial means of the community. Their design typically followed the object culture of the period and the purpose of the donation; the name of the collecting organisation was usually indicated in Hebrew.

Master smith Schima tries to follow the Jewish tradition in his designs for money-boxes, with however no Hebrew inscription but using other Jewish symbols.

Below are some examples from the collection of the Hungarian Jewish Museum and Archives:

About the Torah pointer

It is inappropriate to touch the scroll, the letters, with your hands during the reading. In the Middle Ages, parchment was still covered with a textile cloth, which was also used as a finger pointer; the use of Torah pointers is recorded from the 16th century. The most common shape is the outstretched index finger of the right hand, made of metal, wood or bone, and nowadays also of glass and plastics. The traditional name for the object is the Hebrew word for hand, yad.

The design of master smith Schima basically follows the Jewish Torah pointer traditions.

Below are some examples from the collection of the Hungarian Jewish Museum and Archives:

About the urn

The word “urn” is most commonly used to mean a container containing the ashes of the dead. We also know the word urn to mean an urn containing ballot papers, and urns are also used for drawing lots.  

In principle, the use of funerary urns is incompatible with Jewish tradition, since according to ancient customs, the dead should be buried and not cremated. It is therefore no coincidence that urns are not found among Jewish objects.

Master smith Schima was certainly aware of these Jewish traditions. It is probable that he may have mistakenly given the name “urn” as the title of the fourth object he was requested to prepare. This is evidenced by the fact that he designed a safety coin slider on his urn and a strong hinged door with a safety lock on the bottom. In other words, this “urn” is in fact another money-box that he proposed to realise.

Who are the personalities named in the drawings?

The person commissioning

Lipót Pollák

Treasurer of the Jewish Community of Győr, member of the Community’s Board in the 1930s, merchant (grain merchant). His personal data were found in the books of the Győr Jewish Community by Olga Spitzer, Office Manager: Lipót Pollák was born in 1875 in Táp, his mother’s name was Wohl Ella, his wife Vilma. They died in Auschwitz.

Those honoured

Dr Mór Schwarz

Born in Csáktornya, 6 July 1869, died in Budapest, 20 August 1934. His parents were Jakab Schwarz, Chief Rabbi, and Róza Freuder. Wife: Steiner Berta.

Attended the high school of the Ferenc József National Rabbinical Training Institute in Budapest. He graduated in philology, philosophy and pedagogy from the Royal Hungarian University, and received his doctorate in 1893. He was ordained a Rabbi in 1895. In 1895-1896, teacher of religious education. From 1896 on, Rabbi of Turócszentmárton. From 1898, Chief Rabbi of Győr for 36 years. He was the first Rabbi of Győr who always delivered his speeches in Hungarian, which indicates that he supported the integration of the Jews into the Hungarian majority society. He introduced Friday evening sermons, confirmation for girls and Saturday afternoon services for high school students.

He did not support Zionist ideas, unlike his successor, Chief Rabbi of Győr, Dr Emil Róth. Ezra Grosz wrote in his memoirs:

“The fiercest opponent of progressive Zionist youth and students was the venerable Rabbi Dr Mór Schwarz. All the students of the high school attended his religion classes. As I was the only Jewish student at the Benedictine school, I also attended these classes and had the opportunity to conduct a covert Zionist campaign. However, this was not a secret from the Rabbi. To counteract my harmful influence, he used the weapon of mockery. “Grosz”, he said, “You’ll be ambassador to Palestine one day”. And indeed, this cheap weapon, so to speak, easily hit the mark, and the whole class burst out laughing at the ‘successful joke’”.

Dr Henrik Kallós

Henrik Kallós (Krausz) was born in Győr on 10 October 1879 and died there on 6 July 1940. He was a lawyer.

After attending the Neologue Jewish Primary School in Győr, graduated from the High School of the Order of St. Benedict of Pannonhalma in Győr in 1898. In 1902, graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Royal Hungarian University. In 1905, admitted to the bar and opened a law office in his hometown. In 1910, he became a member of the Municipal Law Committee and was elected to the Small Assembly. From 1924, a member of the Board of the Neologue Jewish Community of Győr, and from 1928 its President. In the same year, on the recommendation of the Minister of Religion and Public Education, he became a member of the Steering Committee of the Ferenc József Rabbinical Training Institute in Budapest. He continuously published articles. His writings can be found in the Jewish Yearbook, and news papaers like Egyenlőség and Győri Hírlap.

In 1932, he was appointed Senior Advisor to the Government. On this occasion, he was welcomed by Dr. Ferenc Szauter, Mayor of Győr, at the community’s honorary Assembly. In his reply, Kallós said: here in Kossuth Lajos Street (the Headquarters of the Community is located here), the four legally established religious denominations live side by side in the best of neighbourhood, in inner harmony, not seeking what divides them, but on the contrary, precisely what unites us all, /that is/ that we are interdependent children of one God, one country and one city.”

Following the Darányi speech in Győr, on 5 March 1938 (Kálmán Darányi, Hungarian Prime Minister, 1936-38 – ed.) and the introduction of the first law on Jews, he writes: “Whatever a Jew does, he will always be persecuted, because whether the pitcher falls on the stone or the stone on the pitcher, woe to the pitcher”.

On the basis of the second law on Jews, he was expelled from the ranks of the Municipal Law Committee on 27 September 1939.

Epilogue?

Now here is another interesting additional information, also shared with us by Dr Emese Pápai:

“The most talented student of the master, the eldest son of his brother-in-law, Nándor Havel Jr. (who later graduated from the College of Applied Arts), kept a diary during his time at the Schima workshop in Zombor Street, Győr. Here he regularly writes and, in many cases, draws the works in progress. On 3 January 1936, following the example of A. Bandi Schima, he also drew in his diary the ‘plan for an Israelite money-box. Only sketchily, of course, but clearly recognisably.”

I looked for Nándor Havel Jr. and found his name in the Yearbook of the National Royal Hungarian School of Applied Arts (1880-1941), for the years 1936/37 – 1940/41, together with photographs of his metal works created during his studies. I have not found anything about Schima’s young apprentice’s later life.

Let’s hope that this is not the epilogue of the story and that someone will come forward with information about the afterlife of Bandi Schima’s works presented here.

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Sources (quoted verbatim in several passages)

First of all, thanks to Dr Emese Pápai for drawing attention to the hidden works of Bandi A. Schima presented here and for sending photographs of these works for publication.

My thanks go also to my brother, Andris (András Krausz), for drawing my attention to money-boxes and Torah pointers created according to Jewish tradition, and to the contradictions regarding Bandi A. Schima’s urn design.

Is there a Jewish tradition …

Wikiszotar

Arcanum

Lipót Pollák

Magyar Zsidó Lexikon (Hungarian Jewish Encyclopedia), 1929, edited by Péter Újvári

Radix Index

Hungaricana

Dr Mór Schwarz

Győri Könyvtár (Győr Library)

Vázlatok a győri zsidóság történetéből (Sketches from the history of the Jews of Győr), József Kemény, Győr, 1930

Precursors of Zionism in Győr, Ezra Grosz

Dr Henrik Kallós

Győri Könyvtár (Győr Library)

A győri izraelita hitközség története 1930-1947 (History of the Jewish Community of Győr 1930-1947), István Domán, 1979

Nándor Havel Jr.

Yearbook of the National Royal Hungarian School of Applied Arts (1880-1941), edited by Ferenc Szablya-Frischauf, Budapest 1942, issuu.com

The History of Jews in Győr in School Education, through Personal Interviews – Part III

by Ildikó Mesterházi,

Zachor Foundation and USC Shoa Foundation Ambassador for Győr

In previous articles, I have introduced you to the importance of video interviews used in education at the University of Southern California (USC) Shoa Foundation. We also learned about IWalk – video-interviewed local history walks in Győr, which allow you to independently explore the major sites of Győr’s Jewish community, while learning about the stories of local Holocaust survivors.

In this article, I would like to draw your attention to the USC Shoa Foundation’s IWitness platform, which has been created with a specific educational purpose. Therefore, you are reading a short awareness-raising article, which is not intended to present all the details and features of the platform.

If you are an educator, you will find links at the end of this article that will help you to get to know the platform better and to put it into practice. If you are a layperson, you may also find it interesting to browse the interface and recommend it to students in your environment.

The IWitness educational platform aims to make the video interviews from the USC Shoa Foundation’s Visual History Archive as accessible as possible for teachers and students, and to support their use in pedagogical work by making the teaching materials based on the interviews easily available. It is worth registering on the platform as a teacher or student, but there are also a number of possibilities without registration.

Without registering, you can click on the Watch tab to browse thematic interview sets, searchable by topic and language.

In the Activities tab, you can see the description of the exercises and learning materials based on the video interviews, but you have to register to do them.

As a teacher, there are also many ideas and methodological descriptions that can help you to use the interview details in as many types of lessons and as many topics as possible. The ready-made teaching materials on the site can be used in history, civic education, Hungarian language and literature, ethics and morals, foreign languages, film and media studies, visual culture, or in special training delivered by a Head of Class, but they can also be used in workshops or school projects.

We can choose from a wide range of activities, adapted to the technical conditions of our educational establishment, the time available and the interests of our students. The common feature is that they are based on constructivist pedagogy. This means that the student is not only a passive recipient of the information offered by the teacher, but also uses his/her prior knowledge and his/her own opinions and feelings to construct and construct knowledge together by interpreting different sources and asking related questions. This can be done in group work or individually. In the latter case, the students are individually exploring the journey of knowledge in the online space.  They formulate their answers independently, which the teacher has the opportunity to consult. Or we can conclude the exercise with a joint discussion.

Finally, allow me to conclude this short presentation with my personal opinion. Personally, I like the IWitness platform because it not only helps to deepen my students’ knowledge of the subject matter, but also helps to develop critical thinking. It helps students to be more open to what is happening around them, to become active citizens. It enables them to actively participate in the learning process.

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For more information, click on the following links:

• Zachor
• IWitness
• Ujkor

By György Polgár

Győr’s most famous artist was Jewish. Did her roots play a role in her life?

One of the founders of modern Hungarian ceramic art, Margit Kovács, was born in 1902 into a neolog Jewish family in Győr. Her father, Zoltán, was a mathematics and physics teacher at the Révai Grammar School, who Magyarized his surname from Klein in 1890. He died at the early age of 41. Her mother, Ilona Heller, a relative of the recently deceased world renown philosopher, Ágnes Heller, owned a boarding school for boys. Margit Kovács had a very intimate relationship with her, and they lived together until her mother’s death. The artist never married, and we know of no love or partner. She had one sister, Erzsébet.

After graduating from high school, Margit Kovács worked as a bank clerk – although she was not very good at the job, as she once admitted. But she loved drawing – she took classes at the Győr Girls’ High School – and was interested in ceramics. She studied graphic art at the private school of Álmos Jaschik in Budapest from 1924, and porcelain painting at the School of Applied Arts, thanks to her maternal uncle Jenő Heller. In 1926 she moved to Vienna, where she learned the basics of this art from one of the most renowned ceramists of the time, Hertha von Bucher. In 1932 she relocated to Copenhagen, where she trained with Paul Gaguin’s son, Jean René Gaugin. She also worked at the famous porcelain factory in Sèvres, France. Upon her return to Budapest, she transformed her kitchen into a studio. She had her first solo exhibition at the Tamás Gallery in 1928, and immediately attracted the attention of her contemporaries. From then on, she took part in several shows in Hungary, as well as at the Paris and Brussels World Exhibitions, the Biennale di Venezia, in Rome and in Turin. She was heading towards an exceptional career.

Development

By combining the use of the pottery wheel and delicate sculpting, Margit Kovács created a series of works artistically transcending the boundary between fine and applied arts. Her smaller figures were simplified into cones, while the larger ones were column-like. She subsequently added ornamentation to her figures. As time went on, she produced more and more block-like works.

Her topics were inexhaustible. Religious pieces appeared at an early stage in her works, and accompanied her throughout her career, albeit with varying intensity. They include some of her initial monumental masterpieces, such as the Portal of the St. Imre Church in Győr or the pulpit of the Church of the Sacred Heart in Komárom. From the very beginning she enjoyed creating rustic works, even though she had never lived in a rural setting. Famous examples include her Masonry Heater, which won a Gold Medal at the 1938 exhibition of the Society of Applied Arts, and sculptures, such as the Bundt-Cake Madonna. In the Rákosi era, religion was relegated to the background, so she primarily worked on folk themes (Family Photo Album, Wedding), while socialist realist works also featured prominently (the decorative fountain at the Pioneers’ Department Store). After the 1956 revolution, she daringly returned to Biblical scenes. In addition, figures from the Greek mythology, sagas, and fairy tales (Cantata Profana, The Parcae) completed her repertoire. As she grew older, the transience of life appeared more and more frequently in her works. Colours faded, if not disappeared (Old Fisherman, Birth, Marriage, Death). In her last wall decorations, geometric motifs started to play a role, The 700-Year-History of Győr is a good example. Regardless of her family background, she refrained from creating ceramics inspired by Judaism.

Margit Kovács became a celebrated artist-star; not only the favourite of the public, but also of the communist rulers. She was among the first to receive the prestigious Kossuth Prize in 1948. Rarely is a museum dedicated to someone in their lifetime, but in 1973 she could even pick a private home to house her exhibition in Szentendre. Incidentally, the owner of the building was practically evicted. For many years probably no other gallery in the country had received more visitors than hers. Her work became a tool of diplomacy, too. Almost every state guest, from Iran’s Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi to Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev, was taken to see the exhibition. During his historic visit to the Vatican, János Kádár presented Pope Paul VI. with a Margit Kovács ceramic.

Never Talked About Her Heritage

Some of her Old Testament-themed ceramics (Moses, Noah, and Noah’s wife) may seem to have a connection to Judaism, but to think it a certainty would be quite a stretch. Her sculpture May His Soul Be Tied to the Bond of Life contains a Jewish epitaph, it, however, can at best be seen as a brief excursion into the world of Judaism.

Very little is known about her private life, yet she has been the subject of articles, books, and interviews. She happily talked about her art, but never answered personal questions, or, if yes, only evasively, although they were not indiscreet, because at that time it was not as common practice as nowadays, being violently curious, even passing into the bedroom. Even the highly experienced and famous journalist, Tamás Vitray could not break through her defences during their lengthy conversation on his popular tv-show ‘Ötszemközt’ (in free translation: ‘You, I and the Camera’).

There is no reliable information about Margit Kovács’ Yiddishkeit. This is one of the many mysteries surrounding her, as she has never spoken about it – not publicly, at least. One can only guess. We know that she grew up in an assimilated Jewish family, but whether they were observant, or not, we can only assume; most probably not, or just superficially. She survived the besieging of Budapest and the terror of the Arrow Cross Party at the end of 1944 and the beginning of 1945 in a so-called ‘protected house’ at 1 Pozsonyi Street, ‘safeguarded’ by the Swedish – or, according to her sister’s recall, the Spanish government. On one occasion an Arrow Cross Party member broke into the building, but no one was harmed. We know that her immediate family – her mother, sister, uncle and aunt – survived the war, the latter two having emigrated to Switzerland. In a passport application form, Margit Kovács stated that several members of her family perished in the war, but who they were is not known. According to the granddaughter of glass artist Júlia Báthory, a close friend of hers, Júlia hid Margit with nuns in Pécs during the most unsafe times. No details are available, however, and Margit Kovács never mentioned this either.

Sára Karig, a literary translator, to whom many Jews, British prisoners of war and Hungarian deserters owed their lives, was recognised among the Righteous of the World by Yad Vashem. Miklós Radnóti’s wife, Fanni Gyarmati, whose mother was also hidden by Karig, wrote the required certification in 1965 and this document was witnessed by Margit Kovács and her mother.

She certainly had many Jewish friends and acquaintances, including Miklós Radnóti and his wife, who lived in the same building as Margit, or the photographer André Kertész and his wife Erzsébet Salamon. Her circle of friends also included György Aczél, the almighty cultural czar of the Kádár regime, whom she knew from his days as an amateur actor. In her youth, she was in touch with several Jewish acquaintances in Győr. During her stay in Denmark, she stayed at his father’s friend’s house, the physicist Gyula Perl. Perl’s wife, the painter Alma Bissen, most probably helped her in her studies in Copenhagen.

Another important relation in Győr was the Jewish Bánki family. Mrs Olga Bánki (neé Goldschmidt) and Ilona Heller were friends, and this relationship was passed on to their children, Margit and Ödön. Ödön had to emigrate after the downfall of the 1919 Hungarian Soviet Republic, because of his activities in the Hungarian Communist Youth Workers’ Association. He eventually settled in the Netherlands. A coffee set made for him by Margit Kovács proves their close connection.

Many believe she converted to Christianity at some point and became a bigoted Catholic. Proponents of this theory see the evidence in her numerous Christian-themed works and the absence of Jewish ones. According to Zsófia Szilágyi, curator of the Kovács Margit Museum in Szentendre, her catholicising was only formal. When Vitray asked her on air, whether she was religious, she said that she was not, but that she had “faith”. For certain, during socialism, declaring someone’s religiousness publicly was not a career-boosting factor at all. Shortly before her passing on 4 June 1977, she had a confidential conversation with György Aczél, who at her request put their conversation to paper. On display in the Szentendre museum, the note reveals that she has never been religious.

One important question remains: how was she able to prevail unrestricted in the Horthy-era, which was characterized by chauvinism and the emphasis on Christian (i.e., non-Jewish) beliefs, despite her being a Jew? However much she may have denied, or tried to conceal this fact, the authorities certainly knew. Yet she was allowed to represent the country with the Queen of the Danube at the 1937 Paris World Exhibition. Given her Jewish roots, she really should not have stood much of a chance. But the government wanted to present Hungary to the outside world as a state that faithfully combined its folkloristic traditions with modern urban life. Margit Kovács’ works best suited this aim, and seemed to be more important than ideology.

Everybody’s Darling

Margit Kovács has always been a lovable, seemingly naive lady, but in fact she has built her career from the very beginning as a skilful businesswoman with incredible confidence. Her image was shaped as much by her concealment of her Jewish roots, as by her mysteriousness and her possibly artificial rural dialect. The same awareness is reflected in her choice of subjects, which fit neatly into the political systems of the given day: she produced works on religious themes during the pre-war Christian era, and according to the ideology of the time, when the communist approach was in vogue during the harsh regime of Mátyás Rákosi. Under the more permissive socialism of János Kádár, she was able to return to religious works, although these were no longer monumental. And rural genre scenes were always grateful subjects, regardless of the political systems. Although she complained that the demand for her smaller sculptures was too great, she met it diligently, almost on a large-scale production.

Her works are easy to understand, and do not require any particular knowledge of art history. Whether they are colourful or pale, sweet or dramatic, fairytale-like or realistic, religious or secular, her timeless works exude charm and warmth, combined with unrivalled professionalism. Everyone will find something that speaks to her/him personally. This is the greatest secret of Margit Kovács’s popularity.

Her exhibitions in Győr or Szentendre are definitely worth a visit.

Translated by Viktor and György Polgár

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Acknowledgements

I am grateful to my cousin Esther Bánki, Director of the Van ‘t Lindenhout Museum in the Netherlands, for her advice and information she gave

and to Zsófia Júlia Szilágyi, Head of Department of the Ferenczy Museum Centre and curator of the Kovács Margit Museum in Szentendre, for the information received.

Resources

• Yearbook of the Győr Girls’ High School (Győr, 1917)
• Esther Bánki: Uncle Gyula, Website of the Jewish Roots in Győr Foundation
• Esther Bánki: verbal information
• Hivatásának szerelmese – 120 éve született Kovács Margit (Hungarian News Agency, November 30, 2022)
• Hulej Emese: Az érthető, a szerethető, a rejtélyes – ki volt Kovács Margit? (Magyar Krónika)
• Makrai Sonja: A művész, akit a Horthy-korszakot követően a kommunista éra is elfogadott (Magyar Hang, May 3, 2019)
• Kenyeres Ágnes (editor): Magyar életrajzi lexikon, javított, átdolgozott kiadás (Arcanum Adatbázis Kiadó Kft.)
• Nóra Veszprémi: Artwork of the Month, December 2022: Bundt-Cake Madonna by Margit Kovács (1938) – Continuity/Rupture: Art and Architecture in Central Europe, 2022. 12. 27.
• Ősz Katalin: A nővér telefonált… (Családi Lap)
• P. Brestyánszky Ilona: Kovács Margit (1982, Corvina – Képzőművészeti Alap Kiadóvállalata)
• Szilágyi Zsófia Júlia: verbal information
• Unknown author: Lelke legyen bekötve az élet kötelékébe (Vásárhelyi Hírek, September 19, 2014)

HDKE exhibition on Jewish civil life in Győr between 1867 and 1944

The Holocaust Documentation Centre and Memorial Collection (HDKE) has opened a new temporary exhibition at the Páva Street institution, which is directly related to the main activities of our Foundation and the 2024 World Reunion.

The staff of the Centre, headed by Norbert Glässer, curator of the project, have succeeded in putting together a rich collection of material in an attractive and easily accessible format.

They give an insight into the emergence of modern Győr, which was greatly influenced by industrial development in the last third of the 19th century. The Jewish bourgeoisie of Győr played a significant role in this development. The exhibition shows the Jewish civil life of Győr, which was brought to an abrupt end by the Holocaust.

The official opening took place on 5 November this year.

We are planning to present the theme of this exhibition at a joint Conference of our Foundation and the HDKE in the framework of the 2024 World Reunion. Ideally, the exhibited collection will be available to visitors in Győr at that time.

It is warmly recommended to all those interested in the life of the former Jewish citizens of Győr to visit the exhibition (1094 Budapest, Páva utca 39).

Cover page: extract from the invitation card

Why did Bandi Schima write a letter to Manó Adler?

The life of Bandi Schima

Bandi Schima, master craftsman awarded the distinction Master of the Gold Ribbon, found his place at the forefront of Hungarian and European ironwork and applied arts between the two World Wars with his high quality religious and secular, artistic and applied works. He donated his legacy to the museum in Győr, where it was received in 1962.

András Schima was born on 23 November 1882 in Orosháza in a poor, Swabian family. He inherited his manual skills from his father, a mechanical fitter, who himself had experimented with metal objects. Hoping for a better life, the family moved to Arad, where Bandi attended elementary school. As a schoolboy, he excelled in drawing. He continued his studies at the Arad Metal School, where he was a regular winner of school exhibitions and house design competitions. In 1898, he won a design competition at his vocational school with his entry under the title Miklós Toldi, and was awarded a scholarship to complete his studies.

Initially he worked as a locksmith, and then, with a scholarship from the Arad Chamber of Industry, he travelled to Berlin, where he graduated from the Academy of Applied Arts.

After graduation, he moved to Bratislava and became a teacher at the local school of wood and metalwork. His summary charts were used as teaching material in industrial schools throughout the country.

In 1909, at the age of 27, he arrived in Győr.

In 1914, he makes an ornamental axe for the German Emperor Wilhelm II, which wins the Emperor’s approval, so he sends Schima a brilliant-embellished tie pin as a gesture. In 1916, he sends a wreath of victory to the Turkish Sultan Mohammed V, who awards him the Silver Medal of Arts in recognition.

From 1919, Bandi Schima teaches at the Royal Hungarian State School of Wood and Metal Industry in Győr (now the Jedlik Ányos Mechanical and Information Technology College).

His career as a teacher lasted until 1927, from then on, he lived only for the art of engraving, and he opened a workshop in Zombor utca, Győr. He regularly exhibited at the Fine and Applied Arts Society of Győr.

In 1928, he visited Austria, Germany and France on a study trip to Western Europe.

In 1932, he was awarded the title of Master of the Gold Ribbon of Hungary at the 4th National Crafts Exhibition and Gold Ribbon Master Competition.

In 1936, he won an Italian scholarship to study in Italy, but only set off in 1937, partly because of the protracted work on his gift to Mussolini (!) and partly because he was short of money. On the occasion of this visit, he presented the Duce with a metal-ornamented oxen horn…

Back home, he created church ornaments, religious objects, home furnishings, signboards and much more.

His life was the subject of a reportage film, and in 1958 it was shown in many cinemas as “Iron Flowers” in the 22nd Film News. In the year of his death, he was nominated for the Kossuth Prize, but he fell ill and died of pneumonia in April 1959. He could not receive the Kossuth Prize.

A street in Győr bears his name near his former workshop.

The Rómer Flóris Museum of Art and History has published studies on Bandi Schima, edited by Emese Pápai, art historian. The album is illustrated with a rich collection of photographs from the artist’s post humus exhibition (2017, Magyar Ispita, Győr). The studies in the album cover Schima’s life, work, correspondence and photographic legacy.

Why did Bandi Schima write a letter to Manó Adler?

Manó Adler (known to the author of this article as “Manó Bácsi”), an architect from Győr, played an active role in the Győr Neologue Community and in the recovery of the bereaved community after his return from forced labour service and the tragic murder of his family in Auschwitz. He designed and led the construction of a completely unique pyramid-shaped Holocaust Monument in the Jewish cemetery in Győr-Sziget.

Bandi Schima was commissioned by the Jewish community leaders to create the decorative metalwork for the Monument .

The Monument was unveiled on 15 June 1947. It is known that the ceremony was attended by Zoltán Tildy, President of the Republic, less known that he was accompanied by Prime Minister Lajos Dinnyés, and ministers István Dr. Ries, Gyula Ortutay and Ernő Mihályfi. Of course, national and local Jewish organizations, as well as top leaders of the American Joint and the town of Győr, were also present. Representatives of the Red Army were in attendance.

To recall an always topical quote from Prime Minister Dinnyés’ speech:

“… no truer and nobler verdict can be delivered by Hungarian democracy than that we all pledge to create a life under Hungarian skies that will make it impossible for hatred, inhumanity and evil to reappear within the borders of our country” – History of the Jewish Community of Győr, 1930-1947 (see Sources)

On 18 June 1947, three days after the unveiling ceremony, Manó Adler received a letter from Bandi Schima. This unique letter, reflecting Schima’s particular formal demands and the merits of Adler’s work as an architect, was preserved by the architect’s son György.

Here is the transcript of the handwritten letter:

„Addressed with due respect to Mr Manó Adler Architect Győr Dugonits utca 11.

From: Bandi A. Schima Master of Applied Arts H. Zombor utca 46

Dear Mr Architect,

I don’t usually push my luck at ceremonies. I preferred to go to the cemetery the next morning, when I could admire a magnificent work of art: your beautiful work.

Although I was already familiar with your unusual concept after your kind explanations and drawings, which already appealed to me, now that your concept has been translated into space and the dimensions are revealed in reality, only now does the artist really feel the magnificent juxtaposition of antique and modern lines, alongside the profound symbolism.

I was also pleasantly disappointed with the interior of the memorial, which is more monumental than I had imagined, not to mention the subtle atmosphere of solemn reverence created by the subdued smooth walls, the cleverly resolved ceiling design and the modest decorative band of letters. I regret, however, that, as I saw, there is something wrong with the book cabin, but I was also struck by the book … (Schima does not continue the sentence; here he speaks certainly about the Book of Martyrs listing the deportation victims – ed.).

The pedestal, staircase and entrance are all organically connected to the large mass of stone by their relatively filigree design.

The placement of the monument itself is extremely fortunate, and yet it is a pity that it is so far away from the city’s bloodstream and so isolated in a cemetery.

Summa-summarum: a fine and lasting work accomplished by you, dear Mr Architect, for which I offer you my sincere congratulations and warm handshake, and I remain with the high esteem which I always hold for the creative fellow human being.

Győr, 18 June 1947

                                                                               Schima B.

Bandi Schima also created other works to preserve the memory of the tragedy of the Jews of Győr, namely the Book of Martyrs, which contains the names of the victims. For many decades, this completely original metal work, which preserves the names of the murdered, was on display in the Pyramid Hall, where relatives could search for entries about their family members, also in Schima’s handwriting.

For several years now, the book has been housed in the Prayer Room of the Jewish Community of Győr, where its physical integrity is better ensured. It has been replaced by a printed list of names in the cemetery. As new names of martyrs appear, Schima’s original list of names is always completed in his style, by hand.

Schima, the great metalsmith was attracted to the powerful (Turkish sultan, German emperor, Italian dictator). Apart from this moment, I have not been able to find out his views about the world, since there are hardly any trace of them, except perhaps the caricature of the German Chancellor of the First World War published in this post and similar drawings.

His art and works in memory of the victims of the Holocaust are definitely enduring.

My father, whose extensive family, including wife and children had also perished in the Auschwitz hell, held the artist in high esteem.

Compiled, edited and translated from Hungarian by Péter Krausz

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Special thanks to Gyuri (György Adler) for making Bandi Schima’s letter available for this publication and for his useful remarks on the draft text.

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I would also like to thank Dr. Emese Pápai, art historian, chief museologist, Head of Department, Contemporary Cultural Centre, Rómer Flóris Museum of Art and History, Győr, for her important comments, which greatly improved the first part of the article.

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Sources:

• Megyerikum
• Jedlik Ányos Gépipari és Informatikai Technikum
• Journal of Law and Political Science, Vol. 10, No. 1, 2018 (Jog- és Politikatudományi Folyóirat, 10. évf. 1. sz, 2018)
• Bandi A. Schima, master craftsman, Master of the Gold Ribbon (1882-1959), studies, 2018, Emese Pápai, Rómer Flóris Museum of Art and History
• Blogs Köztérkép
• History of the Jewish Community of Győr, 1930-1947; István Domán, MIOK, Budapest, 1979, p 63
• Ernő Munkácsi, Wikipedia

„Once in Ecuador she was mesmerized by the colors textures and tradition of folk art and began to collect and curate the first popular art collection in Ecuador, a collection that would later be touring the world.” [1]

Olga Fisch Anhalzer, painter and textile artist, was born in Budapest in 1901 and died in Quito (Ecuador) in 1990. Her father was a porcelain merchant and she was the fifth child in a line of four brothers.

From an early age she wanted to be a painter.

Her family moved to Győr in 1906.

Olga attended the Hungarian State High School for Girls and Gymnasium in Győr (Kazinczy Ferenc Gimnázium today) as from 1911 until the end of the 1915-16 school-year, thereafter she became a private student at the Benedictine Gymnasium in Győr.

During the Council Republic in Hungary, she painted political posters. She then moved to Vienna, where she became a ceramics designer at the Wiener Werkstätte. [2]

Besides her work, she illustrated books and worked for Népszava in Budapest (daily paper of the Social Democrats established in 1873 – ed.).

In 1920, she used her paternal inheritance to move to Düsseldorf, where she met and married the sculptor Jupp Rübsam.

She studied at the Düsseldorf Academy of Arts. She and her husband worked together, creating public sculptures, painting and drawing. Around 1930 they divorced, but remained on good terms – shortly afterwards she married Béla Fisch, a trader in an Italian-Yugoslavian cement factory.

She and her husband travelled a lot, and she was able to spend a whole year in Africa (Algeria, Senegal, Eritrea). They returned to Germany in 1934, but sensing the spread of Nazi ideology, they returned to Győr.

But they also perceived the historical dangers in Hungary. So, they left for Brazil aboard a Zeppelin airship. In 1939, they finally settled in Quito, capital of Ecuador, with the support of Olga’s brother. Here she became a professor at the local school of fine arts.

She started weaving her own unique carpets combining Hungarian and Indian motifs, and discovered the art of the craftsmen of the Indian villages around Quito. In 1940, by chance, he ran into Lincoln Kirstein, then director of MoMa New York [3], who made her an offer to buy a rug for 300 dollars, an important sum at that time. Olga Fisch used this money, among other things, to open her folklore gallery in Quito in 1942, which is still in operation today.

Her relationship with the Native American folk artists soon became a two-way street: she learned from them their motifs, weaving techniques and exotic use of materials, and taught them to use stronger knotting, typical of Persian rugs, instead of the local loose weaving. At the same time, she became a regular customer and buyer for the Indian artists. She was not only interested in carpets: she also had interest in costumes, masks, musical instruments, paintings and ceramics, as well as clothing, from classic ponchos to modern garments.

Next to the gallery, she ran her own carpet weaving workshop, where she also worked a lot. She organised fashion shows, the business became internationally known and she had to move to larger premises in the 1960s. Her husband died in 1958, from then on, she ran the business alone, later with her niece and her descendants.

Not only did she collect and trade, but in 1962 she was instrumental in the creation of the Instituto Ecuatoriano de Folklore (Ecuadorian Institute of Folklore), documenting art that had previously been of no interest to anyone, and founding a scientific journal. Her role in drawing the attention of Ecuadorian intellectuals to ancient indigenous art is indisputable.

Some accuse Fisch of “commercialising” Indian folk art, as she replaced the free hand of the artist with commissioned pieces. Others argue that the unintentional infiltration of Hungarian forms and the mixing of Indian and Hungarian folk art has broken the integrity of Ecuadorian folk art. Others consider it most significant that she discovered and made visible to others the indigenous values and that the inhabitants of many villages were able to earn a secure livelihood through Fisch’s work in the organizing and trading of the indigenous culture.

The Christian Science Monitor quoted her in 1980 and wrote this: “‘When I first started collecting the local Indian art and then opened this gallery, people were shocked,’ she says. I remember someone asking, ‘How can you, as a cultured European woman, collect this trash?’ Largely because of the efforts of Olga Fisch the artifacts produced by Ecuador’s 250 Indian tribes are no longer regarded as trash. Over the decades she has helped thousands of Indian artists and craftsmen acquire the means of placing their wares in the world market.”

Fisch visited her home country once more in 1987. Several exhibitions were held in Hungary: in 1988, her collection of Indian art was shown at the Ethnographic Museum.

In Ecuador, Fisch’s name is well known, but even in the United States of America, several public collections, the Lincoln Center, the MoMa and the United Nations Palace hold a weaving of her. In 2025, a major exhibition of Olga’s legacy will be organised at the National Museum of Ecuador. Her niece, Margarita Anhalzer, is working on a book about the adventurous life of Olga Fisch.

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Compiled and English translation by Péter Krausz

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Sources:

Wikipedia click (with modifications) and click

eLibrary

The Christian Science Monitor, 1981. szeptember 15

El Mundo

Hungarian State High School for Girls and Gymnasium, Budapest, Könyvtár | Hungaricana; Arcanum (thanks for the information to Esther Bánki, Netherlands)

St Benedict’s Catholic High School, Győr, 1917 Könyvtár | Hungaricana (thanks for the precision to Esther Bánki, Netherlands)

Thanks to Olga Fisch’s niece, Margarita Anhalzer, who lives in Quito, for her personal details and clarifications.

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[1] https://olgafisch.com/pages/about-us

[2] The Wiener Werkstätte (Engl.: Vienna Workshop), established in 1903 by the graphic designer and painter Koloman Moser, the architect Josef Hoffmann and the patron Fritz Waerndorfer, was a productive association in Vienna, Austria that brought together architects, artists, designers and artisans working in ceramics, fashion, silver, furniture and the graphic arts. The Workshop was “dedicated to the artistic production of utilitarian items in a wide range of media, including metalwork, leatherwork, bookbinding, woodworking, ceramics, postcards and graphic art, and jewelry.” It is regarded as a pioneer of modern design, and its influence can be seen in later styles such as Bauhaus and Art Deco.

[3] The Christian Science Monitor, 15 September 1981

Handicrafts by Judit Siklósi in memory of those killed in the Holocaust

I started creating tapestries depicting Hungarian synagogues because my husband, Vilmos Siklósi, born in Budapest was a child of survivors. When we moved to Zalaegerszeg in 1991, he founded the “Peace Shalom Hungarian-Israeli Friendship Society” to promote cultural and economic exchanges between the two peoples.

In 1995, the Jews of Zalaegerszeg awoke from their sleep and re-established the local Jewish community. At that time there were still survivors in and around Zalaegerszeg. My husband led the community until his death.

In 2004, the synagogue in Zalaegerszeg turned 100 years old currently serving as an exhibition and concert hall. For this anniversary I sewed the first tapestry depicting the synagogue in Zalaegerszeg. Aunt Bözsi, Imréné Anhalczer, a survivor, helped me to buy the material for my first creation. The tapestry measures 130×160 cm, has 500,000 stitches and was made in 1’700 man-hours.

Seeing this work, Borgó (Dr. István Csaba György István [BORGO] (b. 10 May 1950, Marosvásárhely, RO, 10 May 1950), a Hungarian painter, graphic artist, tapestry designer, sculptor and teacher of Transylvanian origin – editor) said that what I had realized was so beautiful that he would organize an exhibition of it if there were more such works. After all, it was not he who organised my first exhibition, and I haven’t met him since, but it was on his suggestion that I should sew more that I took up preparing synagogue tapestries.

In addition to synagogues, I also sew Jewish holiday images and symbols.

How are these pieces made? I draw the synagogue building myself on the tapestry fabric and follow the drawing with tapestry stitching. Most of the pictures are sized 40×50 cm.

So far, I have had eighteen exhibitions including abroad, e.g. in Marosvásárhely. Other venues include Hévíz, Zalaegerszeg, Bak, Szombathely, Mosonmagyaróvár, Győr, Pécs, Budapest (ORZSE), Szolnok, Tiszafüred, Szekszárd, Újpest, Siófok, Nagyatád (all in Hungary – editor). Several newspaper articles about these exhibitions were published, for example in Új Élet (“New Life” – newspaper of the Association of Jewish Communities in Hungary – editor). If I am invited to an exhibition anywhere, I am happy to go and produce a tapestry of the synagogue of the inviting city as a memento.

In Nagyatád, I was confronted with the fact that the people of the countryside do not even know that a synagogue and a Jewish community once existed in their town. It was then that I realised that preserving the memories of synagogues is a tribute, a kind of “cultural mission” to the memory of our fellow human beings who were cruelly killed in the Holocaust.

I sew colour and black and white tapestries, the latter of synagogues that no longer exist because even the buildings have been destroyed, leaving no trace or memory of them.

In short, I started the series to create pieces that would serve as a reminder and at the same time strengthen the connection of the local audience, of the city, to a destroyed piece of our common past.

Judit Siklósi

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Those interested and wanting to purchase or order a piece may want to contact Judit at the following address: zegjuti@gmail.com (ed.)

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Edited and English translation by Péter Krausz

Historical model changes in Győr and their relationship with the religious (ethnic) structure and spatial location of the population

Excerpts from a study by Dr Gyula Szakál, Associate Professor in ret., Economic Historian, Széchenyi István University, Győr

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In the first part, you learned how the Jewish population of Győr came into being and how it co-existed with the majority community of other religions over the centuries. In part two, you will learn how the elite of Győr responded to the political crisis and human tragedy of 1944.

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The reaction of the Győr elite to the political and human crisis of 1944

An important component of the economic mentality is the ability to gain, keep and overcome disadvantages. We have seen that from the 1850s to the turn of the 1890s, all the behavioural traits appeared in Győr. To what was due this flexibility and sense of reality? Here we must return to the historical path and the time factor. In our city – as in the country as a whole – the organic development of local society from the 1848-49 War of Independence to the Second World War or its eve (here I mean the time of adopting the restrictive laws on Jews) was not disrupted by external political forces. Within families and in the micro- and macro-textures of the urban elite, two or three generations of experience and patterns of behaviour were passed on. [5]

The roots of this pattern of behaviour go back to the city’s more distant past. The need and struggle to change from military town, episcopal city, patrician town, open trading town and then industrial town, the acceptance of the New has always won. Economic and human relations have always been open. This is the reason for the city’s inclusiveness.

The attitude of Győr’s elite was characterised by a sense of reality and social awareness, solidarity and personal responsibility. … In spite of overcoming economic crises and successful model changes, urban elites and their values were also affected by the events of the Second World War, including the laws on Jews and attitudes towards them.

In any case, from the mid-19th century onwards, Győr’s Jewish society became very quickly integrated with the city’s other religious populations. This was a consequence of the overwhelming majority of the Jewish population of the town belonging to the Neologue community and the resulting physical appearance and, crucially, mentality. Naturally, this also required the welcoming, opportunity-seeking attitude of the Christian economic and political elite as a partner. In industrial joint-stock companies seeking to modernise local economic life, or even in Masonic lodges attempting to improve society, the city’s most prominent citizens could cooperate regardless of their religious affiliation. One, if not the decisive, reason for this was that business competition was not linked to ethnicity but to personal performance.

The quality of a society – and this is even more true for local communities – depends on how it treats immigrant aliens, minority religious and ethnic groups. In the case of Győr, 10% of the population after the turn of the century was Jewish. Among the economic elite, they held a stable position of around 30%, while in the Legislative Committee (of the city) they accounted for 20-30% of the members. They were therefore an inescapable part of the economic and political life of Győr. If we look at the network of relations and the culture of interaction in the bourgeois society of the time, we do not find any tensions that were specifically induced by the antagonism between the Jewish and Christian communities. The best example of this is the Masonic lodge Philanthropy, founded in 1901, in which Christian citizens were involved in addition to Jewish members. Two memoirs, in which no grievances are mentioned, testify to the smooth relations between the two religious groups. [6]

However, it is worth mentioning the daily Dunántúli Hírlap, published by the Bishop’s Office of Győr, in which more cautious, sometimes harsher, biting articles were regularly published. Their impact was negligible. We asked about this in conversations with the descendants of successful entrepreneurs (the second generation could still remember the 1910s and 1920s), but they did not perceive such a problem.

This seamless relationship, the interplay of social events and obligations, is illustrated by a series of ceremonies that accompanied the unveiling of a marble plaque commemorating the 85 Jewish heroes of Győr who died in World War I. It was the autumn of 1923 … The ceremony was attended by a delegation from the Ministry of Defence, the Győr Regiment, the leaders of the city and county administration and representatives of Christian churches. [7] The county bishop of Győr, Antal Fetser, himself spoke moving words of remembrance.

Peace continued and was extended well into the 1930s. In the spring of 1931, on the occasion of the quarter-century anniversary of the inauguration of the county bishop, Dr. Mór Schwarz, Chief Rabbi of Győr, praised the activities of the high priest with striking respect, obviously not without oratorical turns. Almost all Jews in Győr remembered that the wave of anti-Semitism that had appeared at the beginning of the 1920s had largely bypassed the city.

Coexistence and supportive relationships worked on several levels. Around the turn of the century, Ignác Schreiber, a descendant of a former wealthy grain merchant family, set up a foundation to support students, helping those in need regardless of their religious affiliation. The foundation of Hermann Back – the family had long been baptised – helped start-up entrepreneurs.

Even after the First World War, the establishment of various foundations was linked to Jewish citizens of Győr. Berta Kohn and her sister Jenny Kohn support the city hospital with a substantial sum of money, which is even appreciated by the Minister of the Interior, Ferenc Keresztes Fischer. In June 1925, the industrialists Lajos Buchwald and János H. Schmiedl registered a foundation to help workers. No wonder that the city’s authoritative bourgeois elite does not allow any anti-Semitic voices anywhere near it. In August 1934, the mayor, Dr. Ferenc Szauter, praised the activities of the Chief Rabbi Dr Mór Schwarz, a member of the General Assembly, and the Legislative Committee recorded this in a resolution.

It cannot be considered a coincidence that the combined support of the liberal and social democratic parties in Győr far exceeded that of the conservative parties in the Horthy regime. In fact, when in 1939, in the absence of liberal parties, only the Hungarian Social Democratic Party existed, it received far more support from local voters in percentage terms than in Budapest. The relations described above thus not only reflect the values of the wealthy bourgeois elite, but also the opinion of a broad section of the population of Győr.

Whereas the economic power field was reorganised earlier, the major political power field was reorganised later. The Second law on Jews abolished the daily Győri Hírlap and from 1 October 1939, with the publication of the Győri Nemzeti Hírlap (National Newspaper), the right-wing and even extreme right-wing media took over the provision of information to the citizens of the city. Among the local bourgeoisie, an attempt had already been made to bring about a (political) realignment, also at the behest of the central authorities.

In July 1937, a local group of the Baross Szövetség (Baross Association, a nationwide social association founded by tradesmen and craftsmen in 1919. Only members of Christian denominations were admitted – ed.), founded in 1919, was set up in Győr.[8] Its first hesitant local steps were limited to communicating the news from the capital and the central patterns of behaviour (expectations). A review of the association’s local membership list suggests that the mainstream urban bourgeoisie approached the organisation with due caution. Despite all the enticements of benefits, they were preoccupied with a lot of petty personal matters. Until they gained local publicity, their visibility was not very high. It was not only the more moderate bourgeoisie of Győr that kept their distance, even their leaders were not very prestigious. This organisation of so-called national Christian craftsmen and merchants was headed first by a lawyer and then by a doctor. It is true that the latter was extremely ambitious, but few people joined him in his activities.

Simultaneously with the events of the war, anti-Semitic language became a permanent feature of the local press. It was constructed quite simply. Jews were either helping ‘foreign agents’ to undermine the chances of victory in the war, or ‘trying to corrupt young Christian girls’, or spreading rumours. The citizens of Győr were bombarded with factoids (in today’s parlance, “fake news” – ed.). And from 1944 onwards, measures taken against the Jews were regularly reported on. Of course, news stories condemning Christian citizens who helped the Jews, highlighting the punishment imposed on them by the law, could not be neglected.

The question for us is how the people of Győr reacted to this. The effect of the fervent anti-Semitism fomented by the local newspaper was not satisfactory to the editors, and in several cases, it was reported with strong disapproval.

On April 21, 1944, 15-20 members of the Attila József Circle of Győr (Attila József (1905-1937), a progressive Hungarian poet – ed.) held a protest walk on Baross Street, wearing yellow carnations in their jackets. It took no small courage to do this simple act in those days, we might add. What we have here is essentially a humane expression of the cultural elite. But just as important for us is what the city’s political elite have been doing in these weeks.

The most difficult test has been the implementation of the decree on ghettoisation. It should not be forgotten that this had to be carried out against Jewish citizens who were members of the municipal council for a longer or shorter period of time, and therefore had a working relationship with the mayor and the drafters of the decree. Their number was not small, since over the previous 20 years or so, between 50 and 100 people had appeared in the municipal Legislative Committee as members of the Jewish community, either as important tax payers and voters or as members of the religious representation.

The mayor of the city, Jenő Koller, presented the most humane solution to the Prime Minister. Based on the model of the capital city, he formed three groups of houses. Accordingly, there would be pure Jewish, pure Christian and mixed streets. Looking at the first plan, we can see that the so-called Jewish streets and squares (Batthyány Square, Bisinger Promenade, Deák Ferenc, Kisfaludy, Király, Dunaszer, Czuczor and Dr Kovács Pál Streets) already had a large number of Jewish-owned houses and apartments, as well as large floor areas and very good running water and bathroom facilities. As few people as possible would have had to move, families could have helped each other, and sanitary conditions were good.

The move to the ghetto had already begun when Interior Minister Andor Jaross disagreed, saying that the Jewish population of Győr should be relocated to a well-controlled and isolated area. The new location of the ghetto was designated on 15 May 1944, and was situated in the area bordered by the Moson-Danube, the Rábca and Bercsényi park. Needless to say, this was a decidedly inhumane solution on the part of the Minister of the Interior. From the 1870s onwards, the Jewish and non-Jewish populations of Győr gradually became mixed. The wealthier citizens moved from the former Jewish district to the central parts of the city. From 1904, with the unification of Sziget and Győr, this process accelerated even more. Christian citizens bought the smaller houses and flats, which were left empty and of low comfort there. Here, too, there was finally a thorough mix-up … Conditions here were much worse. Houses were small, space was tight and sanitary conditions were very poor. Even this did not please the Home Secretary. The city tried to postpone the resettlement to the third and absolutely horrible ghetto, but the elite of Győr were completely helpless, although even the church leaders tried their best. …

Vilmos Apor, who took up his episcopal office in Győr during the period of the adoption of the third law on Jews, did his best to help the persecuted. He used all the means at his disposal for their protection. As president of the Hungarian Holy Cross Association, he provided them with legal and material aid and also sought to relieve the pressure on the Jews through his contacts. He wrote letters and sent telegrams to church and secular leaders. Archival records show that, in his defence of the Jews, he became involved in a heated exchange with the county’s government commissioner, who was forced to tell him that there was nothing more he could do. In June 1944, he personally visited the barracks on Buda Street to bring food, medicine and spiritual aid to Christians of Jewish origin. But the guards turned him back in a brutal and humiliating manner. The barracks on Buda Street were built as an emergency military hospital during World War I. By 1944 they were almost uninhabitable. Who would have thought that this ruin would be the home of thousands of citizens of Győr, even if only for a short time.

The Arch-abbot of the Benedictine Order in Pannonhalma, Kelemen Krizostom, who was closely connected to Győr, was more successful thanks to his position. He contacted the Hungarian representative of the International Red Cross and they agreed to consider the whole settlement of Pannonhalma as a children’s shelter and thus put it under the protection of the Red Cross. His goal was achieved, and thousands of Jews among the refugees managed to survive the war. In 1998, he was awarded the “Righteous Among the Nations” medal for his achievements.

The civic tolerant value model of Győr, which permeated the churches here, tried to do something for the persecuted even during the time of the Holocaust. However, greater historical power structures overruled the destiny of the country and the life of the settlements within it.

Unfortunately, the values and attitudes that had been formed over a long period of time could not be handed down through the generations, as the life of the country and its towns and villages was repeatedly shattered from the late 1930s onwards, and the guiding principle became the denial of the past rather than its continuation.

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[5] As a result of the traumatic changes following the First World War, Győr suffered perhaps the least loss of all the large towns close to borders. (There are no specific studies on this.)

[6] Quittner 1996; Körner 2005.

[7] Lónyai 2004. The years between the two world wars and the events of the Holocaust have so far only been briefly reviewed from this perspective by Sándor Lónyai. Detailed knowledge of the events still requires much research.

[8] Archives of the City of Győr X/1. Documents of the Győr group of the Baross Association 1937-1944. These documents are still completely unprocessed.

SOURCES

Computer processing of ecclesiastical sematisms in the Győr-Moson-Sopron County Archives

Computer processing of the list of the instructions of the second law on Jews, which is kept as a separate list in the archives of the City of Győr

Archives of the City of Győr X/1. Records of the Győr Group of the Baross Association 1937-1944. Data have been taken from the records, but the source as a whole is completely unprocessed

LITERATURE QUOTED

Borovszki Samu: Counties and towns of Hungary, Győr county; Budapest, 1910

Eva Quittner: Pebbles of memory Győr, 1996

József Kemény: The History of the Jews of Győr, Győr, 1930.

András Körner: Taste of the past, Budapest, 2005

Sándor Lónyai: From the numerus clausus to Auschwitz, Budapest, 2004

Lajos Gecsényi: Győr guilds in the second half of the 16th century and the first half of the 17th century; Arrabona 21, 1979.

Lajos Gecsényi: Soldiers and citizens in the fortresses of Győr in the 16th and 17th centuries; Military History Publications, 1984

Gyula Szakál: Citizen entrepreneurs in Győr; Budapest, 2002

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This study was published in the journal Műhely (Vol. 36, No. 2, 2013). Republishing rights were granted by Dr. Gyula Szakál.

The pictures are not included in the study, they are for illustration purposes only.

Edited and translated into English by Péter Krausz.

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Historical model changes in Győr and their relationship with the religious (ethnic) structure and spatial location of the population

Excerpts from a study by Dr Gyula Szakál, Associate Professor in ret., Historian of economic relationships, Széchenyi István University, Győr

Introductory reflections

Győr … in 1743, having bought its way out, was elevated to the rank of free royal city. It could have remained a peaceful patrician town, but two generations later it was already on the path to becoming a grain trading city. Subsequent to the opportunity to trade in agricultural produce closing (1870s), there was a brief period of livestock trade, and then, recognising its limitations, the local elite quickly moved towards the establishment of modern manufacturing industry. …

How was this linked to the ethnic and religious structure of the city and its spatial location? The uniqueness of Győr was that within a relatively small radius, four settlements were divided by rivers and legally separated, while these parts were functionally completely united. For a long time, the three rivers were also the boundaries of the municipalities. Győr and the associated Újváros were located in the inner part of the city, bordered by the Danube, the Rába and the Rábca, while Sziget, Révfalu and Pataháza were located in the outer parts as independent villages. This legal status was maintained until 1905. The spatial separation also meant the division of religious groups.

…

Religious conflicts and the urban space

… the evangelical population, or its elite, was an economically innovative, successful stratum. This group represented 6-7% of the urban population, and among the richest (a group of 250 of the richest taxpayers) their share was around 15-20% until the early 1900s. The proportions are very similar to the performance of Jewish entrepreneurs. …

Emergence of the Jewish population

The third religion and ethnicity whose increase in numbers was linked to the function of the military town was Judaism. There are no direct archival records until the 1800s, but there are indirect references to their presence. The number of soldiers increased or decreased, but it certainly meant an increase in consumption. In particular, the role of mobile traders grew in the preparation of military campaigns. There are also indications that military commanders did not despise the share of the surplus income of military contractors. In another period – 1720 – there are also indications that under the protection of General Heister, ‘large numbers’ of Jews, Greeks, Serbs and Armenians settled in the city, paying only to him for protection. [1]   It is quite certain that this practice could not have been otherwise in the past. There are also indications that in the town, which was rebuilt after the fire of 1567, there was already a ‘Judengasse’ and a house used as a synagogue close to it. If we look at the geographical location, these were located right on the edge of the most dangerous part of the city wall.

The fate and geographic movement of the Jews of Győr took on a particular shape as the role of the military town faded. The settlement became a free royal town from 1743, but a council decision to expel the Jews from the town was taken as early as 11 December 1747. We do not know exactly how many people were affected, but it could not have been more than 300. As in the case of the evangelists, the expulsion was symbolic. They were moved to the village of Sziget, on the other bank of the Rábca River, which was owned by the bishop. The earliest record we have is from 1791, when the catholic church allowed 30 families to settle there for 200 Ft a year. Although it forbids the admission of further families, it also grants the community full autonomy. They can maintain a house of prayer, elect a judge who, in addition to internal affairs, settles disputes even between Jews and Christians. [2]

If you look at the number of families, you can only think of large families. The first accurate data is recorded in the ecclesiastical sematisms (directories; kept by village parish priests, including data on the denominational distribution of the settlement – ed.) from 1804. Only 13 years have passed since the forced emigration, but this census mentions 351 Jews, which was 9.6% of the population. The space cut up by the rivers and the divergence of jurisdictions provided an opportunity to exclude them fully from the city, but in essence it did not happen, having moved only a few hundred metres away from the centre. From then on, however, this area became the centre of their geographical identity, even when most of them no longer lived there.

The case of the construction of the new synagogue is a good example of this. A religious community, when it becomes financially strong enough, wants to visually present its existence. From the Middle Ages to the present day, the most concise form of this has been the building of churches. It was not only a simple place of worship that was needed, but also, depending on financial strength or even political influence, its location was also important.

This was the case in Győr, when the community, which had become financially stronger thanks to the grain trade, wanted to build a representative synagogue instead of a very modest and unimpressive prayer house (one was on Kígyó Street – a very small street – and the other was hidden on the floor of a guest inn). At this time, still the early 1860s, the more affluent sections of Jewry already began to move out of the village of Sziget which had once housed them.

The internal tension in the community was palpable. Those pf the Sziget district – the poorer section of the group – felt that the townspeople were ‘trying to force them’ to leave the ancestral soil. Looking back to the late 1920s, József Kemény says there were serious struggles, various alternatives were considered, and finally the assembly of representatives, almost exclusively made up of very wealthy entrepreneurs, made the decision. … József Kemény assessed this decision: ‘The decision shows that the majority finally came to the conclusion that if the Jews were to develop their economic and cultural strength, if the centre of their activities is to be increasingly shifted to the city, their representative temple … must not remain in the former ghetto.’ [3]

It is worth noting that the land purchased was very close to the church of the Evangelical community (separated by a street), the church of the Carmelite Order (bordered by a river) and the bishop’s residence was only a few hundred metres away. The area was large enough for the planned synagogue to serve as a suitable landmark, or even a counterpoint. The city government of the time did not at all hinder this ambition (it should be noted that the representative body at this time was composed almost entirely of Christian citizens).

We have already mentioned that the realisation of these dreams was made possible by the intermediary trade in grain. Grain from Bačka-Banát and partly from the lowlands was transported via the Danube and Győr to the markets of Vienna, and from there onwards. This trading role directly provided a livelihood of some kind for 15-20% of the population. But the multiplier effect was greater.

The huge housing and public buildings (schools, law courts, other public buildings) in the city centre were built with the capital generated. And for the top merchants, the profit margins, sometimes in the hundreds of percent range, made it possible to pursue almost ‘American’ careers. For the Jewish population of the settlement, this situation provided an excellent opportunity. All the opportunities were open to them to develop their previously accumulated knowledge, capital and contacts. This two-decade period from the 1850s onwards was exploited most skilfully by Jewish entrepreneurs. The names of families such as Fleischmann, Ehler, Kőnig, Keppich and Schreiber became known and, at the same time, respected.

These wealthy entrepreneurs started a spatial movement towards the most frequented streets of Győr’s city centre. In the absence of research in this direction, we can only deduce from scattered data that the properties they owned were not only of considerable size, but also served as landmarks. The spatial movements of the wealthiest group were later followed by others.

From the processing of the ecclesiastical sematisms, the numerical growth of the Jewish population of Győr can be clearly seen.

Increase in the Jewish population of Győr

Year	Capita	Proportion of the population, %	Location
1804	351	9,6	Sziget district
1809	358	12,0	Sziget district
1819	354	20,5	Sziget district
1830	720	17,3	Sziget district
1840	850	19,8	Sziget district
1851	1243	31,0	Sziget district
1861	1318	35,2	Sziget district
1872	2885	12,0	Győr, entire city
1881	3826	14,6	Győr, entire city
1891	4036	17,3	Győr, entire city
1901	5317	15,7	Győr, entire city
1910	5418	9,6	Győr, entire city
1917	5647	13,2	Győr, entire city
1928	6023	12,3	Győr, entire city
1940	4967	9,7	Győr, entire city

Beyond tracing the numerical movement, the more interesting question for us is the relationship between the Christian and Jewish populations. Looking through the most diverse sources of contemporary social publicity – newspapers, publications – and oral recollections, we find only minimal manifestations of anti-Semitism in Győr.

The struggle between the entrepreneurial elite groups in Győr was evenly matched and in more than one case it was the Jewish entrepreneurs who had to cling to their Christian counterparts. If you look at the dozen or so bourgeois families that were considered the richest in the eyes of the public (tax lists confirmed this exactly), Christians were certainly predominant. There was no status envy, not even jealousy. In many cases of the change from a merchant town to an industrial model, we found a very high degree of cooperation between elite groups of different religions. The reason for this is to be found not only in the receptiveness, flexibility and Westernised civic values of the bourgeoisie of Győr, but also in the mentality of the local Jewish population. From very early on they lived together with local citizens, and if we look at the geography of immigration, they came from Western countries or from neighbouring settlements. According to the data in the local sematisms – and this was obviously also the case nationally – they very often, but by no means exclusively, performed commercial and other service functions in the surrounding villages.

In a nearby settlement, Gyömöre (about 25 km from Győr), a small Jewish colony with a Yeshiva was established by mid-19th century.  … We have scarce data to show that many people came from the surrounding settlements to Győr, which offered greater opportunities. The Jews of Győr belonged almost exclusively to the Neologue movement, in appearance and behaviour not unlike the bourgeoisie or even middle-class groups of the Christian faith as understood locally. According to an oral recollection, it was almost a unique opportunity to see Jews with sideburns and in kaftans in Győr, who did not move much from the Sziget district. Simply put, a Jewish entrepreneur in Győr is first an entrepreneur, then a Győr citizen and only then a Jew. Religiousness, as an identity-forming, group-forming, and thus bonding and excluding aspect in Győr, had been thoroughly weakened by the end of the 19th century. The pragmatic values of the bourgeoisie always overrode religious rifts.

The most prominent mayor of the town, Károly Zechmeister (1888-1906), was of Lutheran origin, while the town’s chief medical officer, Fülöp Pfeiffer, and the town’s fire chief, Ernő Erdély, were of Jewish origin.

Estate inventories show that the general practitioners of active Catholic public figures were very often Jewish. It is therefore not surprising that the Masonic lodge(s) of Károly Kisfaludy, which was very strong and active at the turn of the century and had many members of Jewish origin, … included also many Christian members.

Spatial framework of coexistence

The integration of Jewish entrepreneurs into Christian society can be considered seamless. There was no question of occupational or even territorial segregation. Computer processing of historical housing and address directories and of the census ordered by the second law on Jews (“Law IV, 1939, on the Restriction of the Participation of Jews in Public and Economic Life” – ed.) proves this. The latter list contains 506 items (names, occupations, streets). [4] Of these, 67 were deleted, who had died or moved away, and were included in the processing, since we were carrying out a social history analysis and these citizens had lived and worked in Győr for a long time.

We were mainly interested in occupations and their spatial location. In our case, the names were only important in terms of the proportion of families that were considered to be truly wealthy locally (among the richest). After all, there is always a family behind the names. Our estimate may be subject to subjective errors, but a maximum of 20 families could be considered truly wealthy. The list therefore ranges from the local Jewish upper middle class to the lower middle class. It excludes doctors, lawyers, and business as well as technical intellectuals. In Győr in the 1930s, the latter was a group of considerable size and power. Also missing were the poorer group who worked as workers or employees.

If we take the entrepreneurs in the list as a family of four, this represents 40% of the local Jewish population, but if we think of a family of six, it represents 60%. It is likely that the latter figure is similar to the real proportion. 63% of the entrepreneurs on the list were engaged in trade. We were able to sort the trading occupations (the same occupation was described in more than one way) into 36 major groups. The distribution of occupations shows the trend towards industrialisation and urbanisation. Food, general merchandise, textiles and clothing retailers accounted for nearly 60% of the 235 traders. They were essentially found in all trade sectors. It is rather interesting where they were few in number, even though stereotypes would have led one to expect their presence there. Only 24 entrepreneurs were involved in the second-hand clothing trade, the rawhide trade and the feather trade, which represented 5% of the whole group. Only 15 inn/pubkeepers were recorded (3.3%), although there were many more inns and pubs at the time. As a mere curiosity, 8 pig traders and one loan librarian were also recorded.

We were able to organise the 271 craftsmen into 38 major categories. Almost every profession of the time was represented. Nearly a third of the craftsmen were tailors, hatmakers, embroiderers and other clothing-related businesses. We also found 30 shoemakers (15% of Jewish craftsmen), 12 hairdressers (4.4%), 10 photographers and 6 dental technicians. We can assume that the majority of the photographers and dental technicians of the period were of Jewish origin. It is merely of interest to note that one goldsmith, one shipwright, one thresher, one window dresser and one cleaner were also recorded.

Perhaps more important than the occupational structure is the spatial location of businesses. According to contemporary records, there is at least one Jewish entrepreneur in 121 streets (squares) of Győr. It could be said that by the early 1930s they had already settled in the entire city. Of course, we know that the place of residence and the place of business did not always coincide, but for us it was the presence in the urban space that was important. Their home in the Sziget district of the time almost emptied between the two world wars. We could link at most 13-15% of the businesses recorded in the inventory to this area. In the immediately adjacent Újváros, their share could be a maximum of 10%. Obviously, the poorest layer still remained in their old location, but these are not recorded in the source.

Three quarters of businesses are concentrated on city centre streets. It should also be noted that doctors and lawyers of Jewish origin also lived in this area. (The downtown area occupies a circle with a maximum radius of 400 metres, which takes 15-20 minutes to walk around.) We found 53% of entrepreneurs in this area. However, one observation needs to be made. On Baross Street, which was the most representative shopping street in Győr at the time, their presence can be estimated at perhaps 30%. It would be good to know the religious distribution of the traders and craftsmen operating in each street. We can only estimate the 1938 data, as the closest accurate street list of businesses we have is from 1915.

It is also likely that the number of businesses could not have increased substantially from 1915 to the 1930s, as the geographical space of the street did not allow for this. We also assessed that in 1904, a business on Baross Street was a mere 5 m away, which had decreased to 4 m by 1915. The space of businesses could not have shrunk any more than this, or more precisely, their number could not have increased any more. The same proportion on the adjacent and equally long Deák Street fell from 9 to 7 m between the dates indicated. Thus, the proportion of Jewish businesses on the most important downtown streets can be put at less than 50%. More importantly, the premises of the leading businesses on Baross Street were quite large. This was the case with Ferenc Sándori’s hardware store, Jenő Kocsis’ department store, Gusztáv Kőnisgberg’s and Géza Alexy’s shops. They were Christian entrepreneurs.

There is a surviving photograph of the Salzer brothers’ shop, which was very modest in size and we know that they had great difficulty in finding a place on Baross Street. The largest merchant’s house in the downtown area, which had two floors, was owned by the Catholic Kreszta family. On Kossuth Street, the longest street in Győr, which separates Sziget from Újváros and connects directly with the city centre, there were 170-180 businesses, of which we can estimate the proportion of Jewish businesses at 20% at most. Only one “Jewish Street” was found, Híd Street, where the proportion of Jewish entrepreneurs can be estimated at 90%. This was both a connecting and a dividing street between the three districts. They catered specifically to the needs of the poorer layers of the urban population, with their very modest-looking shops.

END OF THE FIRST PART

Be sure to read the Second Part to find out how the Győr elite reacted to the political crisis and human tragedy of 1944.

[1] Borovszky 1910: 363.; [2] Quoted by Kemény 1930: 18.; [3] Kemény 1930: 67.; [4] Győr City Archives: separate lists

The list of the literature and sources used is provided in the Second Part.

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This study was published in the journal Műhely (Vol. 36, No. 2, 2013). Republishing rights were granted by Dr Gyula Szakál.

The pictures published here are not included in the study, they are for illustration purposes only.

Edited and translated into English by Péter Krausz.

Photo report by István Nagy and Memorial Addresses

The commemoration ceremony in the funeral parlour of the Győr-sziget cemetery took place on a beautiful sunny summer day, 18 June 2023, with an increased attendance compared to previous years.

Tibor Villányi, President of the Győr Jewish Community, welcomed the guests and greeted the attendees.

The first speaker was Prof. Andor Grósz, recently elected MAZSIHISZ President. It is of particular significance that Andor Grósz is a native of Győr, which he referred to in his speech (his address is available on the Hungarian post only in Hungarian).

Here you can also see an interview with the President of MAZSIHISZ, published in the daily Kisalföld on 24 June 2023. (Only in Hungarian)

Afterwards, László Rózsavölgyi, Győr Municipal Assembly Member, addressed the audience on behalf of Dr. Csaba András Dézsi, Mayor of Győr. (His address is available on the Hungarian post only in Hungarian.)

Péter Joel Totha, Chief Rabbi of Győr and the Hungarian Defence Forces, recalled in his speech the events of 79 years ago in Győr and Hungary. Following a song of mourning by Cantor István Gara, the participants recited the ancient Kadesh in memory of those murdered in the Holocaust. (His address is available on the Hungarian post only in Hungarian.)

Finally, Dr. Péter Krausz, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Jewish Roots in Győr Foundation, spoke about the World Reunion planned for next year’s 80th anniversary and the student competition already underway. He invited participants to these events. (His contribution is available on the Hungarian post only in Hungarian)

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Vilma Popper is a little-known individual in the Hungarian literary history of the 19th and 20th centuries. Unfortunately, only fragments of her life are known, and even less about her relationship to Judaism.

The productive novelist was born on May 11, 1857, in Győr. Her father, Armin Popper, served in the so-called Vienna Legion of Austrian Volunteers, fighting on the side of the Hungarian revolution in the War of Independence against the Habsburgs in 1848-49. Following the overthrow of the uprising, he settled in Újváros, a district of Győr, as a medical practitioner. Her mother, Josephine Leon, was also Austrian. She had one sister, Helén Lujza. She graduated from a Győr secondary school. She wanted to become a doctor like her father, but it was impossible for a woman in those times. Vilma’s mother tongue was German, but she spoke excellent Hungarian, English, and French. Her upbringing was influenced by the ideas of the War of Independence, reflected in several of her works.

They lived close to the synagogue at today’s 14 Kossuth Lajos Street.

Popper worked as an English and German language teacher at the Royal High School for Girls in Győr (Ferenc Kazinczy Grammar School today) and often assisted in her father’s practice. In WW1 – already 57 years old – she volunteered as a nurse and served in the military hospital set up in her school. She was a member of the Győr Women’s Benevolent Association. Also, she established a foundation to support students in need, irrespective of their religion.

Vilma Popper never married. In the last decades of her life, she lived quietly and alone in her parent’s house, taking care of her sister’s children and grandchildren.

In 1944, following the coup d’état by the Hungarian nazis, the Arrow Cross Party, she found brief refuge in the  Csillag Sanatarium, but the institution was soon forced to shut down. Together with all the other Jews from the city and the region, she was forced into the Győrsziget ghetto and subsequently deported to Auschwitz. The 87-year-old woman survived the horrors of the journey only to die in the gas chambers.

She wrote in German

Vilma Popper’s works were all written in German. Only three of her sixteen volumes were published in Hungarian. So far, no one has made an effort to translate the rest of her oeuvre, probably explaining why she is little known. Some of her books have been published in English, though. Also, she has translated several Hungarian authors, including Kálmán Mikszáth, into German. For this reason, she was considered an ambassador of Hungarian literature in Austria and Germany.

Vilma Popper was a versatile storyteller writing tales, essays, sketches, and short stories on historical and other subjects. She maintained contacts with several well-known Hungarian contemporary writers, including Kálmán Mikszáth, Frigyes Karinthy, and Ferenc Molnár. She also was a close friend of the celebrated actress of the time, Mari Jászai, whom she met when Jászai still worked as a maid in Popper’s neighborhood. The memory of encountering the renowned artist is told in her short story ‘Mari Jászai and the Green Bench.’

Her first success as a writer came in 1891 with ‘Märchen und Geschichten für große und kleine Kinder’ (Tales and Stories for Children, Big and Small), published in Leipzig. From then on, she was constantly present in German literary life. This work was published in Hungarian in 1894 under the title ‘Tales and Stories by Aunt Vilma.’ It was not her, but Adolf Ágai, the founder of the legendary satirical magazine, ‘Borsszem Jankó’, who translated it into Hungarian and wrote a foreword using the pseudonym ‘Uncle Forgó.’ “I consider this storybook is suitable for developing a child’s independent thinking, as it will guide his developing soul to what is beautiful and true without moralizing,” Ágai wrote.

Interestingly, none of these stories reflect that Popper was Jewish. Instead, the traditions of the country’s Christian majority are displayed in titles, such as: ‘The First Christmas Tree’ or ‘Santa Claus,’ perhaps because she came from an assimilated Jewish family.

Her second work, ‘Altmodische Leute’ (Old-fashioned People), was published in Dresden in the same year. Its Hungarian version hit the bookshelves five years later. The third volume, ‘Neue Märchen und Geschichten’ (New Tales and Stories), was the last to reach booklovers in Hungarian in 1900.

Popper was a founding member of the Kisfaludy Literary Society of Győr, established in 1909, aimed at  “promoting, developing and spreading Hungarian literature, cultivating fine arts, organizing readings and celebrations, and publishing the most significant literary works.” Starting then, her works were regularly published in Győr newspapers and recited at literary evenings. Between 1894 and 1920, she was also a member of the Verein der Schriftstellerinnen und Künstlerinnen Wien (Association of Women Writers and Artists, Vienna), where her works were regularly read. Her histories appeared in leading German literary magazines. Max Geißler, a well-known German literary scholar of the time, praised Popper’s talent as a short story writer in 1913 but also stressed that Popper had recognized the limits of her talent.

She celebrated the Kossuth¹ centenary in 1902 by releasing a youth novel about the War of Independence, ‘Die Fahne hoch!’ (Raise the Flag High!), and subsequently wrote a biographical book about Richárd Forstmayer, a renowned organist and cellist in Győr. Until 1926, her short stories, translated into Hungarian, were frequently published in Győr newspapers. These were primarily short, concise narratives or fables written in the style of Aesopus.

One of her most powerful short stories, Ahasuerus’ Sons, was published in the newspaper ‘Győri Hírlap’. (Ahasuerus, or the Legend of the Wandering Jew, is a medieval story about a Jewish man who Jesus Christ cursed on his way to Golgotha to eternal life until the Last Judgement.) Dr. Erzsébet Nagy, a local historian and secondary school teacher of history in Győr, describes this in her monograph on Popper. The characters in the story are outsiders: a sick Gypsy musician and a Jewish doctor. The dying man complains to his doctor of a lifetime of pain:

“You see, doctor”, said the gypsy, when the bow fell from his feeble hand, “I am relieved now. My brothers will sing these tunes as I am being buried, as the blessed soil will welcome her son. The dead will finally be granted the land denied to the living. We, Gypsies, bear the curse of Ahasuerus. We must wander, always wander, without rest. No one loves his homeland more than we do, no one sings about the motherland in a way we do, of which not a single lump is ours, because we are not Hungarians – only Gypsies.” “Old man, I can say the same about myself,” the doctor said, “I, too, bear the curse of Ahasuerus because I am a Jew. We are free to fight, bleed and die for the homeland, but we are still strangers; we will always remain the children of the Ahasuerus.”

She also worked as a translator.

With the rise of the nazis, no more works of hers were allowed to be published. The Győri Hírlap remained loyal to her, and some of her animal stories, characterized by witty mockery and tormenting the spread of fascism, were printed under a pseudonym.

Limited memories

Vilma Popper’s legacy is all but forgotten.

At the end of the war, in 1945, her nephew, Dr. Sándor Korein, a doctor at the Csillag Sanatarium, who had survived the Shoah, placed a white marble memorial plaque in the inner doorway of Vilma Popper’s former residence. The students at the Kossuth Lajos Technical College of Győr used to pay tribute to the writer every year by laying a wreath and doing a small performance at the plaque. Access has become impossible in recent years, and the custom has faded away.

As the house, about 150 years old and in poor condition is currently under renovation, the commemoration will be in a little while possible again. The memorial plaque has been temporarily removed but will be reinstalled when the works are completed.

Miklós Petőcz, a literary historian and poet, commemorates the Győr author with a poem created in 1997.

(The poem was not translated)

In 2006, Dr. Erzsébet Nagy compiled a gap-filling monograph titled ‘Vilma Popper, the Gentle-voiced Author’ that is a valuable tribute to the almost forgotten Jewish writer. According to Nagy: “The real way to maintain her memory, however, would be publishing her works so that her thoughts and gentle humanity would be present among literature lovers and readers.”

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Translated by Viktor and György Polgár

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¹ Lajos Kossuth (1802–1894) was the political leader of the Revolution and War of Independence in 1848–1849.

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Sources:

• A magyar irodalom győri nagykövete (The Ambassador of Győr’s Literature), Kisalföld, December 2, 2013
• Max Geißler: Führer durch die deutsche Literatur des 20. Jahrhunderts. Dunker, Weimar 1913
• Győri Legendák (Győr Legends) – The poems of Miklós Petőcz, Palatia Printing House, Győr 1997
• Győri Életrajzi Lexikon (Győr’s Biography Lexicon), Győr Municipal Library, 2020
• dr. Nagy Erzsébet: Popper Vilma, a szelíd hangú írónő (Vilma Popper, the Gentle-voiced Author), 2006
• Popper Vilma írónőre emlékeztek Győrben, (Novelist Vilma Popper remembered in Győr) Új Élet, December 15, 2013.
• Nagy Mária: 160 éve született Popper Vilma, a tragikus sorsú győri írónő, (Vilma Popper, the Tragic Novelist from Győr, was Born 160 Years Ago) Győri szalon, May 11, 2017
• Mazsihisz és jewishgyor websites: Magyarországi zsidókért díj dr. Nagy Erzsébetnek-és-Harsányi-Lászlónak (Dr. Erzsébet Nagy and László Harsányi awarded with the ‘Pro Hungarian Jewry’ prize) March 24, 2022; jewishgyor.org/en/2022/03/27/this-selfless-woman-doesnt-work-for-awards-but-for-humanity/
• Wikipedia
• Mónika Ladocsi-Tóth, Lajos Kossuth Technical School of Győr, oral communication, May 16, 2023

Roots and early years in the life of Rabbi Dr Emil (Joel Zvi) Róth

By Amir Livnat

Hebrew version below

Introduction

Rabbi Dr Róth Emil (Joel Zvi), the last Rabbi of Győr’s Neologue community before 1944, is a well-known figure in the city’s Jewish history. His Zionist approach convinced many of the city’s youth, including members of the Orthodox community, to immigrate to Palestine, the Land of Israel, in the years before the outbreak of World War II, and as a result saving their lives. Rabbi Róth stayed with his congregation throughout the war, even though he was given the opportunity to save himself and his family. As a teacher and spiritual leader loyal to his community, Rabbi Róth is often referred to as “Korczak of Győr”. He is also remembered for his joint sermon with the Orthodox Rabbi Benzion Snyders on the last Sabbath of the Jewish community, in the barracks camp in Budai Street before the deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

It is not surprising, then, that Rabbi Róth is remembered by Győr’s Jews and their descendants as a leader and a role model, almost a mythic figure. Accordingly, much has been written about his years serving as Rabbi in Győr, from 1935 until the last days of the community in June 1944. On the other hand, the period before Rabbi Róth assumed his position in Győr is less known and documented. In the following paragraphs we will fill in these gaps and trace the roots and early years of Rabbi Róth.

Childhood

Emil Róth was born on September 21, 1907. Apart from his Hungarian, he was given the Jewish name Joel Zvi (יואל צבי), reasons for that will be discussed later on. His last name, Róth, is written in modern Hebrew as “רוט”, but in Jewish traditional Hebrew it was usually written as “ראָטה”.

Civil records preserved in the Hungarian Archives in Budapest shed light on Emil’s family. His parents are Izsak Róth and Irén Kohn, who married on July 28, 1904. Emil is the third of Izsak and Irén’s five sons. His elder brother Dezső (David) was born on June 10, 1905. Andor (Mordechai) was born second, on August 29, 1906, and after them, as mentioned, followed Emil. Emil’s younger brothers are Sándor, born on October 6, 1909, and László, who was born about a year later, on October 21, 1910.

Emil was born in the town of Kunszentmárton, where his parents Izsak and Irén lived, and where all their children were born. Kunszentmárton is located in the eastern part of today’s Hungary, in the Great Hungarian Plain, about 130 km southeast of the capital Budapest. It lies on the eastern bank of the Körös River: a tributary of the Tisza River, and is considered an important crossroad due to the bridge that crosses the river within its boundaries. Kunszentmárton was recognized as a city as early as 1807.

In 1910, shortly after the birth of Emil Róth, 10,921 inhabitants lived there, of which 222 were Jews. In 1912, a new synagogue was built in the town, which still exists today. Most of Kunszentmárton’s Jews made a living from agriculture, trade and various crafts. Jews in the town also owned a flour mill, a wood factory and a printing house. Emil’s family made a living as grain merchants. They would send grain on cargo ships that sailed across the Tisza River.

Emil’s childhood family life can be visualized based on the memoirs of his brother, Sándor Róth, who in later years took the Hebrew name Israel Goren, a member of Kibbutz Ma’abarot in Israel. A booklet called “From the River Tisza to Hefer Stream” collects stories of Kibbutz members of Hungarian origin, among them Israel Goren. Some of his memories will be shared here:

“The village had a small Jewish community of 25 families. My parents maintained a Kosher kitchen, closed their shop on Shabbat, etc., they also celebrated the Jewish holidays – Passover, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and more. They would often quote the verse “Le’Shana Haba’a Bi’Yerushalim” – “Next year in Jerusalem!”. Our family was very warm and there were good relations between the family members. In my parents’ home, I absorbed the Jewish tradition, which was common for all of us: my parents, grandparents and us, the five sons… On vacations, father would bring a student from the Rabbinic Seminary, who would teach us some Torah. During the school year we had religion studies for only an hour a week, which was a very poor study. Our vacations were wonderful: before noontime we would play in the synagogue yard, then we spent one or two hours learning with the student, and in the afternoons – like all the other children and boys – we would swim until nightfall in the stream near our house. This is how we grew up, and we enjoyed ourselves in the village. My father was in the grain tradesman. We were an affluent family”.

Upon completion of the elementary school in the village of Kunszentmárton, the children of the Róth family, including Emil, were sent to high school in the nearby city of Szeged. In 1920, close to the beginning of Emil Róth’s studies there, the Jewish community in Szeged consisted of 6,958 people, which made about 6% of all the city’s population. Most of them belonged to the Neologue community.

Family History

We will now go back several years, to follow Emil’s extended family and their origins. We will start with his parents, and continue to follow the family tree to previous generations. Emil’s father, Izsak Róth, was born on April 3, 1878 in the town of Komádi, which is located about 120 km east of Kunszentmárton, near the present-day Hungary-Ukraine border. Previous generations of the Róth family lived in this town as well.

Izsak Róth’s father, and Emil’s grandfather, is Lajos/Leopold Róth, who bears the Jewish name Yehuda Aryeh. Izsak’s mother is Aranka Porgesz. Apart from Izsak, the couple had 4 daughters: Hermina who married Béla Fisch, Rosa who married Josef Baron, Ethel who married Izsak Schwarz, and another daughter. After the death of his wife Aranka, Lajos married Sara-Szerena Sussman. The two were married on September 15, 1891 and had one son and 3 daughters.

Emil’s mother, Irén Kohn, was born on June 4, 1877. Her parents were János Kohn and Regina Kohn. Apart from Irén, we know of another son named Ödön Kohn. Irén was born in the town of Csongrád, and grew up in the nearby town of Kunszentmárton, the birthplace of Emil Róth. Like the Róth family, János Kohn was also involved in the grain trade business. In a relatively small town, it is likely that the Róth and Kohn families were connected by business ties, which ultimately resulted in a match between Izsak and Irén, Emil’s parents.

Next, we will continue our journey further back in time to trace even more distant origins of the Róth family. Lajos, Emil’s grandfather, is the son of David Róth and his wife Frumet Klein. Apart from Lajos, they had three boys, Ignatz-Yitzchak, Isidore-Israel, Simon and a daughter, Memet (Engel). As mentioned, this generation of the family lived in Komádi already.

One generation before, David Róth is the son of Simon Róth and his wife Roza-Reisel Reich. Apart from David, they had two more children Josua and Sara, the wife of Jakob Feldman. Simon’s father, who is the earliest ancestor known in this family, is Joel Róth. Emil Róth carries, therefore, the Hebrew name of his ancestor from the fifth generation: his great-great-great grandfather. But as it turns out, this is not the person he was named after.

The previously mentioned Simon Róth, Emil’s ancestor, had a first wife before Roza Reich: Zipora, born Gotlib. Their only son was Joel Zvi Róth, who was named after his grandfather, and later became the most famous figure in this dynasty. Emil Róth was, therefore, named after Joel Zvi Róth: his great-grandfather’s half-brother. Joel Zvi Róth was born in Komádi in 1820. He served as a Rabbi in several towns in western Hungary. In 1854 he began serving as Rabbi in the city of Huszt, established a large yeshiva there and gradually became one of the most important Rabbis in Hungary. After his death in 1892, several books containing his legacy were published, the most prominent one is Beit HaYozer (בית היוצ”ר, a name that refers to the acronym of his name in Hebrew).

Education

After reviewing the history of his family, we will now return our focus back to Emil Róth. In June 1926, Emil Róth started studying at the Jewish Theological Seminary and University of Jewish Studies, also known as the Rabbinical Seminary in Budapest (Országos Rabbiképző – Zsidó Egyetem). This institution, related to the Neologue community, was established back in 1877, and is still active today. The Seminary’s graduates were leading key figures of the Neologue Judaism in Hungary. At the time of Emil’s studies, Rabbi Lajos (Yehuda Aryeh) Blau was the head of the Rabbinical Seminary.

Emil Róth studied at the Rabbinical Seminary for five years. During their studies, the students at the Seminary completed studies with a Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of Budapest. As part of his studies, Emil Róth’s work focused on Rabbi Obadiah of Bertinoro: a 15th-century Rabbi and commentator who was born in Italy, moved to the land of Israel and served as one of the leaders of the Jewish community in Jerusalem. In 1930, Róth published his thesis under the title “Obadjah Bertinoro Palesztinai utazása” (The journey of Obadiah of Bertinoro to Palestine). He presented a copy to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. This copy, which includes a handwritten dedication, is currently held by the National Library of Israel.

During the course of his studies, Emil Róth spent certain time in Jerusalem as a guest student at the Hebrew University. The university was then in its early years, and consisted of a few buildings distant from the rest of the city, on top of Mount Scopus. Emil arrived in the British Mandatory Palestine on October 28, 1930, on the ship “Zelio”. He stayed in Jerusalem for about a year. In addition to his studies at the Hebrew University, Emil studied at the Rabbi Kook Central Yeshiva, headed by Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel. During his studies, the yeshiva was located in Rabbi Kook’s house, in the street that is now named after him, in the center of Jerusalem. During Emil’s stay in Jerusalem, his younger brother Sándor Róth came to visit him, and ended up staying in Israel for about six months.

After his return to Hungary, on February 24, 1932, Róth took the Rabbinical ordination exam at the Jewish Theological Seminary in Budapest. He passed the exam successfully and was ordained as a Rabbi. A notification of this appears in the Seminary yearbook for the Academic Year 1931/2.

Rabbi in the city of Eger

Soon after Emil Róth was ordinated, he was appointed Rabbi in the city of Eger. Reports about his links to this city appear already from the beginning of June 1931, even before his ordination as a Rabbi. Eger is located in the north of Hungary, about 120 km northeast of the capital Budapest.

Among Jews, the city was called Erlau or Erloi, deriving from its German name. Rabbi Róth was appointed as Rabbi of the Status Quo Ante community – an independent portion of Hungarian Jewry, which did not belong either to the Neologue or Orthodox communities. Status Quo Ante was a small portion of the Jewry of Hungary, however in Eger it was the dominant community, which most of the city’s Jews, numbering 2,100 these years, belonged to. At the same period, Rabbi Shimon Sofer, grandson of the famous Chatam Sofer, served as the Rabbi of the small Orthodox community in Eger. Rabbi Sofer served in Eger from 1881 until being murdered in Auschwitz in 1944.

The Great Synagogue, a magnificent building located in the center of the city, served as the center of the Status Quo Ante community in Eger. The building was inaugurated on September 13, 1913, and no longer exists today.

The Erloi Yizkor book (memorial book for the Jews of Eger), which was published in Jerusalem in 1975, sheds light on the work of Rabbi Róth during his time in Eger: “Dr Emil Róth, the young Rabbi, a graduate of the Rabbinic Seminary in Budapest, who spent two years in the Land of Israel at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and in [Rabbi Kook’s] Haro’e Yeshiva, came to the city in 1932. He was invited to the position of Chief Rabbi after Dr Eliezer Schweiger moved to Nitra.

During his short term of office, Dr Emil Róth introduced a revolution in youth education. Among all the Rabbis of Hungary, he was the most active and consistent in preaching for Zionism and the study of the Hebrew language… Dr Emil Róth brought new energy to the Zionist activities in Eger. In the Ohel Shem school classrooms, Rabbi Róth divided the youth into age groups, so that at least 4-5 educational groups, about 100 school students, could be educated in a Zionist Jewish atmosphere after their regular daily studies. They learned Hebrew songs, studied the Hebrew language, obtained knowledge about the Land of Israel and the history of the people of Israel. The many trips and summer camps that were organized and managed by the young and talented Rabbi himself, were particularly successful among the youth”.

Also in this book, we find the memories of Meir Zeira (Tibor Klein), who was born in Eger: “After Rabbi Emil Róth started his function, a significant turning point occurred: the Jewish holidays were celebrated by children as part of a connection with the Land of Israel, while learning about symbols of the holiday, beautiful songs in Hebrew and overwhelming stories told by the Rabbi. All of this happened after school, in the Ohel Shem hall, and there were often discords between the school management and the Rabbi and his young assistants.”

In 1935, Rabbi Róth was appointed Rabbi of the Neologue community in Győr, therefore he left Eger. After his departure, he was replaced by Rabbi Dr Zoltán Récz, also a graduate of the Rabbinical Seminary in Budapest. Like Rabbi Róth, he was also taken to Auschwitz together with his congregation, but he remained alive.

Epilogue

During his time in Eger and Győr, Emil started a family. He married Erzsébet (Elisheva Baneth), who was born in Budapest in 1910. Around 1934, their eldest son György (Yehuda Aryeh) was born followed in about 1937 by their daughter Eszter Judit.

Emil Róth continued to serve as the Rabbi of Győr, his divers work in this city until the last days will not be detailed here. In June 1944, the Jews of Győr were sent in two transports to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. Among them were Emil Róth, his wife and children. None of them survived. During the years of the Holocaust, Izsak, Emil’s father, also perished. His mother Irén had passed away a short time before that. In addition, his brother Andor (Mordechai) Rot, his wife Ágnes and their daughter Hanna also perished.

Three of Emil’s brothers, Dezső, Sándor and László, were the last survivors of his family. All the three immigrated to Israel, and made their home there. His older brother Dezső married Klára Klein while still in Hungary. The two lived in Kunszentmárton, where their son Pál was born in 1932. Klára and Pál were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in June 1944, and killed there. Dezső survived the years of the Holocaust. After the war he married Sara Parcel Neiman, who also lost her husband in the Holocaust. They immigrated to Israel in 1951, and lived in Kiryat Bialik, a town close to Haifa. László Róth, the youngest of the brothers, also lived in Kiryat Bialik.

One of Emil’s brothers arrived in Israel at an earlier stage: Sándor Róth, who was mentioned above when discussing Emil Róth’s childhood and studies. Sándor studied law in Hungary, and simultaneously agriculture, which he hoped would be useful in the Land of Israel. He joined various Zionist groups, and after several attempts, immigrated to Israel in 1935. In Israel, he adopted the Hebrew name Israel Goren. He joined Kibbutz Ma’abarot, located in the Sharon area, not far from Netanya. He married Klara Kliger, and they had two children, Yitzhak and Igal.

There is no better way to conclude this review about Rabbi Dr Emil Róth, than citing the words of his brother Israel Yanai: “My older brother, who studied at the Rabbinical Seminary, brought home the Zionist idea that ignited in my heart the desire to follow the path of practical Zionism. Under his influence, I joined the Zionist student union ‘Maccabiah’… thanks to him I came to Israel – while his own fate was very bitter… these things will serve as a monument to the memory of my brother, who perished in the Holocaust and was not buried according to the Jewish tradition”.

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In case you have any additional information about Rabbi Róth, please reach Amir Livnat, amirlivnat@gmail.com

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Hebrew version

One of the fourteen already damaged

On May 5, 2023, another fourteen stumbling stones were placed in Győr in the framework of a project started years ago by the Hungarian Jewish Cultural Association (Mazsike).

The first stone commemorates Ágnes Korein, who was murdered at the age of 15.

Dr Csaba András Dézsi, Mayor of Győr, was also present at the stone-laying ceremony and made a short statement. Péter Kirschner, President of MAZSIKE, also spoke. A TV report was made of the commemoration.

Twelve (12) members of the family of Jakab Neuwirth, who was murdered in 1920 (!), were also given a memorial stone at three different locations.

Stones were laid in front of the former residence of the Hacker family. How devastating that one of the Hacker stones was damaged a day or two after it had been laid. A metal thief looking for a copper block instead of the thin copper plate covering in reality the concrete block? Or an anti-Semitic manifestation? Shocking.

Ferenc Mátyás Csillag, a 12-year-old boy when murdered, is commemorated by a stone in Árpád Street.

May their memory be a blessing!

Reported by Miklós Szedő