I was born in January 1934 in Budapest and for the first few years I was brought up as a Roman Catholic as my parents converted to Catholicism in the mistaken belief that it would save us from persecution. Many people did the same at the time.
In 1941 my father was sent to a camp in NE Hungary where he, with hundreds of others were made to build airfields etc. and I did not see him for 3 years. > More
My mother, Elizabeth Thaler née Roth was living in Budapest in 1944, with her father, Eugene Roth, her mother Martha Roth, her sister Susan and her grandmother whose name I don’t know. My mother did not like to talk about her time in Budapest and her sister refused to talk about it at all. So I have pieced together some of her story over the years but it is very incomplete. My mother is now 87 and is more willing to talk about the past but she has dementia and now remembers very little. My aunt Susan died a few years ago.
What I know is that their father was arrested, injured in an air raid or some kind of bombing and died of an infection. My mother and her sister were in a labor camp and made bricks through a cold winter, and my mother got frostbite on her fingers. At some point just before the siege of Budapest they left the city with their mother and grandmother, by train. They ended up in a displaced persons camp in Bremen Germany in 1945 and made their way to the US by ship.
I would very much like to know more about the details of my mothers experience. I think it is possible that she and her family were aided by Raoul Wallenberg. I would appreciate any help you could give me in finding more about this place and time and the specifics of my mothers experience.
Please contact Rick Thaler
rthaler@msn.com
Corrales New Mexico
USA
Karoly William Schandl was born in Budapest, Hungary on July 20, 1912. His father, Karoly Schandl Sr., was a lifetime member of the Hungarian Upper House and the president of OKH (Országos Központi Hitelszövetkezet), the National Credit Cooperative.
In 1944, Karoly William Schandl was a lawyer and chartered accountant. His residence was the upstairs apartment of his parents’ villa, at 16-18 Kelenhegyi ut (Street). The Schandl home on Kelenhegyi Street was next door to the Finnish embassy, which was also used by the Swedish legation. Raoul Wallenberg’s Swedish embassy was located a double house lot away. Karoly was hiding a Jewish friend in his apartment, and was a member of the British underground. His group was led by his best friend, Gabor Haraszty, a Hungarian lawyer of Jewish origin and trained British agent. Gabor’s ISLD (SIS) code name was ALBERT. He was also connected to MI9. The group helped those who needed to escape, and was engaged in gathering military intelligence for the Allies. Secret meetings with Gabor Haraszty were held at Karoly’s private apartment, and sometimes those meetings were attended by Raoul Wallenberg. > More
Susan Winter Memory in Budapest (english)
Susan Winter Memory in Budapest (hungarian)
I will attempt to write down what happened to me and my family between 1944-1945. I am not sure I will succeed because I don’t know what are my own memories and what I recall because of what others told me.
On March 19, 1944 the Germans entered Hungary, rather Budapest, where I lived with my parents and grandparents. The same morning my father went to Eastern Train Terminal (Keleti P‡lyaudvar) to buy tickets for my mother and I to go to Di—szeg, which is today part of Romania, but at the time belonged to Hungary. He thought that it may be easier to survive in a small place than in a large city. > More
Born 1923, Budapest, Hungary
After the Germans occupied Hungary in 1944, Tom was ordered to work in labor camps and factories. He escaped after a few months and decided to contact the Swedish legation, where he met Raoul Wallenberg in October 1944. Tom stayed in Budapest and, using his training in photography, became active in Wallenberg’s efforts to rescue the Jews of Budapest. He made copies of and took photographs for protective passes (Schutzpaesse), and documented deportations. > More
« We were lined up in front of a machine gun near a wall and we were standing there for a long time… then some people appeared and I was told later that it was Raoul Wallenberg and his team. »Marianne Vaney: helped writing the Schutzpasses and distributing them to the people who were entitled to receive (Read more about Frank Vajda:
Testimony nr 2 : Oral testimony
« I was 9 years old in 1944, october the 14th, when there was a change of government in Hungary as the regent decided to issue a proclamation and get Hungary out of the war or tempting to and the nazis installed a extremely right wing government of Szelesi who was supported by an number of very racist and extremist organization Arrow Cross Revolt. »
Nanna Swarz was convinced that Raoul Wallenberg was still alive in 1970 and was very bitter over how the Swedish Government handled the Raoul Wallenberg case. She had met several witnesses who had seen Raoul Wallenberg. She says Raoul Walenberg was in a mental hospital in Moscow in 1961 and in later years in other places in URSS. > More
ÁVH actions were not subject to judicial review. On 1953-04-07, early in the morning, Miksa Domonkos, one of the leaders of the Jewish community in Budapest was kidnapped by ÁVH officials to extract « confessions ».[1] Preparations for a show trial started in Budapest in 1953 to prove that Raoul Wallenberg had not been dragged off in 1945 to the Soviet Union but was the victim of cosmopolitan Zionists. > More
« Je suis né à Budapest en 1924. J’ai donc 20 ans lors des événements… J’ai terminé mes études secondaires et m’apprête à entreprendre mes études en médecine. Mais, étant juif, je ne peux aller à l’université. Les Allemands occupent le pays à partir de mars 1944. Budapest compte une très grande communauté juive. Nous sommes tous déplacés vers des maisons portant la grande étoile jaune. Et je suis mobilisé pour les camps de travail. Nous devons porter l’étoile jaune, respecter le couvre-feu, ne pas circuler dans certains parcs et magasins, etc. Moi je travaille au quartier général de Eichmann ! ! !
I and many members of my family owe our lives to your uncle. My parents, grandmother, aunt and cousin were amongst those collected from Ulloi utca on the night of 7 January 1945 and brought back from a house near the Danube through the help of his office. My uncle, Laszló Kelemen (he is mentioned in a letter, dated 8 December 1944, from Raoul Wallenberg to Kalman Lauer) was working in the office and was not among those taken. > More