In March 1944, just prior to the invasion of Hungary by Nazi Germany, Jewish youth leaders in the eastern European country sprang into action. They formed an underground network that, over the course of the following months, would save tens of thousands of their fellow Jews from being sent to the gas chambers.
This heroic episode from the Holocaust is almost never brought up in conversation in Israel. It is also not a part of the curriculum that is required to be taught in schools. However, the few surviving members of Hungary’s Jewish underground are determined to get their story told. They are dismayed by the possibility that their mission would be forgotten, and as a result, they are determined to preserve memories of it.
According to David Gur, one of the few members who are still alive and who is 97 years old, “The tale of the effort to save tens of thousands deserves to be part of the history of the people of Israel.” “During the time of the Holocaust, it served as a beacon, and it continues to serve as a model and a lesson for future generations.”
On Friday, the world will commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Historians, activists, survivors, and the families of those who perished are all preparing for the day when there will be no more living witnesses to share first-person accounts of the atrocities committed by the Nazis during World War II. The Nazis and their collaborators were responsible for the extermination of six million Jewish people during the Holocaust.
Israel, which was established as a refuge for Jews in the wake of the Holocaust, has gone to great lengths over the years to recognize thousands of “Righteous Among the Nations.” These are non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. Israel was established as a refuge for Jews in the wake of the Holocaust.
Mainstays in the national narrative are accounts of Jewish resistance to the Nazis, such as the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto; nevertheless, rescue efforts by fellow Jews, such as the Hungarian resistance, are less well remembered.
Before the Nazi takeover, Hungary was home to approximately 900,000 Jewish people. Its government was an ally of Nazi Germany, but in March 1944, as the Soviet Red Army marched near Hungary, the Nazis invaded in order to prevent its Axis partner from striking a separate peace settlement with the Allies. This occurred as the Soviet Red Army advanced against Hungary.
As per estimates provided by Yad Vashem, the official Holocaust memorial in Israel, the Nazis and their Hungarian collaborators were responsible for the deaths of up to 568,000 Jewish people in Hungary over the ten months that followed.
When three Jewish ladies appeared at Budapest’s main synagogue in the fall of 1943, Gur and his colleagues said they immediately saw a disaster on the horizon. They had escaped from Poland while it was under Nazi occupation and brought upsetting reports about individuals being transported to concentration camps.
“They had quite clear information about what was occurring, and they saw the many trains, and it was evident to them what was happening,” said Gur. “They saw the many trains, and it was plain to them what was happening.”
Gur was in charge of a vast operation that produced forged documents and sent them to members of the Hungarian resistance who were Jewish and non-Jewish alike. He explained, “At the time, I was a young adult of 18 years old when the weighty duty was placed on my shoulders.”
There was a significant potential for personal harm. According to his autobiography, “Brothers for Resistance and Rescue,” he was taken into custody in December 1944 at the forgery workshop where he worked and subjected to harsh interrogation and imprisonment. In a rescue operation that took place later that month, members of the Jewish underground successfully freed him from the major military jail.
Jewish youth organizations utilized the faked documents to conduct a smuggling network and maintain Red Cross shelters, both of which helped save thousands of people from the Nazis and their allies during the Holocaust.
According to the book written by Gur, at least seven thousand Jewish people were able to sneak out of Hungary and into Romania, where they boarded ships in the Black Sea that would take them to British-controlled Palestine. Around 6,000 Jewish children and accompanying adults were saved in buildings that were nominally under the protection of the International Red Cross. At least 10,000 falsified passes offering safety, known as Shutzpas, were handed to Jews in Budapest.
This event is not considered to be part of the “primary course of the story,” according to Robert Rozett, a senior historian at Yad Vashem. Rozett noted that despite the fact that it was “the largest rescue operation” of European Jews throughout the Holocaust.
He stated that it was particularly crucial due to the fact that these operations assisted in the survival of tens of thousands of Jews in Budapest.
In 1984, Gur established “The Society for Research of the History of the Zionist Youth Movements in Hungary,” which is an organization that has helped raise awareness of this initiative.
Sara Epstein, 97, Dezi Heffner-Reiner, 95, and Betzalel Grosz, 98, three of the remaining survivors who helped save Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary, received the Jewish Rescuers Citation for their role in the Holocaust last month at a kibbutz in northern Israel. The ceremony was held in recognition of their efforts during the Holocaust. Two Jewish organizations, the B’nai B’rith World Center in Jerusalem and the Committee to Recognize the Heroism of Jewish Rescuers During the Holocaust, are responsible for bestowing this honor.
Heffner-Reiner stated that there are not many of them remaining but that this matter must be addressed.
Over two hundred additional members of the underground were honored with this honor after they had passed away. 2011 was the inaugural year for the prize, and Gur was one of the recipients.
Yuval Alpan, an activist with the group and the son of one of the rescuers, said the citations were intended to recognize people who helped save lives during the Holocaust.
Based on what he said, “this resistance underground youth organization saved tens of thousands of Jews throughout 1944, but their tale is unknown.” “No one is aware of it, yet it was the largest rescue effort that took place throughout the Holocaust.”
On the date that marks the 78th year since the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp by the Red Army, the international day commemorating the Holocaust is observed. According to estimates provided by the Israeli government, there are around 150,600 Holocaust survivors living in Israel, and almost all of them are over the age of 80. That represents a reduction of 15,193 from the previous year’s total.
On Friday, a memorial service will be held in remembrance of the victims of the recent terrorist attacks at the United Nations General Assembly, and additional memorial services are planned in various locations throughout the world.
Israel has its own Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is observed annually in the spring.