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Emery Gregus
Occupation and
Liberation 1944-1945
Aftermath: The Postwar Years
Remembrances
Chapter 6
Now
that my sister Nelly had given up her apartment and gone into hiding
it meant that I no
longer had a place to stay. That is how I ended up at my friend Buco’s
house. He lived with his Christian mother and sister and they were willing
to to protect me and give me shelter in their apartment (which was officially
designated a Christian home) until I could find some other solution
to my dilemma. This arrangement for the time being gave me some measure
of security. Buco (whose father had been Jewish) still had some protection
because of his mother and continued to study Economics at the university.
Individuals of this classification were still not affected, although
not much later, he was called in to the "white ribbon" forced
labor camp. This category was invented for men, who as a race were Jewish,
but as a religion considered Christian.
Then
one day, while I was still staying at his house, Buco approached one
of his friends at the university (whom I also knew from Kassa) and asked
him to show him his university identification card which Buco promptly
put into his pocket. "You don’t need this," he told him,
"you can always get another one." Buco then proceeded to ask
him to bring his birth certificate the following day, and the fellow
obliged and never asked any questions or inquired for whom it was intended.
Obviously, only a fool could not imagine the purpose such papers might
serve and that is how I became Csikos Jozsef. I memorized all the particulars
such as birth date, mother’s name (I still remember it--Ham Olga)
etc. and being as we were both from the Kassa I was familiar with the
city’s details. I tried to convince myself that I was Csikos Jozsef.
His photograph was replaced with mine and forgers, who were very active
in those days, drew the stamp. It looked like a perfect solution unless
a suspicious detective stops me on the street and orders me to pull
down my trousers whereupon my Jewish identity would be revealed. Nonetheless,
this new identity allowed me the freedom to walk without the yellow
star and play the role of a university student, and exempt, for the
time being, from military service.
The
forger’s name was Urszenyi and Gyuri had befriended him. Urszenyi
had escaped from Slovakia one or two years previously. He had been a
wood dealer in Bratislava and had escaped to Budapest where, in comparison
to Slovakia, there was a modest degree of security for the Jews. Unfortunately
this friendship between my brother and Urszenyi brought my brother to
his end.
Now
I could spend the days on the streets with my false papers and with
my false sense of security, but the question was always where to spend
the nights. Every dwelling had a superintendent who knew each and every
tenant and everyone was listed at the district police. This was the
law in Hungary at the time.
Anyone
who gave even one night’s shelter to a stranger took a considerable
risk, and one needed many such friends in the upcoming 8-9 months in
order to survive. I had quite a good hiding place at Buco’s and
I also had another friend, a university student, Sanyi, who let me use
his rented room to sleep without the superindent’s knowledge. These
arrangements were a great advantage in those days.
My
friend Buco lived in a quite tight financial situation at this time.
His father had by now passed away, but at the time of his marriage,
his father was a very well-to-do man. Unfortunately, he had lost everything
in the Great Depression and since those times, Buco’s mother, who
worked as a beautician in Kassa, was the mainstay of the family. But
with me she was always helpful and ready to share the little she had.
Buco
had a sister, Klari, and she too, received me with her natural kindness.
She was a nice girl whom I had known for sometime since our days in
Kassa. I had originally met her not even through her brother, but through
her girlfriends, Juci, Agi and Marika. The four of them would go skating,
or swimming or take ski trips in the mountains. We would often meet
while taking walks on the Main Street or Corso. The Corso was a centrally
located pedestrian walkway where young people would stroll and gather
on weekends and evenings to mix and mingle. Occasionally, I would join
them on their walks, because I had a romantic interest in Marika, but
this flirtation didn’t result in much success. Buco and I would
also take part in two or three "sweet sixteen" parties given
by them. These get-togethers took place in the first years of the Hungarian
occupation when one didn’t yet live in the fear that was to take
over our lives later on. No romantic attachment ever developed between
Klari and myself.
While
I was staying at their home, Klari began to date a good-looking lieutenant.
In civilian life he was a gynecologist. She often confided in me about
their get-togethers and rendezvous. They married after the war, but
divorced a few years later. Unfortunately Klari had a tragic end. When
she was around 45 she got cancer and passed away. When I met Buco some
time later, he told me that in the last weeks of her life she talked
a lot about me and about the times I had spent with them during the
war. I was somewhat surprised to hear that she had such definite memories
about this period, because during my stay with them, I had always felt
myself to be such an incidental part in their day-to-day lives.
One
day, a fellow whom Klari had previously met somewhere, came up to their
house. The man had escaped from Poland and arrived with his pretty cousin
who later became Buco’s girlfriend. I clearly remember this man,
because it was from him that I first heard about Auschwitz. He had escaped
from Poland to Budapest two or three years previously. In those days
there were quite a few people like him who were lucky enough to be let
in to Hungary as Christian Polish refugees. I do not recall whether
he spoke specifically about the gas chambers, but he made it very clear
that the sole purpose of the deportations was the extermination of the
Jews. He had fled Poland with a few diamonds in his pocket and he now
survived from these diamonds alone. He was the type of Jewish non-religious
polish youngster who could always make do in any situation. He seemed
to be able to survive in any circumstance by his wits alone. Once, I
recall, he remarked, " What little problem I would have in playing
the part of an Aryan and mixing with the Hungarian population if only
I could speak Hungarian!"
At
Buco’s house I spent many nights and many days as well. I preferred
not to venture out unless absolutely necessary for fear that the superintendent
of the building would notice me, and become suspicious enough to report
me to the authorities.
My
brother Gyuri lived in a rented room in Budapest for many years previous
to this time, so as to avoid being recognized as a Jew in Kassa who,
for whatever reason was not yet recruited to the labor camps. One day
Gyuri came up to see me and told us that he had heard that the trains
in Kassa were being loaded with Jews; the brick factory where they had
been herded was now empty and the wagons had rolled into the unknown.
It
was now the beginning of June 1944.
By
now the deportations in Budapest appeared imminent, and in an effort
to avoid this fate, we believed that the only way out would be to mix
in with the Hungarian population with our false identity papers. For
my brother Gyuri, with his prominent Jewish nose, this would have been
very difficult. In his case they didn’t even need to pull his trousers
off to realize that he was Jewish.
Gyuri
believed that his only solution was an operation, and with his girlfriend,
Agi, found a surgeon who was willing to undertake this procedure. Naturally,
after the operation, with his bandaged face, Gyuri could not appear
on the streets, as this would obviously arouse suspicion.
It
so happened that my parents had some old friends, the Schoen’s,
who lived in Budapest, and had converted to Christianity some considerable
time previously. They were not as yet completely exposed to the "Jewish
Laws" and weren’t afraid of their superintendent. They offered
Gyuri to stay with them until his nose healed. He recovered in their
home for about 2 weeks and in the meantime worked out an escape plan
with Agi and Urszenyi to return them to Slovakia where the deportations
were already over. At that time Slovakia was an independent country.
Urszenyi,
as a wood dealer from Slovakia, felt that since the deportations in
his country were concluded, Jews would no longer be as actively sought
out there. Urszenyi was a middle-aged man with a nine-year-old daughter
and a divorced wife. He planned to return to Slovakia and he offered
to take along Gyuri and Agi. Initially, I was to be taken along as well,
but with no more space in the taxi that was to take them to the border
town, it was decided to leave me out of this first trip, knowing that
I was in a little less danger due to the fact that I could still spend
a night or two at Buco’s or Sanyi’s house. Gyuri had it arranged
that the taxi driver fetch me on the next crossing.
Urszenyi
claimed he had connections with those who transported wood on railway
wagons to Switzerland. Such wagons could conceal people within the lumber
they transported and by this method Jews could be smuggled out of the
country to the security of Switzerland. The scheme was feasible and
some wagons had actually passed undetected, but the system was not foolproof.
The guards at the border were aware of this ploy and although some groups
got through to Switzerland, others were caught.
However,
for the time being Gyuri and Agi still had to get to Bratislava. They
acquired the necessary false papers, and with Urszenyi arranged a taxi,
which would take them to a Hungarian border town to meet up with the
smuggler who promised to take them across the border.
On that day, I said goodbye to my brother. We shook hands on a street in Budapest and we parted, never to see each other again. I turned around, and as I had no other solution, headed back to Buco’s house for the night where I planned to spend a few days until the taxi driver returned to fetch me and deliver me in the same way to Slovakia.
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