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Emery Gregus
Occupation and
Liberation 1944-1945
Aftermath: The Postwar Years
Remembrances
Chapter 9
By
now, time had come for me to leave Buco’s and find another place
to live. An old friend from Kassa, Mandel Kicsi, often came to see me
at Buco’s and had become a frequent visitor there. In this way,
he too, was able to avoid roaming the streets aimlessly and it gave
him somewhere to go during the day. (It was so important for those in
hiding to find a safe refuge, even if only for a short while, say even
a few hours.) Mandel Kicsi now offered to accompany me to find a room
to rent. I gladly took up his offer as I was by nature quite timid,
and I was apprehensive to search the newspapers for "rooms to let"
and then appear at the landlord claiming to be a university student.
He was a great moral support for me and I was grateful to be able to
go with someone. After searching the advertisements, we came upon a
particular room whose street address opened up from the "Lenke
Ter"(Lenke Plaza). The house was the last one on the road and the
window of my room faced towards the Fehervary Railway embankment. This
fact was later to have major significance for me. One’s survival
could often depend on pure chance.
An
elderly pair rented the rooms and one of the rooms was already rented
to a couple from the south of the Hungary who was fleeing the bombing.
I rented the other room as Csikos Jozsef, who as a university student
was exempt from obligatory military conscription. I moved in with my
small suitcase and every morning I diligently left to roam the streets
aimlessly.
In
the meantime, the allied military situation was improving. They allied
forces broke through the French front, and shortly afterwards they recaptured
Paris. I remember this day particularly, because it just so happened
that I had gone up to visit my non-Jewish friends Sanyi and Dezso who
were both working in an office on Vilmos Csaszar Road. Having no radio
at home I heard this news from them and it was with great exaltation
that they laughingly talked about the reports of the Americans being
already in Paris. This military success, and the fact that the Allied
victory was approaching, had significant importance for the Jews. It
was now clearly evident to everyone, except for perhaps the most ardent
Nazis, that the Germans had lost the war.
During
my days of hiding, the assistance and aid of my Christian friends was
of such help to me that I am convinced that without them it would have
been impossible for me to survive the war. On the other hand, I was
totally aware of the fact that my friends’ generosity towards me
was due in large part to the reality that an Allied victory was imminent.
It was only a matter of time until the Allies triumphed and my friends
clearly understood this reality as well. Their kindness in assisting
me was likely due in part that they too realized the war’s outcome,
and they now viewed the events from a different perspective.
In
all of us there exists a mixture of good and evil and the side that
triumphs over the other will greatly depend on the circumstances and
the innate instinct of self-preservation.
Each
and every day served only one purpose, that is, to bring one closer
to the day of our liberation. For the moment, the likelihood of such
a miracle appeared feasible only in the most unimaginable circumstances.
Every
morning I left my rented room and could return only in the evenings
so as not to elicit suspicion from the landlord. As was obligatory in
those days when renting a room, one was obliged to present oneself to
the district police station, and hand over one’s identification
papers, which in my case were forged. The police then issued the mandatory
domicile permit, which then had to be submitted to the superintendent.
Without such papers no individual was legally permitted to reside in
any dwelling. When I stayed at Buco’s home I was able to circumvent
this trip to the police, but now I had to present myself police station
because I was absolutely obliged. It was a terrible ordeal but I was
successful in placing the ordeal behind me.
Every
morning I would leave home and board the streetcar. It was my perception
that commuters who rode the train had somewhere to go and some business
to attend. Very often I would travel as far as the terminus, descend
the streetcar and board another streetcar only to return in the opposite
direction. During the day I would roam the streets, rarely eating breakfast
and taking my lunch at a nearby restaurant. Occasionally I met my friend
M. Bandi at a vegetarian restaurant and here we exchanged news of the
day. I was forever on the lookout and ready to flee lest someone spot
me, identify me, or recognize whom I really was. When boarding any tram
or train I would quickly scan the rows of seated passengers to make
certain that there was no one there who could give away my real identity.
Once I caught sight an old high school teacher from Kassa and without
a moment’s hesitation, I dashed to the other end of the tram and
ran out the exit door.
Around
this time my sister Nelly had returned with her daughter from the provinces.
It would have appeared suspicious for her to stay beyond the summer
months and besides, the dairywoman, who initially gave her blessing
to this arrangement with her husband, was now growing jealous. With
their false papers, Nelly and Panni settled into a small pension called
the Dombai, where everyone knew who was who, and yet nothing was expressed
aloud or revealed.
While
roaming the streets I would occasionally meet others from Kassa with
their false papers and in the same predicament as I. One day, in front
of a coffee house, I met by chance an acquaintance from home, J. Pali,
and we stopped to chat. All of a sudden, he turned to me and said, "Hold
on a minute, I will just go inside to use the washroom." He never
came back. He had gone out through the back door, as he obviously didn’t
want to take the risk to be seen with another Jew living in illegality.
The truth be told, this fellow had had a truly unpleasant experience
several weeks previous to this incident. He had been walking in Budapest
with his friend, a W. Vera when an old swim instructor from Kassa recognized
them. They realized immediately that they were in trouble and split
up in different directions, correctly supposing that the instructor
would be able to chase only one of them at a time. One of them turned
to the right, the other to the left. That is exactly how it happened.
The instructor caught Vera and took her to the police station, exposing
her as a Jewess in hiding. Somehow, Vera survived the war, but quite
surely not from the swim instructor’s goodwill.
Undoubtedly, there were those individuals who actively lent a helping hand and were very helpful to the Jews; there were those who didn’t help, but on the other hand did not go out of their way to harm them either. Then they’re those, such as the swim instructor, who were aggressively evil and dangerous.
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