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Hungary after the German Occupation - Animated Map/Map

Tom Veres describes Wallenberg's rescue of members of the Swedish legation

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.

The War Refugee Board

The War Refugee Board was formed in 1944 by executive order under President Roosevelt. It was tasked with the rescue and relief of victims of Nazi oppression.

Protective pass

A protective pass issued by the Swiss consulate in Budapest, for Chief Rabbi Joseph Katona. Budapest, Hungary, October 23, 1944.

Hungary after the German Occupation

The Nazis invaded Hungary in 1944 to prevent the government from negotiating an armistice with the Allies. Learn more about conditions in occupied Hungary.

Alexander White

Read the Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation's short biography of Alexander White.

Surrender of German and Hungarian Units

February 13, 1945. On this date, Soviet troops accepted the surrender of the last German and Hungarian troops in Budapest.

Romi Cohn

Romi Cohn in Budapest, 1944.

War Refugee Board: Activities

The War Refugee Board was a significant US attempt to rescue and relieve Jews and other endangered people under German occupation. Learn about its activities.

Lea Ofner-Szemere

Lea was born in the city of Sombor in northeastern Yugoslavia. When she was 3 years old, her parents divorced and she moved to Vienna with her mother, who taught English and French to Austrian children. Lea enjoyed living in Vienna as a child. 1933-39: Lea returned to Sombor almost every year to visit her mother's relatives. There, she became reacquainted with her younger half-sister, Julia, and her older half-brother, Francis, and would miss them when she returned to Vienna. In 1938, the Germans annexed…

Ghettos

Ghettos separating Jews from the rest of the population were part of the Nazi plan to destroy Europe's Jews. Read about ghettoization during the Holocaust.

Lajos Nagy

The Nagys were one of several Jewish families in Zagyvapalfalva, a town 45 miles from Budapest. They owned a general store that served the many coal miners in the mountain valley town. As a young man, Lajos served with the Hungarian army in World War I. He then studied in Budapest to be a diplomat, but a 1920 law restricting the number of Jews in certain professions kept him from pursuing his career. 1933-39: Lajos's father passed away. Lajos took over the general store in Zagyvapalfalva with his bride,…

People crowded around an antisemitic "Pesti Ujság" newspaper display

Visitors view the exhibition of the Arrow Cross newspaper, Pesti Ujság, at the International Fair in Budapest. The headline reads:  "For a Hungary without Jews." Budapest, Hungary, approximately 1941-1942.   The Arrow Cross was Hungary's largest fascist political movement after 1935. In the 1939 parliamentary elections it won over 20% of the vote and had more than 250,000 members. Its ideology was ultra-nationalistic and fiercely antisemitic. The Arrow Cross viewed Jews as an "anti-national" "race"…

Food container lid

Aluminum food container lid used by a Hungarian Jewish family on the Kasztner train. The family had used the container on outings outside Budapest. It later accompanied them to Bergen-Belsen, Switzerland and, finally, to the United States.

Agnes Mandl Adachi describes rescue activity on the banks of the Danube River and the role of Raoul Wallenberg

Agnes was in Switzerland in 1939 to study French. She returned to Budapest in 1940. After the Germans occupied Hungary in 1944, Agnes was given refuge in the Swedish embassy. She then began to work for Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg in his efforts to save the Jews of Budapest, including the distribution of protective passes (Schutzpaesse). When the Soviets entered Budapest, Agnes decided to go to Romania. After the war, she went to Sweden and Australia before moving to the United States.

Agnes Mandl Adachi describes Raoul Wallenberg's efforts to save Jews from deportation

Agnes was in Switzerland in 1939 to study French. She returned to Budapest in 1940. After the Germans occupied Hungary in 1944, Agnes was given refuge in the Swedish embassy. She then began to work for Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg in his efforts to save the Jews of Budapest, including the distribution of protective passes (Schutzpaesse). When the Soviets entered Budapest, Agnes decided to go to Romania. After the war, she went to Sweden and Australia before moving to the United States.

Emanuel (Manny) Mandel

Manny was born to a religious Jewish family in the port city of Riga, Latvia. Shortly after Manny's birth, his father accepted a post as one of the four chief cantors in Budapest and the family returned to Hungary, where they had lived before 1933. Manny's father was based at the renowned Rombach Street synagogue. Between the wars, Budapest was an important Jewish center in Europe. 1933-39: Manny's father wouldn't let him have a bicycle. He thought someone might take it away from him because he was…

Margit Nemeth Fekete

Margit was born to a Jewish family in the city of Szentes. In 1919 she married and had a son, Gyorgy. When Gyorgy was still a baby, Margit divorced, but she remarried several years later. Her new husband, Vilmos Fekete, worked as a manager in a large electric company in Ujpest, a suburb of Budapest. Margit settled there and her son stayed in Szentes with his grandparents. 1933-39: Margit and her son saw each other as often as possible. Margit would travel by bus to Szentes to spend the Jewish holidays…

Erzsebet Markovics Katz

Erzsebet was born to Jewish parents living in a town on the Bodrog River in northeastern Hungary. Sarospatak was a picturesque town with a ruined medieval fortress, the Windischgratz castle, and many wineries, flour mills, and brickworks. Erzsebet's father was a locksmith and sheet-metal worker. 1933-39: Erzsebet has married Jozsef Katz. It was a lovely, formal wedding. Jozsef comes from a large Jewish family. He's a joiner by trade and was working in Sarospatak when they met. Now they have moved here to…

Rescue

Rescue efforts during the Holocaust ranged from the isolated actions of individuals to organized networks both small and large.

Eva Heyman

The only child of a cosmopolitan Hungarian Jewish couple, Eva grew up in a city on the border between Romania and Hungary. Nearly one-fifth of the city's population was Jewish. Eva was a small child when her parents, Agi and Bela, divorced, and she went to live with her grandparents. 1933-39: After the divorce, Eva saw little of her mother, who remarried and moved to Budapest. She also rarely saw her father, who lived on the other side of the city. Eva lived with her grandmother and grandfather near the…

Hannah Szenes

Hannah Szenes on her first day in Palestine. Haifa, Palestine, September 19, 1939. Between 1943 and 1945, a group of Jewish men and women from Palestine who had volunteered to join the British army parachuted into German-occupied Europe. Their mission was to organize resistance to the Germans and aid in the rescue of Allied personnel. Hannah Szenes was among these volunteers.  Szenes was captured in German-occupied Hungary and executed in Budapest on November 7, 1944, at the age of 23. 

Brihah

Brihah was a postwar, clandestine movement that helped Jews emigrate from eastern Europe into the Allied-occupied zones and Palestine or Israel. Learn more.

Jewish Parachutists from Palestine

Learn about a group of Jewish men and women from Palestine who parachuted into German-occupied Europe to organize resistance and aid in the rescue of Allied personnel

Jewish parachutist Hannah Szenes with her brother

Jewish parachutist Hannah Szenes with her brother, before leaving for a rescue mission. Palestine, March 1944. Between 1943 and 1945, a group of Jewish men and women from Palestine who had volunteered to join the British army parachuted into German-occupied Europe. Their mission was to organize resistance to the Germans and aid in the rescue of Allied personnel. Hannah Szenes was among these volunteers.  Szenes was captured in German-occupied Hungary and executed in Budapest on November 7,…

Art and Survival: György Beifeld's Visual Memoir from the Russian Front, 1942–1943

György Beifeld, a Jewish conscript in the Hungarian army, created a visual memoir of his experiences on the eastern front in 1942–1943 as a member of a forced-labor battalion .

Sighet

Learn about the history of Sighet, birthplace of Elie Wiesel. The Jewish population of Sighet was deported to Auschwitz in May 1944. Most of the deportees were gassed on arrival.

Beno Helmer

Beno was the oldest of three children in a Jewish family. His mother, originally from Austria, came to Czechoslovakia after World War I. Beno's father, a Swedish Jew, arrived there in search of work and became a successful merchant. The German-speaking Helmer home was frequently full of guests. Every day some students from the local rabbinical academy were invited to join the family for a meal. 1933-39: Beno's parents sent him to Budapest to attend high school. Later, because of his talent with languages,…

Maria Schimek Dicker

Maria's Jewish family lived in a Slovakian manufacturing town. When her father's match factory failed, the family of seven moved to Budapest. In her early twenties, Maria opened a flower shop, but she gave it up when she married and moved to Ujpest, outside Budapest. Maria then stayed at home to raise her five children. Her husband owned a large furniture store, and she often gave him business advice. 1933-39: Maria loves having all her grown children gathered around her at the dinner table, enjoying her…

Kato Dicker Nagy

The fourth of five children, Kato was born to a Jewish family who owned a successful furniture store and lumberyard in Ujpest, five miles from Budapest. As a young girl, Kato enjoyed singing and playing the violin in her family "orchestra" in their large home. She was also athletic, and loved to swim, bicycle and play tennis. Best of all, Kato enjoyed rowing on the Danube with her friends. 1933-39: Newly married, Kato moved to Zagyvapalfalva, a town northeast of Budapest with only five or six Jewish…

Henryk Lubelski

Henryk was raised in a religious Jewish family. His father was a cantor, and his parents placed an emphasis on education. In 1916 the Lubelskis moved to Rawicz, a town in German-occupied Poland. Henryk was first in his class in secondary school, where he also excelled in wrestling and soccer. After graduating, Henryk became an apprentice in a business. 1933-39: In 1935 Henryk's father secured a good position in the city of Katowice. There, Henryk worked in the sausage business. Since Katowice was close to…

Agnes Mandl

When Agnes was a teenager, she attended Budapest's prestigious Baar Madas private school, run by the Hungarian Reformed Church. Although she was the only Jewish student there, Agnes' parents believed that the superior education at the school was important for their daughter. Agnes' father, a textile importer, encouraged his daughter to think for herself. 1933-39: In 1936 Agnes studied educational techniques with Signora Maria Montessori in Italy and earned a diploma so she could teach. Hoping to improve…

Aranka Ecksdein Muhlrad

Aranka was the youngest of 10 children born to Jewish parents living in the highlands of Slovakia. While visiting Budapest to attend her sister's marriage, she was introduced to Jeno Muhlrad, a pharmacist. They were married and the couple moved in with Jeno's father and sisters who lived in Ujpest, a suburb of Budapest. Aranka had two children--Eva, born in 1924, and Andras, born six years later. 1933-39: Aranka's husband has leased his own pharmacy in downtown Ujpest so they can finally afford to move…

Stephen S. Wise

Stephen Wise (1874–1949) was a prominent Jewish leader in the United States between 1933-1945. Learn more about his work during the Holocaust.

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and Refugee Aid

A relief organization, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC or Joint) was established in 1914. Learn about its activities before, during, and after WWII.

Jewish Aid and Rescue

Jewish groups worldwide helped rescue thousands during the Holocaust. Read more about efforts to save Jews from Nazi persecution and death.

1944: Key Dates

Explore a timeline of key events during 1944 in the history of Nazi Germany, World War II, and the Holocaust.

Rudolf (Rezső) Kasztner

Learn more about Rudolf (Rezső) Kasztner (1906-1957) during World War II and his controversial efforts to help refugees escape Hungary in 1944.

Photographer Yevgeny Khaldei

Photographer and renowned photojournalist Yevgeny Khaldei covered the events of World War II from Moscow to Berlin. Explore some of his images.

Deportations

As part of the “Final Solution,” Nazi Germany organized systematic deportations of Jews from across Europe to ghettos and killing centers. Read more.

Deportation of Hungarian Jews

May 15-July 9, 1944. On this date, Hungarian officials (under guidance from the German SS) deported some 440,000 Hungarian Jews.

Istvan Geroe

Istvan was born to a Jewish family in the small agricultural city of Torokszentmiklos, about 65 miles from Budapest. Istvan worked for the Hungarian railroads during World War I, and afterwards earned a degree in pharmacology. In the 1920s Istvan married Barbara Nemeth and they settled in Torokszentmiklos. In 1929 the couple had a son, Janos. 1933-39: During the early 1930s, after the onset of the Depression, Istvan helped his father in the family's grain exporting business. In 1933 Istvan and Barbara…

Ilona Haas Geroe

Ilona was one of seven children born to a Jewish family in the city of Szeged, about 100 miles south of Budapest. Her father was an accountant. At the turn of the century many of Ilona's father's relatives emigrated to the United States, but Ilona's father decided to stay. Ilona also became an accountant and got a job in Szeged. 1933-39: Ilona's work as an accountant kept her busy but her free time was spent enjoying music and sports. She also began to study English since so many of her relatives had…

Josef Deutsch

Josef was born to Yiddish-speaking, religious Jewish parents in the town of Viseu de Sus in Transylvania, a region of Romania that belonged to Hungary until 1918. In 1890 he married Emma Geisler from the nearby town of Bistrita. The couple had four children and after 1910 the family lived at #4 Hid Street in Viseu de Sus. Josef was a merchant who owned a stall in Viseu de Sus's public market. 1933-39: By 1939 two of Josef's grown sons had moved to the Hungarian capital of Budapest. Josef and his wife…

Chava Lea Deutsch

Chava Lea was born Emma Geisler to Yiddish-speaking, religious Jewish parents. The Deutsch family lived in the village of Budacu de Sus in Transylvania, a region of Romania that belonged to Hungary until 1918. She grew up in the town of Bistrita. In 1890 she married Josef Deutsch, a salesman from the town of Viseu de Sus, where the couple moved in 1910. Chava and Josef raised four children. 1933-39: By 1939 two of Chava Lea's grown sons had moved to the Hungarian capital of Budapest. Chava Lea and her…

Laszlo Schwed

Laszlo was raised by Hungarian-speaking Jewish parents in the town of Kiskunfelegyhaza in southeastern Hungary. He opened a business selling goose meat, feathers, down and quilts. In 1931 he married Anna Mahrer, from Budapest, and they had a daughter in January 1932. 1933-39: Laszlo and Anna had a second child, a son. They raised their two children in a comfortable home. Kiskunfelegyhaza was located in a rural part of Hungary. In May 1939, the Hungarian government enacted a law that defined Jews as alien…

Adolf Eichmann: Key Dates

Adolf Eichmann was a key figure in implementing the “Final Solution,” the Nazi plan to kill Europe's Jews. Learn more through key dates and events.

Death Marches

As Allied forces approached Nazi camps in the last months of WWII, the SS organized brutal “death marches” (forced evacuations) of concentration camp inmates.

1945: Key Dates

Explore a timeline of key events during 1945 in the history of Nazi Germany, World War II, the Holocaust, and liberation and the aftermath of the Holocaust.

Zsofi Brunn (back row, center) poses with the orphans under her care

Zsofi Brunn and members of her family were deported from Hungary to Auschwitz-Birkenau in June 1944. Her husband and mother were killed upon arrival. Zsofi and her daughter Anna were transferred to a labor camp in Czechosovakia. They were eventually liberated by Soviet forces in May 1945. Zsofi and Anna returned to Hungary. They moved to Rakosszentmihaly, near Budapest. There, Anna finished high school, and Zsofi directed a Jewish orphanage. This photo shows Zsofi (back row, center) posing with the…