Under Swiss Protection: Jewish Eyewitness Accounts from Wartime Budapest PDF
Preview Under Swiss Protection: Jewish Eyewitness Accounts from Wartime Budapest
Agnes Hirschi, Charlotte Schallié (eds.) Under Swiss Protection Jewish Eyewitness Accounts from Wartime Budapest "Celia und Lutz Zwillenberg Fonds", Jüdische Gemeinde Bern (JGB) Agnes Hirschi, Charlotte Schallié (eds.) UNDER SWISS PROTECTION Jewish Eyewitness Accounts from Wartime Budapest Translations by Dahlia Beck, Lauren Thompson, and Noga Yarmar ibidem-Verlag Stuttgart Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.d-nb.de abrufbar. Cover picture: © Archiv für Zeitgeschichte der ETH Zurich. Reprinted with kind permission. ISBN-13: 978-3-8382-(cid:26)(cid:19)(cid:27)(cid:28)-(cid:19) © ibidem-Verlag / ibidem Press Stuttgart, Germany 2017 Alle Rechte vorbehalten Das Werk einschließlich aller seiner Teile ist urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Verwertung außerhalb der engen Grenzen des Urheberrechtsgesetzes ist ohne Zustimmung des Verlages unzulässig und strafbar. Dies gilt insbesondere für Vervielfältigungen, Übersetzungen, Mikroverfilmungen und elektronische Speicherformen sowie die Einspeicherung und Verarbeitung in elektronischen Systemen. All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. Table of Contents Timothy Snyder Foreword.......................................................................................................................9 Agnes Hirschi and Charlotte Schallié 1.INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................13 Translators’ Notes...................................................................................................21 Editors’ Notes............................................................................................................25 Timeline.......................................................................................................................27 François Wisard 2. CARL LUTZ IN BUDAPEST........................................................................31 Context and Milestones of the Rescue Activities of Carl Lutz and His Team 3. THE RESISTANCE MOVEMENT...............................................................49 Paul Fabry “Carl Lutz stood out like a monument—He wasan example oMfo wrdheacth caain F bleei sdcohnere”..............................................................................................51 “JeOann t Ghree neninseteteinenth of March 1944, all of uswent underground”......67 however “DWavei dtr Gieudr to save whoever we could, wecould”......................79 “Every moment, every slip of papermeant human life”.........................93 4. PROFILES OF SURVIVORS: INTERVIEWS BY AGNES HIRSCHI (2000–2017)...................................................................................................105 Klári Barna “VKelráar iB, ealnlá Akr(raosw to Cldro bsys Tmáamna iss Bloeollkáikn)g for you”.......................................107 “During the bombardments, we hid ourselvesin the pantry”..........111 5 Eva Bino(as told by Peter Bino) “AEgvnae sn Heveeffrn seproke about her childhood”......................................................119 “IvSáhne Sráefnudsoerd to let the star be sewnonto her clothing”.......................125 “The Red Cross and the Swiss legationhadretrieved us fRraobmb ia J ódzesaetfh S mchawrcehit”z.e..r.........................................................................................131 “AIn wdrilél nSiervteesr forget the horrors of the war years”..................................137 “ETvhae S Azimrmeraiican air raid saved our lives”.....................................................141 “AIg wneass Ttoeoic hyomuanng to understand the situation”........................................149 “In my breadbasket, I would smuggle lettersfor the prisoners”.....155 5. TESTIMONIES.............................................................................................163 Irena Braun Lefkovic “TIz dipidp onroath g Civoeh eunp trying to get tono. 29 Vadász utca”..........................165 “AIg tnoeosk H tehlele droll, [ ], and we startedmaking our way home”...........183 “IdI iwt Hasir psrcohufedld of the smallyellow star”.........................................................189 “Our skirts were filled with the money our wise grandmother hAagdn esse Hwinrs icnhtio our hems”...................................................................................201 “HTehdev am Kaant zwho changed my life”.....................................................................209 “I remember it was a house built of glass”.................................................221 6 Naomi Katz Hatikvah “Shmulik played the accordion and we all sang on tShhem suheilp K’sa dtzeck”......................................................................................................231 “EMstye rf aKtaeu wfmasa nthe exception”.............................................................................241 “Unlike adults, I don’t think we, the children,realized the sMitouradteicohna wiLaás stzhlaótK orfe lmifee rand death”.............................................................251 “JuTdhieth m Moivreiamme nMta bteég(aans ttoo lpdr boyv Jidane ouss M waittéh)false documents”............261 “I didn’t know for what I was liberated.The only reason wAganse ms My sisoann”.............................................................................................................277 “MWored wecehrae it Nhee ulamsat nonnes to get insidethe Glass House”.........................283 “MAirrtyhaumr PWaelgisiz paid with his life forhaving saved us”..........................291 “PAentedr sPuodlldaeknly they called me sayingthat my father came back”......301 Kiddush “To this day, Ihave not been able to understand how she mAlaexnaangdeedr t Soc fhinleds imngye frather’s cup”................................................307 “On October 20, at five o’clock in the morning, mRayb Hbio Alorcthauurs tS bcehgnaenie”r...........................................................................................313 “I had many Christian friends who came to our home; all that cMhoasnhgee Sdh oanv iMt arch 12,1938, when the Nazis took over”....................325 “Our mother convinced us to stay withAunt Hannah under Swiss protection”.....................................................................................335 7 Shulamit Shtauber “We were forced out of the bunker with tear gas and shoved nPaetkeerd T ianr tjahne snow”...............................................................................................341 “The last time I saw my mother”....................................................................347 6. TRIBUTES AND LETTERS.......................................................................351 Charles Gati “SRteevmene mThboemriansg G1e9i4g4er and Carl Lutz”.............................................................353 “GWeoer gwee Sroem leoftg ywiith what is the most precious:our lives”...................361 “GTeroifbfruetye Ltoeo Cnaarrld L Tutiezr”..........................................................................................365 LMeitctheare tlo V Ceartrel sLutz (1945).................................................................................369 “Diplomats are not expected to be heroestaking risks”......................375 7.APPENDIX: EXCERPTS FROMSWISS COLLECTIVE PASSPORTS NO. 1 & NO. 2...........................................................................379 GLOSSARY................................................................................................................387 8 Foreword To return to Holocaust is to pass through the recollections of an indi- vidual human being, a survivor whose memories lead us to the ques- tion of survival but only begin to suggest the answers.We speak now, perhaps too easily, of“human rights,”but the individual Jews threat- ened by Germans (and by their neighbors) had no such rights. They survived when someone attached them to a political community.To be reduced to the bare human condition, as Hannah Arendt under- stood, was to die. Germany killed Jews by separating them from states, sometimes gradually as with its own Jewish citizens, some- times rapidly by invasions intended to destroy statehood as such.To survive, a Jews had to escape this process. Carl Lutz was a Swiss diplomat in Hungary, and an account of his actions is the history of human and diplomatic recognition in a time and place where sovereignty was uncertain and Jews were being murdered by the tens of thousands. After the Soviet Union and Po- land, countries invaded by Germany whose Jews lost citizenship, Hungary was the home to the largest Jewish community in Eastern Europe. Before March 1944 Hungary was a Germany ally that had passed anti-Jewish legislation, directly killed Jews beyond its borders in certain cases, and exploited Jews in labor battalions in ways that often led to their death in large numbers. Until Germany occupied Hungary in March 1944, it had not implemented a policy designed to kill its Jewish citizens as such. When Germany sent its armed forces into Hungary, it dispatched its own experienced deportation authorities.It also changed the nature of domestic politics, receiving cooperation from Hungarian police and otherinstitutions that led to the deportation and murder of most of the Jews of the Hungarian provinces.UnderWestern pressure and aware that Germany would lose the war, the Hungarian head of state, Miklos Horthy, ordered an end to the deportations on July 6.This left the Jews of Budapest, the Hungarian capital, as the largest group of Jews still alive whom it was still the German aim to kill.Most but not all of these Jews were citizens of Hungary. 9
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