Arie Funk

פונק אריה

Funk Lajos

Born in Csökmő in 1920

Perished in Auschwitz in 1944

Member of “Hashomer Hatzair”

Arie became a member of the movement at the beginning of 1940 and in 1941 he joined the Sela Organization within whose framework he went to a hahshara. After the hahshara was closed, he worked in construction. Arie gave assistance to refugees arriving in Hungary from Slovakia and Poland. After Simha Hunwald, one of the movement’s leaders, was caught with other comrades at the end of February 1942, Arie was also sent to a detention camp in Garany. He managed to get released and together with his friend, Judith Scharf (Hartman), he was added to the tiyul to Romania. Both of them were caught on the train. Judith was incarcerated in the Mosonyi prison in Budapest and from there deported to Auschwitz. Arie was taken to the town of Szolnok where the local Jews and Jews from nearby small towns were concentrated and among them his family members. In Szolnok Arie was humiliated and tortured in public and sent with all the Jews to Auschwitz.