Robert joined the movement at the age of thirteen. After the German occupation of Hungary on 19.3.1944, he was moved to a ghetto, together with other Jews of his town and its vicinity. Thanks to forged documents forwarded to him and his friend Shabtai Német, they escaped and arrived in Budapest.
He produced and distributed forged documents and traveled to the ghetto in Sopron. In Budapest, he hid in a bunker located at the Institute of Technology in Budapest. In August he was caught and tortured by the Hungarian police who wanted to get the names of his comrades. He survived the torture and did not reveal anything. Robert was transferred to the Kistarcsa detention camp, from which he later escaped. He returned to the underground in Budapest, and stayed at a bunker on Hungary Boulevard.
Together with Tommy Freiman, another member of the movement, he reported at the fascist “Arrow Cross” headquarters, and joined its ranks. He obtained authentic documents, which were instrumental in rescuing Jews from Protected Houses. He also took part in setting up the bunker at Laci-köz.
On 7.12.1944 he was captured again and detained at the main military prison on Margit Boulevard in Budapest. From there he was transferred to a jail in Sopronkøhida. By the end of January 1945 Róbert was sent to Szombathely and assigned to disassembling bomb duds. From there he fled to Yugoslavia. In 1948 he was recruited to the Czechoslovak army and began his technical academic studies in Prague.
In April 1949 Róbert made aliya. Between 1951 and 1961 he served in the engineering corps of the IDF, and was demobilized with the rank of major. He worked abroad as an agent for Solel Boneh from 1962 to 1970 and for ORS International from 1971 to 1990.
He lives in Haifa with his wife, Tzipora, nee Bieberstein
Offner Róbert has written the book: Véletlenül életben maradtam (I Survived by Chance ) Budapest 1944. ( Hungarian ) Published by the author in 1996 in Israel. The Hebrew translation of the book –
Offner Róbert: Bemikre Nisharti Behayim ( I survived by Chance ) Budapest 1944. – published by the author in 1997 in Israel.
