Toward the end of December, 1944, David Gur, Miki Langer and Andrei Fábry the three operators of the workshop for forging documents were captured. They had been trying to find a new place for their operations, and had set up in the offices the city architect at the university in Budapest. Suspicious neighbors apparently notified the authorities, and detectives arrived soon after.
The detectives who arrested the three men did not realize the importance of the equipment seized with the men, or its purpose. They questioned the three, played with the seals and told the men to sort the contents of the suitcases. David and his comrades took advantage of this opportunity to tear off the photos from the documents and destroy the codes used by the underground Zionist Youth Resistance Movement (ZYRM) and various organizations, and chewed up their own forged documents.
At that time David Gur was living with Moshe Alpan (Pil), one of the leaders of the ZYRM, and appeared in the forged documents that he used as Pil’s brother, Rapos. When David did not return from the workshop that evening, Pil realized that something terrible had happened. He, his girlfriend and his sisters, as well as other ZYRM leaders, immediately left their apartments in keeping with the procedures arranged in advance for such scenarios.
That night the three workshop operators were handed over to the Arrow Cross, who at a certain point realized they had captured “big fish.” The three, however, did not disclose any information. They were stripped of their clothing and tortured, severely beaten and subjected to electric shocks. Miki Langer did not survive the night.
David Gur and Andrei Fábry made it through the night without saying a word, and were thrown into the central prison, where they met underground members who had been captured previously and had been sentenced to death.
On the night between December 22nd and 23rd, Red Army tanks reached Szél Kálmán tér, about 200 meters from the prison. The German-Hungarian forces managed to push the Russians back a little.
In the meantime, in light of the capture of the document workshop, the heads of the underground, including Alexander Grossmann, Rafi Benshalom, Moshe Alpan (Pil), Efra Agmon, Mimish Herbst and Peretz Révész, convened in the Glass House. They received word that the underground members were being tortured, in an attempt to extract information from them on the ZYRM, and that the Arrow Cross intended to execute them within a few days. The underground leadership was very concerned for the lives of the prisoners. A quick solution was needed to save their lives and prevent the disclosure of critical information. There was a grave fear for the downfall of the entire ZYRM and the non-Zionist underground alike.
Herbst and Alpan found a Hungarian officer who was willing, in exchange for an enormous sum, to help free the prisoners. On December 25 he appeared at the prison accompanied by two soldiers and ordered the jailers to line up the prisoners, the ZYRM members, outside. The officer called out names from a list, and the men named were ordered to step forward. It was clearly understood that whoever was called would be marched to the Danube to be shot into the river. The Hungarian officer called out strange names, and the men began to realize that someone had prepared the list based on the code names used in the underground. No one stepped forward. Then the officer called out the name Farkas-Rapos Tibor-Grosz. That was the cue! During his interrogation, David Gur had identified himself by his real (Hungarian) name, Endre Grosz, and the name Rapos, which had been invented for him, at the same time as Pil, for Moshe Alpan, had never been mentioned. David realized that the author of the list was Pil, and signaled to his comrades to step forward, as the ZYRM was behind whatever was happening. As if to reinforce this conclusion, the officer called out the name of Vili Eisikovics, one of the prisoners who belonged to the Dror Habonim youth movement, even though he identified himself as Shlomovics.
The 17 men whose names were called stepped forward and were handed over to the officer, who led them out of the prison compound. This had all been staged. They reached the Danube and were stopped by the bridge guards. They told the officer to run fast, because explosives had been planted under the bridge, and were about to detonate any minute. They and the guards all ran across the bridge and the Hungarian officer led the men to 17 Wekerle Street, one of the ZYRM’s operation centers under the protection of the Swiss Legation.
That same day another list of names was prepared, consisting of the rest of the ZYRM members left at the prison. This time the list was easier to draw up, because the men who had been liberated knew exactly who was left. In the meantime, the prisoners were moved from Margit prison to the prison on Fő utca Street. The following day the Hungarian officer visited the prison and repeated the lineup process. He called the correct names of 103 men, all of whom stepped forward and were led out of the prison gates, where their comrades were waiting for them. In this brilliantly daring operation, 120 ZYRM operatives were liberated from the infamous military prison on Margit Boulevard.
Apart from the operational success, this was also a major financial undertaking, and it is worth noting how the fantastical sum of 300 “Napoleon” gold coins, demanded by the adventurous Hungarian officer, was collected. According to the key players involved, Moshe Alpan donated the remainder of his late father’s wealth (he was a dentist who used gold for making crowns and fillings), and the Aid and Rescue Committee (Offenbach) contributed. Alexander Grossmann received a sizeable sum from a Hungarian nobleman, whose brother was also in the Margit prison. Mimish handled the negotiations to obtain the coins in the flea market. Peretz Révész found a Jewish lawyer who was given the sum for safekeeping until the completion of the operation.
