The Yad Vashem International
Conference 16.12.2024
The Zionist Youth Resistance Movement in Hungary in the struggle for life and to save Jews in 1944
I am David Gur, 99 years old, the last one alive among the activists of the „The Zionist Youth Resistance⃰ Movement in Hungary” in 1944. I was born in south-eastern Hungary, in a small village, Okány. In a place where few Jews lived, I studied in public schools. My father and grandfather in a nearby town were grain merchants.
The activities of the Zionist movement were banned in Hungary in 1940 (April 11) throughout the country, except for Budapest, the capital, where the offices of the Hungarian Zionist Federation, the National Fund of Israel (K.K.L) and the Palestinian Office were allowed to continue operating. This act was part of the anti-Jewish measures of the Hungarian government, to solve the internal problems of society and the economy and also a sign of its desire to join the Axis powers (Germany-Italy-Japan) which were seen by the Hungarians as the winner side of the global struggle that has been going on since the end of World War I, since 1918. Indeed, on November 20, 1940, Hungary joined the Axis powers ¹.
During 1938 & 1941, thanks to German’s support, Hungary gained large territories, in four stages. Those territories were part of Czechoslovakia, Romania & Yugoslavia, according to the Treaty of Trianon. ²
Hungary was the only country that near the end of World War I enacted an anti-Jewish law (26.7.1920) called Numerus clausus, which limited the number of Jewish students in universities to only 6%. Later, additional anti-Jewish laws were enacted to change the dominance of the Jews in some professions, such as medicine, law, journalism, in various branches of commerce and economics. ³
According to the first anti-Jewish law, my father’s work license, as a grain merchant, was revoked. As a result, my father decided to stop the studies of my sister, Miriam, in 1939, in the middle of the school year of the fifth grade in high school, despite her being an excellent student. Miriam was 15 years old, two years older than me. According to my father’s decision, she must learn a profession and take part in providing for the family. My sister accepted my father’s decision naturally. I continued my studies. At the age of 17, June 1943, after graduating from high school, I left the small town (Vésztő) for 200 km to the big city of Budapest, to study construction, a profession needed in a new country, in Palestine. I was accepted by a contractor as a construction apprentice. I worked physically, Individual Jew among professional workers and simple non-Jewish workers, construction of brick walls, plastering and concrete work, a lot manual labor. In the evenings I studied technical drawing. I also found the National Found (KKL) offices, where I bought books about Zionism and the People of Israel. I asked the seller if she knew any youngsters who are preparing to immigrate to Palestine. She pointed to a group of four who were talking intently in one corner of the hall. I approached them. This is how I was accepted into the Hashomer Hatzair movement. The movement operated underground, under different names. The meetings of the groups in the movement were held in private homes and on weekends in the countryside.
On March 19, 1944, German military forces entered Hungary and blackmailed Regent Horthy into appointing a new government, which, in the eyes of the Nazis, would also solve the „Jewish question”. ⁴
On the day the Germans entered Hungary, the „Underground Zionist Youth Resistance Movement” was established in Hungary. An organization that included in its framework all the Zionist youth movements that were active in Hungary at the time: the Hanoar Hatzioni, Maccabi Hatzair, Dror-Habonim, Hashomer Hatzair, Bnei Akiva. The first, required action – the graduates of the movements – over the age of 17 – were instructed by the leaders of their movements to change their identity, to identify as Aryan (not Jewish). In their new identity, the anti-Jewish laws that will come will not apply to them. will be able to act to save their comrades and to save other Jews. I, went to the Resident Registry and took out a birth certificate in the name of Tibor Farkas, born in Budapest in 1927, a certificate that was used by me in 1944. A few days after the Germans entered Hungary, I was invited to the leadership of Hashomer Hatzair and was told that I was attached to the team involved in preparing life-saving certificates that were meant to serve the rescue operations of the underground. About two months later, a situation arose where all the veterans left and I experienced a few tough hours alone. Finally I decided to take over the management of the workshop. I made sure the operations and its place were kept in absolute secret even from the leadership. They did not know the address of the workshop for months. A new approach to the work process was needed, for adapting it to the new conditions, namely the demand for quantities, and to provide a quick solution for the circumstances created by the political-military changes around us. ⁵
The underground „Zionist Youth Resistance Movement ” began its first steps as a compartmentalization organization, with joint leadership. The practical activity was conducted – at the beginning – according to the separate movements and in secret and isolated cells. The intention was: that if one is caught, a general landslide will be prevented. The goal: to save and fight to save Jews.
By 1943 it was clear to the leaders of the Zionist youth movements in Hungary that a systematic extermination of the Jews was underway throughout Europe and that Hungary remained the last reservoir of Jews in Europe. Since 1940 in Hungary, the Jewish men served in forced labor in the Hungarian army, from the age of 21, at the same time as the regular army. The Jewish men, over the age of the regular army, were called up for different periods to fill in, within the army, for forced labor inside Hungary, 50,000 Jewish men were recruited for dangerous forced labor on the front against Russia in Ukraine, 6,000 in the copper mines in Bor in Serbia. ⁶
In 1944, the number of people who were considered Jews according to the anti-Jewish, racist laws, was about one million people, Hungarian citizens and refugees. The leaders of the Zionist youth movements decided to do everything to save their comrades and other Jews as much as possible.
The smuggling to Romania: The underground „Zionist Youth Resistance Movement ” managed to smuggle about 15,000 young Jews to Romania in a period of three months, instead of sending them to Auschwitz for certain death. Szeged, Békéscsaba, Nagyvárad, Kolozsvár were the border cities on the Hungarian side, the cities of Arad and Torda received the migrants in Romania. Smuggling was a complex and dangerous activity. Quite a few people were caught on the train or in the border towns. The period of escape of young Jews to Romania ended on August 23, 1944. On this day, Romania changed sides, joined the Allies, opened the way for the Soviet army and turned its army and weapons against the German army. The Hungarian-Romanian border has become a battlefield. The escape operations were stopped. Romania was an intermediate stop on the way to Palestine. During WW2, 13 qualifying ships sailed from the Black Sea in Romania and arrived to the land of Israel.
In a period of about two months, between October 15, 1944 and December 25, 1944, in the period between the capture of power by the „Arrow Cross”, the Hungarian fascist party, and the closing of the encirclement around Budapest by the Soviet army, the underground „Zionist Youth Resistance Movement ” managed to carry out three outstanding rescue operations unusual in their boldness and creativity. Each and every one served the people of Israel, regardless of age, secular-religious, Zionists, non-Zionists. all of you.
The establishment of 55 Children Houses – on October 16, 1944, immediately after the appointment of the fascist Szálasi as Prime Minister, the brutal persecution of the Jews of Budapest began. On October 21, an age group of Jewish men between 16-60 and women between the ages of 16-40 were ordered to report for forced labor. They were required to erect barriers and dig trenches „by hand” to defend the city against the advancing Soviet army. In the rain, without shelter, in civilian clothes, without mechanical equipment. Suddenly, the city was emptied of the adult Jewish population, and their children aged 0-16 were left without their parents. Without explanation and direction, a spontaneous movement began. Good neighbors, mature brothers, brought the young children and left them in front of the door of the „International Red Cross” offices at 4 Mérleg Street. The underground „Zionist Youth Resistance Movement” responded immediately. It rented suitable apartments, equipped them with everything necessary, organized a management team. Took care for the economic-administrative-educational-security staff. A sign was placed on the front door: „This house is under the auspices of the „International Red Cross ” and sometimes: „Caution, contagious disease”. The Children Homes continued to function, to exist, even during the days of the siege of Budapest until the liberation by the Soviet army. Saving 6,000 lives, children and caregivers. – A tremendous enterprise!!!
The food epic: Buying food and heating materials with the help of Jewish wholesalers, storing the food, distributing it and making sure the accompanying security guards that the shipment reaches its destination: the Children Houses, the Glasshouse, the Protected Houses, the large ghetto. Evening after evening at the International Red Cross offices, it was discussed between the director of Economy, the person in charge of transportation and the representative of the Underground: from which warehouse, which goods and by what means and to which place to send the supplies the next day. The role of the underground Zionist Youth Resistance Movement people was to escort the carts, to protect the food shipments from harassment by groups of armed „Arrow Cross” people and from arbitrary confiscation by military units. To bring the food shipment in its entirety to the destinations, this was the top mission of the Zionist Youth.
These activities took place under the auspices of the „International Red Cross” in the framework of Department „A”, whose director is Ottó Komoly, appointed to this position by Friedrich Born, the representative of the International Red Cross in Hungary, (who has been in office since May 5, 1944.) The financing of all the activities conducted within and by department „A” came from the joint (Joint Distribution). Dr. Joseph Schwartz (Joe), the Joint`s delegate in Europe during WW2, was able to transfer cash to Hungary, using Swiss diplomatic conveys. The person arrived at the house of Samu Stern, a high status Hungarian Jew. He entrusted the money to Samu Stern. Friedrich Born was invited to the house, took the cash, exchanged it on the black market for local currency (Pengő), which Born handed over to Natan Komoly. All the rescue activities carried out by Department „A „of the International Red Cross were financed by the Joint, and did not come from other sources. ⁷
The operations of the „Swiss Letter of Protection”: On July 24, 1944, the „Glasshouse” was opened at 29 Vadász St. in Budapest as a branch of the Swiss Embassy, for the purpose of registering Jewish immigration candidates. In accordance with the decision of the Council of Ministers of June 28, 1944, in response to a memorandum submitted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by Carl Lutz on behalf of the Swiss Embassy. Switzerland, and its consulate, represented the interests of the British Empire (Including Palestine) during WW2. After the capture of power by the fascist „Arrow Cross”, Carl Lutz, the Swiss consul, initiated a meeting, on October 23, 1944, with Gábor Kemény, the new foreign minister. As a summary of their meeting, Carl Lutz published a bilingual Hungarian-German document. It says that the person holding the document is registered in a valid Swiss collective passport, with all that implies. That means he cannot be recruited for forced labor, he cannot be taken from his apartment and more. This document came in place and in addition to the confirmation that the person had submitted his documents to the Swiss Embassy to receive an immigration permit. This document, the confirmation, dated October 23, 1944, was popularly called Schutzpass „Letter of Protection”. The „underground „Zionist Youth Resistance Movement” immediately started printing the forms in a printing house where the Embassy printed, on the same type of paper, in the same wording, and signed with the seal of the Swiss Embassy. Those forms distributed to anyone who needed them. From all the Children Houses, from all the places where the „Underground” people had a foothold. Also from the Glasshouse, at the same time as the Embassy was dispersed and from the same building. For the arrested at the brick factory, and to those taken on the death march in the direction of Vienna. Also from the „consulate” that was hastily set up on the street, in front of the building at 2 Percel Mór St., under the management of the „consuls”, Peretz Révész, Andrej Fábry. Thanks to the „Letter of Protection”, entire units of Jewish forced laborers, including the Hungarian staff in charge of them, were returned to Budapest, from the Austrian border. The number of forms printed and distributed on behalf of the „Underground” reaches about 100,000, according to the memories of Alexander Grossmann who was the living spirit, in initiative and execution, behind this amazing operation. Where did the funding come from? The wealthy Jews of Budapest opened their hearts and their pockets and handed over sums of money in the hands of A. Grossmann, without specifying who the donor was. (After the war ended nobody asked back their money, not from Alexander Grossmann nor from any Jewish Institution). ⁸
Aid to the anti-Nazi organizations: The opposition parties and anti-Nazi circles in Hungary were shocked when the Germans entered. It took time for them to recover, negotiate among themselves, and also agree and decide to act. to operate – underground. But they didn’t have the tools for that. They did not prepare for activity or an underground struggle. One by one, all the anti-Nazi organizations turned to the ” Zionist Underground” leadership for assistance, with documents, to change their identity. Aid in food, etc.. The leadership of the underground „Zionist Youth Resistance Movement ” responded to all requests. – Hungary is the only place in Europe where the attributors alternate between the underground groups of the non-Jews and that of the Jews. In Hungary, the Jewish underground people, they are the ones who give – unconditionally – and do not wait, at the end of the line, to receive crumbs of weapons, medicine or temporary hiding place. Sometimes were entirely rejected. The „unacceptable” situation, apparently, is the reason for forgetting this chapter in the writing of the historians in Hungary. ⁹
Missions to the provincial cities and forced labor camps: From the first day the Germans entered Hungary, from March 19, 1944, the Jewish communities in the province were cut off from the capital city. No train, no bicycle, no radio, no telephone, no mail – complete disconnection. The flow of messengers, in appropriate cover, on behalf of the „underground”, was the only source of information for the communities in the province and also for comrades in the forced labor units. The messengers brought the information about what was to happen. About the approaching ghettoization, about the deportation that will follow, and the purpose of the deportation. In most communities, the well respected and the Jewish Council received the news with skepticism. „For hundreds of years, we live together with our neighbors in understanding and peace. This period will pass and everything will return to normal.” The messengers were strongly demanded not to spread false rumors. There were cases of threatening the messengers that they would be handed over to the authorities, if they did not leave immediately. Among the members of the youth movements there was understanding and positive reactions. But sometimes the female comrades said,” my father is in a forced labor camp, I have to help my mother in taking care of my younger brothers. I have to stay with the family”. – The relationship created with the comrades of the forced labor units was a blessing. During the escape period, members were rescued from the forced labor units, brought to Budapest, changed clothes and already set off for Romania. During the existence of the Glasshouse, members of movements as well as others were absorbed there and joined the rescue activity of the Zionist Youth.
The „Underground Zionist Youth Resistance Movement” was the only organization in Hungary that sent messengers to the provincial cities, maintained a lifelong relationship throughout the period members with the people in forced labor camps. Finally freed them and integrated them into the rescue activity of the „underground”.
The „Underground Zionist Youth Resistance Movement” was also the only organization that successfully, in a daring exploit, released 120 of their members and other Jews from the central military prison on Margit Blv. in Budapest – including me and another member of the workshop team. ¹⁰
The intense, branched activity of the underground” Zionist Youth Resistance Movement” in Hungary saved, numerically, more Jews than all the Jewish resistance movements in Europe controlled by the Germans during WW2.
The leadership activity of the underground „Zionist Youth Resistance Movement” had socio-political significance for the Jewish public that remained in Budapest. At the end of Szálasi’s reign, the Jewish public saw the leaders of the Underground as the alternative leadership for its existence. The unique rescue operations were adapted to the events that occurred in the lives of Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust. The people of the Underground in Hungary did not receive instructions from abroad or from anything inside Hungary. The impressive rescue operations are the result of initiative, originality, daring, creativity and a lot of realism in knowing the place, the society that surrounded them and the situations and the forces they faced
This is to sum up the „Underground Zionist Youth Resistance Movement” activities in 1944 Hungary:
• Dispatching 200 emissaries to 300 various communities and forced labor camps to warn and rescue.
• Smuggling 15,000 young people into Romania on their way to the land of Israel. Saving them from Auschwitz and certain death.
• Setting up and running 55 Children Houses and saving 6,000 souls of children and caretakers.
• Providing Swiss „Letter of Protection” (Schutzpasses) for tens of thousands of Jews, approximately 100,000 pieces.
• Supply of food and heating materials, accompanied by Zionist Youth Resistance comrades to the Children Houses, the Glasshouse, the Protected Houses and the great Ghetto in Budapest.
• Cooperation and giving assistance to the commencement of non-Jewish illegal anti-Nazi activities.
The Zionist Youth Resistance Movement in Hungary is an unique phenomenon in Europe ruled by the Germans during the WW2. All of the Zionist Youth Movements gathered and co-operated together in harmony and in solidarity. They risked their lives to save Jews even though they didn`t know them.
And they did it successfully.
Notes:
⃰ „Jewish Resistance”: Jehuda Bauer: „Any group action consciously taken in opposition to known or surmised laws, actions or intentions directed against the Jews by the Germans and their collaborators”. In: Rethinking the Holocaust Yale University. USA. 2001. page 119.
¹ The annexation of Austria on March 12, 1938 by Germany, The Munich Convention on September 29, 1938, on the annexation of the Sudetenland (Czech Republic) to Germany, The victory of Franco’s fascist army in the Spanish Civil War – on April 1, 1939
² The connection with Germany and the „Axis” did pay off for the Hungarians: according to the ‘First Vienna Agreement’ Hungary won a part of the northern region of Hungary (1.11.1938), and a part of the Sub-Carpathians on 2.1939. These territories were included in the scope of Czechoslovakia in the Peace of Trianon in 1920. In the ‘Second Vienna Agreement’ on August 30, 1940, Northern Transylvania was „returned” to Hungary from the Rumanians. In 11 April, 1941 captured Backa from Yugoslavia.
³ The first anti-Jewish law entered into force on May 29, 1938. The second anti-Jewish law entered into force on May 5, 1939, the third on August 8, 1941, and the fourth on September 6, 1942.
⁴ Be careful and say: The Germans entered Hungary, came to intimidate, to extort, not to stay. After the appointment of a hostile government, suitable for the Germans, the German high command of the operation left. The general coordinator Lieutenant General Maxmilian von Weichs returned to his command on the Russian front, and the commander in the field Major General Hermann Foertsch returned to his command in Belgrade. Both left at the end of March 1944. The various German units were transferred to the Eastern Front during the month of April. In Hungary, the Eichmann commando unit remained, which included only 20 officers and about 200 servicemen – to advise the Hungarians (and monitor) the solution of the „Jewish question”.
⁵ Due to the multitude of anti-Jewish laws, in every workplace the employed were required to produce certificates proving the worker’s identity. Boys aged 16 and older, which is their first job, received the required certificates free of charge. In the 1940s it was common for boys to request their own and their parents’ certificates at the relevant offices
⁶ On April 18, 1941, it was published in the „Hungarian Army Bulletin: „neither in times of peace nor in times of war, Jews can belong to the Hungarian Army”
⁷ Samu Stern Established in 1938, after the enactment of the first anti-Jewish law, the connection with the Jews of the world and founded the Magyar Izraeliták Pártfogó Irodája, Welfare Bureau of Hungarian Jews. who established various institutions within Hungary to help the Jews who were financially harmed by the anti-Jewish laws. The transfer of funds from abroad was stopped after the USA joined the war on the side of the Allies.
Friedrich Born, the commissioner of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Hungary, in the account he submitted to his superiors at Geneva in 1945, in his return from Hungary, that the expenses of the Section „A”, mainly the establishment and maintenance of the Children Houses, come from the Jewish Council. See: F. Born, Bericht, Juni 1945, page 38: „Die gesamte Finanzierung erfolgte direkt durch den jüdischen Rat und die eigenen Geldquellen der Sektion A”. (Good forbid not on the expense of the Red Cross)
Natan (Otto) Komoly was the President of the Hungarian Zionist Federation, The Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestinian Office (Jewish Agency) and the Chairman of the Hungarian Aid and Rescue Committee since 1943.
Samu Stern: My memories. A race against time. Bábel Publishing 2004 (Hungarian)
Ephraim Agmon: On Guard. Autobiography published by the author. 2008. (Hebrew)
Rudolf Weisz: Testimony. Yad Vashem. (Hebrew, Hungarian)
⁸ Alexander Grossmann: Only the conscience. Carl Lutz and his Budapest action. History and portrait. Verlag im Waldgut. 1986. (German)
Rafi Benshalom (1920 – 1996): We Struggled for Life. The Society for the Research of the History of the Zionist Youth Movement in Hungary. Israel. 2001. (The original Hebrew edition was printed in 1978 in Sifriat Poalim)
Peretz Révész: Standing up to Evil. Yad Vashem. 2019 (Pages 269 – 272) (The original Hebrew edition was printed in 2001 in Kibbutz Dalia)
Andrej Fábry. CV in Hungarian. The Society. 2005.
⁹ The testimonies of Pál Demény and his activist. (Hungarian) The Society Archives and The Demény Pál Memorial Budapest.
Avihu Ronen: The Battle for Life (Hebrew) Yad Yaari. 1994. In Hungarian: 1998. Belvárosi Könyvkiadó. Budapest.
Iván Kádár: Essay from a historical perspective. Essay from a historical-side-viewpoint. Budapest. 1989. Magvető. (Hungarian)
David Gur: Articles about the activities and cooperation of the personalities: Pál Deméy, Iván Kádár, PáL Fábry, László Sólyom and Gerrit Van der Waals, – with the Zionist Youth Resistance Movement in 1944. The Society Archives. Written in 2018. (Hebrew, English, Hungarian)
¹⁰ David Gur: Missions of the Zionist Youth Resistance Movement in the Provincial Cities and Forced Labor Camps of Hungary 1944. In: Moreshet. Journal for the Study of the Holocaust and Antisemitism. 2023 \20.
