Analysis

About Information

Over the years, I have studied and read the works of respected Holocaust scholars and witnesses, in both Hungarian and English. Yet, it took me a while to realize that some of the material I considered most pertinent to my story was not readily available, or I simply couldn’t locate it.

The following are some of the examples:

First of all, about food. When I mentioned to a Holocaust scholar my concern about Jews having access to food, I was told that we could go shopping several hours each day. Never mind that those were late morning hours after the early shoppers were through, that we had to use food coupons or pay black market prices, that there was an increasing shortage of food in the stores that were open, and that farmers who brought produce by train stopped coming when the railyards were bombed. Never mind that while we lived in our home and used the front entrance on Kossuth Lajos Street, we were constantly at risk from our Nazi neighbors, especially after we had to wear the Yellow Star. Eventually, I found some of the best indications of shortages and prices in the Wilde document.

Ungváry does an excellent review of the general food shortages in Budapest, mainly as they affected the opposing armies.

Supplies for the troops also created serious problems for the German and Hungarian commands. Budapest was a fortress only on paper, and the stockpiling of food to last several months was never even begun.… When the encirclement was completed, the defenders had 450 tons of ammunition, 120 cubic meters of fuel, and 300,000 rations – enough for about five days.

The German and Hungarian commands could not even think of feeding the civilian population. The minimum of food and ammunition required by the circled troops was calculated at 80 tons per day.

Of the required daily supplies only 47 tons on average could be delivered. Although 86 percent of this was ammunition … As no horse fodder was available, the garrison's horses (roughly 25,000) became food for humans. In January, the Germans were still carefully guarding a dozen pigs – for the city command and its entourage – at the southern edge of Buda castle. A company Sergeant major of the Hungarian 12th Reserve Division remembers: "the most dangerous and most successful undertaking of my life was when one night, to feed my hungry soldiers better, I stole a pig from the Germans with a few of my lads." By the end of January, all central stores were exhausted, and the only food available was carrots – originally kept as animal feed – and horsemeat. However, even these were so scarce that by the last weeks of the siege, most of the soldiers were starving. [5]

I also had some difficulty finding direct references to the bombing of Budapest in the main literature. When I mentioned this to my son, he suggested that I might be misremembering. I didn’t. To this day, I remember when the airplane routing was announced on the radio: “Bácska, Baja, Budapest.” I also remember the sounds of air-raid sirens. It wasn’t until I read that Ferenc Wilde’s counted 127 air-raid sirens and reported on the bombings and their aftermaths that my memory was vindicated. I eventually found a separate branch of historical documents that dealt with air warfare. I need to note that for those of us on the ground, such academic separations do not matter: death is death, whether it comes from land or air.

Finally, about our neighbour, the Astoria Hotel. I didn’t know that the Astoria Hotel became a German officers’ residence until their presence was mentioned in the Wilde document. That led me to look at a map (and eventually Google Earth), and I realized that our apartment’s windows looked out at the Astoria.

According to my cousin Lily, we had to move from our first Yellow-Star building at Kossuth Lajos Street #15 because the Germans wanted to use the building. It makes sense that they would also use “our” building at Kossuth Lajos Street #17 since it stood between #15 and the Astoria. Also, undocumented hearsay suggests that a tunnel was dug under Magyar Street to provide access from the hotel to #17. This implies easy movement between the hotel, #17, and #15. Were the two buildings used for office space?

Side Issues

I took the liberty of including two topics: the first emphasizes an essential set of events, and the second is my thanks to two crucial and under-appreciated people.

In Stop Deportations, I examine a series of events, both internal and external, whose timing is serendipitous. They led to Governor Horthy’s order to stop deportations a few days before it was the turn of the Jews of Budapest; after all, we were already conveniently segregated in the Yellow-Star buildings.

In Rescue and Assistance, I focus on two people, Carl and Gertrud Lutz-Fankhauser, whose life-saving work has been, for far too long, unappreciated and unreported.

The little that is available about Gertrud Lutz-Fankhauser (in English or French) depicts a woman who addresses problems head-on and doesn’t wait for permission. Yet, in my correspondence with Mr. Xavier Cornut, following my request for additional information about Gertrud Lutz-Fankhauser, he replied:

I went through the archives of Ms Lutz in Bern, and indeed I got a lot of material. If her role in Budapest was impressive, she still spent most of the time at the Residence. It is mostly her later career, in humanitarian tasks in Poland, Türkiye, and Brazil, as well as her rise as Vice President of UNICEF, the UN children agency, that made her a legend. [6]

I have some ideas about her time at the Residence. it is my understanding that Carl Lutz was acting in opposition to his directives from Switzerland. Therefore, it would have been difficult, if not impossible, for him to obtain funding that would provide adequate care (food, medical supplies, etc.) to the 80 buildings under Swiss protection. [6] I suggest that the Swiss Red Cross and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), under the leadership of Friedrich Born, were the logical sources of necessary resources, and that Gertrud Lutz-Fankhauser coordinated some of their activities from the Residence.

Carl Lutz is somewhat better known. According to historian Xavier Cornut, Carl Lutz led the “largest rescue operation of World War II.” I agree with that. Unfortunately, he didn’t receive the recognition and gratitude until after his death.

Final Words

I realize how challenging it is to place ancestors or families within their historical context. Describing the continuity of changes in simple cause-and-effect terms is impossible, especially when considering the complexities of social, economic, and political shifts.

In my Blog I plan to
1. continue placing my ancestors in their historical environment, and
2. suggest both practical and conceptual tools for addressing complexity.