This is the third in the series of blog posts on my grandfather's Holocaust and post-Holocaust story. In the first (linked here), I tried to piece together the evidence from documents passed down to me and his compensation claim, while in the second (linked here), I focused on his 1946 aliyah attempt through Germany, having identified and talked to a 96-year-old survivor who knew my grandfather personally from the German DP camp.
Back in February 2024, I submitted a search request to the Hungarian Historical Archives of the State Security Services on my grandfather and grandmother. From family lore, and based on my previous research, I pieced together that the Habonim Dror-organized 1946 aliyah attempt through Germany must have been my grandfather's first, and I knew that there was at least one additional attempt, in the course of which he was caught at the border.
Further, I had a letter from my grandfather's only surviving sibling, Imre, where Imre alludes to my grandparents being in prison. Writing on August 13, 1949, Imre intimated that on the streets there was talk of an amnesty for inmates who had committed minor crimes – purportedly on the occasion of the 2nd World Festival of Youth and Students, which was to commence the next day. He promised to inquire further about the amnesty and take action, if necessary. As he wrote, he would have been glad even if my grandparents were to "get out," just two weeks earlier. Thus, I hoped that the Security Services Archive would have some documents on my grandparents.
My optimism subsided somewhat in the summer. A genealogy research client of mine, for whom I handled a similar request to the Security Services Archive, was informed by the Archive – after a mere six weeks – that no documentation was available on his relative. However, just over eight months after my request, I received an email from the Archive, informing me that archival materials were found on both my grandparents.
Title page of the file containing my grandparents' case
The documents I was provided included the testimony of my grandfather and grandmother, who were imprisoned for illegal border crossing. In June 1949, my grandfather was approached by a friend of his from the Zionist movement, one István Klein (see, e.g, p. 70 here – in Hungarian), who asked him if he and my grandmother wished to go to Israel. My grandfather replied in the affirmative.
About a week later, one Bandi Klein visited my grandparents, providing instructions on the journey. Then, on June 8, Klein came again, and told my grandparents to board a bus headed to the border town of Balassagyarmat the next morning. Klein met my grandparents at the bus stop, and pointed out the woman who would help them cross the border to Czechoslovakia. (As I figured out, Bandi Klein was the brother of a good friend and Zionist comrade of my grandmother's, Zsuzsi. After my grandmother's death, my mother continued to correspond with Zsuzsi for decades, she and my father visited them in Israel illegally in the 1970s, from Communist Hungary, and we continued to nurture the friendship during our sojourn in Israel in the 1990s.)
The house my grandparents were staying at and its location, right next to the border (house marked in red, bottom of the map above; the white line marks the border)
My grandparents boarded the bus with the woman, and spent June 9-10 in Balassagyarmat, at the woman's home, where they were joined by three additional people hoping to escape from Hungary. As darkness fell on June 10, they set out at at 10PM, heading north. Having walked through the night, by 4:30AM they reached Ebeck (Obeckov), a small village in Czechoslovakia, where the woman left them by the side of a barn.
Soon, a man arrived, and the five-person group of emigrants took a bus with him to Kékkő (Modrý Kameň), where they were led to a textile shop of one Jónás (apparently also a Holocaust survivor). The group must have aroused suspicion – or was informed on –, as Czechoslovak policemen arrived just minutes later, arresting everyone.
The Balassagyarmat-Ebeck-Kékkő route
My grandparents were held at the Kékkő District Court for nearly three weeks, until about June 30, and were then extradited to Hungary. The Balassagyarmat District Court sentenced both of them to two months' in prison. Interestingly, although the amnesty does not appear to have materialized, this incident and the resultant criminal record did not prevent my grandfather from continuing his medical studies at the University of Budapest.
As per usual, I tracked down the person closest to my grandparents whom I was able to identify. He is Ottó Attila Gyepes-Gilbert is a 92-year-old former Zionist comrade of István Klein, who, in turn, was my grandfather's Zionist comrade and who offered to help my grandparents emigrate to Israel. As it happens, said gentleman is also a relative of a former kindergarten-groupmate of mine. Not to mention being a former spy, sentenced to 15 years in the US in 1982, for working with the Hungarian Military Intelligence. Sadly, he said he did not know my grandparents.
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