Éva Szirtes-Deák

* 1938

  • In the building where the children’s home was, my dad sent a card to the Red Cross’ address, grandma wrote to him that I was staying there, i was at a good place but poor him didn’t know when I was no longer there. In that building, I don’t even know which floor the children’s home was, there the Germans established a military hospital as my mother called it. But most likely it was a first-aid and mom helped there, she even had a Red Cross paper proving that she was “red crossing”. And the Arrow Cross members wouldn’t come there, cause a soldier named Kurt was standing by the door and when the Arrow Cross members came he told them “shoo shoo” that’s a German military hospital they have nothing to do here. And the children’s home was relatively safe there. And mom also told me that they had one or two patients there who were shot into the Danube and their shoulder got injured or some parts with which they were still able to climb out. And i think they were taken there, cause how would a Jew who was shot into the Danube would know that there was a hospital like this, but mom told me that there were a few people like that. And those were fairly looked after and nursed by the Germans. Those who died there were buried at the Szabadság square where that controversial statue stands now.

  • They were lucky considering that they were not put into rail wagons but were in something similar to a forced march, sometimes on foot sometimes on carts, different every time. When they were close to Győr, I don’t know exactly where, they were on a cart at that time, mom, the neighbor and another woman who lived in Dessewffy street were sitting in the end of the cart, dangling their feet. The armed men were going all around the march, and one time when they were at the front part of the march a Hungarian German man appeared and told them that soon there is gonna be a turn and a place with bushes, mom and the other two woman should jump off the cart, they would fall into a ditch and they should keep calm, he will come back for them at the night time. Mom was like I will take my chance, if I am taken over the border, I won't be able to make it home anymore.The other woman said the same, but our neighbor Rózsika didn’t. They did it, the man- God Bless him even in his death-went back for them at night and took them home to his house. My mom was worried: won’t you be in trouble for that? But the man said told her that his brother-in-law is a nazi, member of the Arrow Cross so they never get raided. Mom and the other woman stayed there for a while, and then the man who said his name is Károly Németh, but I don’t know if that was his real name or not, this man took them to Budapest with his wife’s and her sister's papers. Mom could speak a little bit of German, so they believed that she was German, also Hungarian Germans could speak Hungarian as well. The guy had a flat at Arena street, he took mom and the woman there and he left to see what was up with grandma’s, and as he saw that they are alright, he I can say “delivered” mom to grandma.

  • In the block of building which has Zichy Jenő street, Hajós street, Dessewffy street and Vilmos császár street later Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Street on its sides , in that block on the Zichy Jenő side there was a shoemaker, it was a relatively small shop, but its internal height was really big, so it had galleries, and the shoemaker was a really good man, mom and the neighbor lady were hiding on that gallery. Mom never wanted to talk about this, beacuse it was really painful for her to talk about the Holocaust, so I don’t know how they had food. In those times the Jews could only get things in exchange for tickets. I don't know if the shoemaker brought food to them or grandma brought food to them pretending to go there for shoe repair. Maybe they could have stayed there till the end of the war. But then the neighbor said that they should go home cause she wants to visit her own mom who also lived there so it’s not far. Mom said no, they were agitating for a while but at the end they went home. They had the luck to walk into a raid so they were gathered and taken away.

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    Budapest, 01.07.2021

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Mom never wanted to talk about this, beacuse it was really painful for her to talk about the Holocaust, so I don’t know how they had food

Portrait of Éva
Portrait of Éva
photo: From Éva Szirtes-Deák

Éva Deák-Szirtes was born in Budapest in 1938. On both sides she comes from a Hungarian Jewish family from the areas of present-day Slovakia. Her paternal grandfather comes from a poor family from Léva. He moved to Budapest, he opened his own coffee selling store and later an own cafe in the center of Budapest, where her father also worked as a waiter just as the whole paternal family. Her mother and her father met at the grandparents. Her mother graduated from a 4 year-long public school and worked as a shorthand typist. Her father was drafted in labor service in 1940, after 1942 he was not allowed to visit his family. He died in the concentration camp of Mauthausen in April 1944. Her mother was deported in 1944, but she escaped the forced march. While her mother was not there Éva was hiding with her grandparents, they moved to a safe house, then back to their flat and for a short time she lived in a children’s hospital run by the Red Cross. The family moved to the ghetto of Budapest and they lived there till the liberation. After the war in 1948 their cafe was nationalized, from that moment they lived in humble circumstances. Her mother worked a lot, after the nationalization she worked at the General Repair Company, then the Budapest Knitting Company. Despite her humble circumstances Éva graduated from an economic high school. The Jewish community of the Budapest Knitting Company helped the family a lot, for example in getting her first job. Éva wanted to continue her studies and she was taking night classes in law while still working as an accountant. She worked as a counselor and as an legal aid lawyer till she retired, she kept her position as a legal aid lawyer at heim Pál hospital even after her retirement. She met her husband, János in 1972. Her husband worked as an architect and as a judicial expert of construction. She liked to travel with her husband till he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, which made their retirement years difficult. János died of pneumonia in 2008. Since her father died in Mauthausen, she participates in commemoration of Mauthausen every year, that’s where she got to know Rita Repper, who is the leader of Shalom club of bálint House, which is a Jewish Community center. Her father died in 2012 at the age of 99. Éva is currently an active volunteer of Bálint House and she is a respected member of the local Jewish Community.