Notes

IWAS BORN INBUDAPEST INAPRIL,1925.In my lifetime, Hungary was ruled by a right-wing repres-sive regime, and antisemitism, in its various intensities, was rampantmuch before that. My four Jewish grandparents, independently ofeach other, converted to Christianity in about 1916. My father be-came a Calvinist and my mother, a Lutheran. Before their conver-sion they were non-practising Jews, and after their conversion theybecame non-practising Protestants. They were what I would callborn-again agnostics. Although the family had not practiced the rit-uals of any religion, socially and culturally we remained Jewish,mostly as a reaction to the country’s segregated antisemitic socialstructure. Sports clubs would not accept Jews regardless of their ath-letic capabilities, thus forcing Jews to form their own clubs. The samewas true of social organizations and many professional associations.When Hitler came to power in 1933, Hungary became oneof his first allies. There were reasons for this. As part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and thus Germany’s main ally duringWorld War I, Hungary was not treated gently at the Paris Peace Con-ference of 1919. The Treaty of Versailles (or, more precisely, its ad-junct treaty, the Treaty of Trianon, which set out peace terms forGetting Out Alive•Tommy Dick
The Azrieli Series of Holocaust Survivor Memoirs4Hungary), reduced Hungary to a third of its pre-war size, dividingtwo-thirdsof its territory among Czechoslovakia, Romania, Yugoslaviaand Austria. Thus, at a stroke, the Treaty of Trianon broke up acountry that, although dominated and at times occupied by variousinvaders (Genghis Khan, Turks, Hapsburgs) throughout its history,had been continuously a unified political entity since the year 895.Viewed by the population as an unacceptable treaty imposed on Hun-gary by the victors, the Treaty of Trianon was despised by Hungari-ans and “Justice for Hungary” became the battle cry throughout theland. Germany, having also been dealt harsh terms by its treaty, be-came a natural ally. The Hungarian disposition toward right-wing ex-cesses served Hitler well. As he became more bellicose, his followingin Hungary grew because it was thought he would have the means toreward Hungary for its participation in Nazi hegemony. The Hun-garians believed Hitler would eventually capture Hungary’s lost ter-ritories and restore the country to its past glory.Of course my family and their social circles were alarmed bythis alliance. Anyone who could read knew of Hitler’s bookMeinKampf, which he wrote while in jail in 1924, and that a cornerstoneof his political program was the annihilation of the Jews. But no onecould imagine what a priority this obsession would become.***Before the war, we experienced discrimination, but life was tolerable.My father was the director of a large brick factory. My mother’s foursisters were all married to professional people and her father was anadviser to the government on fiscal and financial matters. I under-stood that during World War I — when Jewishness was still viewedas a matter of religion and not as a matter of race — my maternalgrandfather became Lutheran partly because he had aspirations tobe minister of finance.
5Getting Out Alive•Tommy DickWith the outbreak of World War II, discrimination againstJews intensified. If one’s parents were born Jewish, one was classi-fied as a Jew. Universities had quotas placed on Jews to make surethey never represented more than a small fraction of the studentbody. This effectively barred them from getting a higher educationand entering into professions. Jews were deemed too unreliable tobe drafted into the army, but they were drafted into labour battal-ions and sent to the Eastern front to do dangerous hard labour. ManyJews were driven on to minefields to test the ground before soldiersset foot on the area. Laws were passed to protect the “purity” of theAryan race, making mixed marriages illegal. A Jewish man could beconvicted of fornicating with an Aryan woman and would be impris-oned for years.When I was in high school, students had to engage in elemen-tary military training twice a week. Part of the training consisted ofhandling a gun, taking it apart, cleaning it and shooting with dummybullets. As my parents had been born Jewish, I was deemed unreliableand had to train separately from the rest without guns. Not that I likedguns, but the segregation was humiliating. Still, except that some kidswere of the unfortunate age to be drafted into military labour battal-ions, life was stressful but bearable. Hungary was an ally of Germanybut was, at least nominally, an independent country.Then, on March 19, 1944, the country was occupied by theGerman army.Now, years later, I can still recall the horror, the fear and myfeeling of total helplessness during those first days of occupation. I re-member how surprised we were to learn that the German occupiersconsidered the elimination of Jews — they called it the “Final Solu-tion”1— their number one priority. The German army had been in re-treat since the battle of Stalingrad, which took place between August1 Refers to the policy implemented by Nazi Germany for the completedestruction of European Jewry. See the glossary for more information.
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