ARROW CROSS RULE
Soon the radio blared out invitation for members of the Arrow Cross Party to collect their arms from the Army. The Army was instructed to either lay down their arms or join the Germans or the Arrow Cross. By 3 p.m. it is all over, bar the shooting.
Indeed, the only shooting that occurs is in the Ghetto area. It is there that the newly armed boys of the Arrow Cross movement decide to have a go at some Jews, who must have had some arms hidden, for they shoot back and defend themselves capably. From then on the Arrow Cross murderers will concentrate on unarmed Jews whenever possible.
On hearing about Horthy's radio announcement I immediately made my way home. My parents were there and my uncle Imre arrived by lunch time. He told us, that members of the Arrow Cross were checking people's papers on the streets and arresting some. He himself was stopped, but got away, because he had some false identity papers, which was accepted by them.
Imre was my Mother's younger brother. He was not the brain of our family and when I asked him what papers he carries with him, he showed me that he was very well equipped, because in addition to his false identity papers, he also had every one of his own papers neatly in one of his pockets, while other sets of false identity papers were being kept in other areas of his jacket.
I insisted, that before he leaves our flat he empties all his pockets, which after a lot of reluctance he did. I then checked everything he had and allowed him only one set of his papers, which happened to suggest that he is an Aryan and allowed him a fairly good cover-story, which I rehearsed with him until he knew it. He was very upset with me to have taken his real documents, including his birth certificate and did not realise until later that day, that his was the first life I ever saved.
Uncle Imre left us that afternoon and was stopped by a band of Arrow Crossites within a few minutes. His papers were regarded as suspicious and he was taken to a school which was used as their HQ. There were hundreds of people captive there, being interrogated, tortured, beaten and every now and then groups of people removed from there and taken away to be shot. Imre was not interrogated that day and stayed overnight in one of the class rooms.
Next morning he recognised another captive, a girl called Susan Kádár, who was a niece of my Father. She was cleaning the floors of the school corridor and recognised, but did not greet Imre, realising that if she speaks to him, his life will be jeopardised. Susan was not quite 15 at the time. She was kept alive by the Arrow Cross people as their whore and murdered when she became pregnant.
After a night of frenzied blood letting, Imre was released next day unharmed, travelled to re-join his wife in the country, where they hid and survived.
While we had no radio to receive news of what is happening, we realised from little bits of news that there are very great dangers in living in the houses where the Jews were concentrated. The reason why they were concentrated was of course arranged with a view of facilitating the easy collection of all Jews for the purpose of trucking them to Auschwitz or other death camps.
Not that we knew what was in store for the many thousands of Jews from the country who were first put into a concentrated ghetto area and then put into cattle trucks, crammed 80 to 120 to a truck, designed to transport 8 horses and sent to their final solution. Those that survived the 5 to 8 day trip without food or water were then either sent to the gas chambers or selected as being suitable for labouring on a temporary basis before conversion into ashes.
As we heard from a survivor of the camps after the war, Eva and her mother survived the selection, while Uncle Bandi, Eva's father was gassed within hours of arriving to Auschwitz. Margit, Eva's Mother, became sick later and was sent to the gas chamber. When after a while Eva contracted diphtheria, she kept it secret as she knew that when found to be sick she will also be gassed. This way she was sick for a while and finally died in her hut, with diphtheria and because there was no medical attention available, - another innocent victim. Her wasted 21 years old body must have been put in front of the hut and collected by other starving, shuffling inmates, commonly known as "Musulmans".
Even 'though we did not know all the details of what is happening in Auschwitz, hearing the guns outside our houses, seeing Arrow Cross gangsters strutting in their caps and armbands with the arrow cross instead of the swastika, with their rifles harassing Jews, we started to remember all the rumours we used to disbelieve. However even we could not imagine the extremes of horror, that we found true afterwards.
All the hate these semi-literate blood-thirsty people could muster was pent up and ready to burst. These people were hoping that the German occupation of their country will deliver the Jews and their imagined riches into their grasp, yet after seven months of German occupation they could still not have what they thought was rightfully theirs. Instead, the jewels of the Jews was taken by Eichman's organisation to Germany and with bombing and the Germans removing food from Hungary their own circumstances were getting worse. What's more, the lot of the Jews started to improve, there were no deportations, Jews were left to live in their Ghettos and Jewish houses, they were not pestered by the authorities, especially in Budapest.
Now that the Arrow Cross party and Szálasi were in power, the time was ripe for the members of the party to harvest their rewards and reap the benefits of their patience in awaiting the day when the German authorities will give full power to their chief and to the other co-operators.
It was obvious that some action will occur. It was time to get out of the house. Father and Mother were resigned to stay in their flat, - it would have been impossible to go to their hotel or to stay there. I stayed with them temporarily, but was waiting to get back into my old Army unit.
I was not the only one who was yearning for the security of Kecskemét and my Army Company. My 701/101 Company's second "reunion" was a greater success than the reunion a week or so ago. Now everybody wanted to get back into a peaceful labour camp. Unfortunately, we had nowhere to go, no one wanted us. Lieutenant Bocsor did his best, trying to interest the Army in giving us something to do, to make us eligible to get food in exchange of our work, but the Army was much too busy in surviving themselves amidst the new order being established by the Arrow Cross Party, who were now the de facto Government of Hungary and thus the Army was not being very worried about a Company of non-Jewish Jews.
There was nothing to do but to go home again and arranging to meet at the court yard of a building in two days time on the 20th October.
It was at 6 a.m. on that day that we were wakened by the knock on the front door of the flat. Police and Arrow Cross were collecting all men between the ages of 16 and 50. I could prove that I belong to an Army Labour Company and was excused, but Father and hundreds of others were taken from the house. They were taken onto the street and marched off. From other houses too hundreds of people were collected and all over Budapest thousands of Jews were marching towards their next meeting with fate.
That afternoon I rejoined my Company again. We finally had official status and we marched off to the railway station to travel by slow train to an area where the defences of Budapest will be strengthened by digging some ditches, to stop the Russian tanks. It was said that our ditches will stop their tanks for 8 hours and one minute. It will cause them to stop and laugh for 8 hours and the one minute is what is required to cross the ditches.
We were billeted on a farm at Veresegyháza and we moved into the cow shed where we bedded down on the straw now unoccupied by the cows, due their having been requisitioned and eaten by the German Army. The farm was owned by the Palotás family. One of their brothers-in-law was one of our comrades, the Baron Dirsztay and it must have been interesting for him to be the "guest" of the Hungarian Army on the farm where he used to be the honoured guest of his relations in happier times.
I cannot be sure, but I venture to guess that the Baron managed to find a more comfortable bed than the straw in the cow sheds and probably also had his meals with his landowner relations.
A lot of our comrades were missing. On the morning when the Arrow Cross collected all men from Budapest many of those who belonged to our Company were picked up and they could not join us. Most of them were herded to the brickworks at Obuda, from where they were marched either towards Germany or sent towards the front lines, which were than some 50 kilometres towards the east of Budapest.
Father and his comrades from our house were taken to a sports stadium on the outskirts of Budapest and then next day marched some 25 miles to a place called Valkó, where they were put to work to dig anti-tank ditches. They lived in farm buildings or on the fields of these farms. Very little food was provided and they were guarded by the Arrow Cross, who constantly abused them verbally and in some cases physically. They were also relieved of every penny they had and in another camp two Jews were executed because they had a few coppers left on them by accident after they were ordered to hand in all their money.
Of course none of us knew where the others of our family were. Mother was back in Budapest, attempting to find out where Father or I was and at the same time she was trying to get hold of a "passport" for both of us. At this time it was realised by some of the neutral countries that unless some effort is made to save the Jews of Hungary, soon there will be none left to save and thus Switzerland, the Vatican and especially Sweden gave all who could get close enough to their Legations a piece of paper, declaring that the person named is under the guardianship of the country concerned and all authorities are charged to respect the rights of the country and the person.
All this was started by the Swedish Legation, whose Raoul Wallenberg has personally been responsible to save thousands of Jews. This young Swede has taken it onto himself to rush around Budapest and outside of it, fight and argue with the Germans, who were hell bent to move the Jews into the gas chambers before the ring closes and they might be unable to feed the death factories. He was just as fearless in arguing with the Arrow Cross threatening them with all sorts of consequences if they do not carry out the non-existing international agreements he was telling them about.
Wallenberg was a remarkable man, who within a few days after liberation by the Russians, was invited by them to their HQ, where he was captured and sent to Russia, never to be seen again. Or more accurately, he was seen by various people, although the Russians never admitted to have captured him.
My unit was sent into the fields to dig our quota of ditches. Some Army experts marked out where we should do so and we worked on a beautiful hillside overlooking green fields and pastures. It was hard to believe that there was a war and we were scarring the country side with a view of hindering the Russian Army. Our work done we returned to the farm where, after a nourishing meal of goulash and a hefty piece of black bread with "szalonna", we lay down to sleep in the cow shed.
At the time I developed all sorts of skin problems and managed to have everything infected. Thus while my comrades were busy digging trenches to hold back the Russian hordes, I was flat on my back fighting for my life due to a blood poisoning on my wrist. Our sick bay consisted of that part of the cow shed where usually cows gave birth to their calves and it was there that the officers' cook visited me and asked what I would like to eat. Being delirious I asked for a particular type of carp that had no bones and Tommy Lorand, the chef, delivered it to me within a few hours. It was not the real "mirror-carp" but Tommy removed every bone from the ordinary fish he obtained heaven knows where and I enjoyed that fish more than any other before or since. Tommy continued to look after my diet for the next few days.
I improved sufficiently to work around the farm yards and realised that our horses were dying of starvation. I suggested to Lieutenant Bocsor that may be I could assist and get some hay for the horses. With a soldier as guard and with one of my comrades I set off on a peasant cart towards the Royal Farm, where the manager of the farm was one of the people who attended the chopper demonstration in the presence of Horthy.
I arrived to the office of the Royal Farm at Gödöllö with some trepidation. How is the manager going to take to my approaching him? With the horses, cart and corporal and my comrade left outside I ventured into the office. There were at least 10 people waiting to see the great man. A soldier, his batman, asked me what I wanted and jumping to attention I reported to him, that "I, Kálmán István, member of Company 701/101 would like to see Mr. Vilmos Thiringer."
"Colonel Thiringer, you mean," said the batman, "and what the hell would you want from Colonel Thiringer?" he bellowed.
"A cartful of hay, Sir" said I manfully and watched the soldier laughing at the audacity of this kid of 18.
Nevertheless he reported the matter to Colonel Thiringer, who on hearing my name rushed out of his office, embraced me in front of all the people, kissed me and took me into his office. I was absolutely overcome, - I have seen this man from a distance and in Admiral Horthy's company some 15 months ago, have never spoken to him. All he knew about me was that I was my Father's son, I was persecuted and I required his help and hay.
He gave me all the hay I wanted, offered me money and suggested that I contact him again, although he felt that the Russian advance is progressing at such pace that he will probably need to retreat with his staff. He arranged for us to have as much hay as our vehicle could carry and also arranged for us to be given grain for the horses and meat for us.
Kövári and Kelemen were still running the affairs of the Company and they were concerned with the many who used to belong to our Company, but were taken by the Arrow Cross during the round up on the 20th October. A list was made out of those 20 or 30 that were missing and Lieutenant Bocsor asked me if he should include Father in that list. I asked him what he proposes to do with the list and it turned out that the idea was to distribute it to the various camps run by the Arrow Cross and ask them to return the members of our Company who were inadvertently in those camps.
I am not sure whose idea it was, but instead of distributing the list, it was decided to have a list taken round and to "order" the Arrow Cross Camp Commanders to deliver the Jews who were needed by the Army to the bearer of that list. One of the non-commissioned officers volunteered that he will accompany the mission provided he is paid 100 Pengö, an amount then equivalent to $22.
I volunteered to go and with the non commissioned officer, Steven Petö (now manufacturer in England) and George Lászlo (he became a gynaecologist) the four of us set off to find and bring back members of our Company and some relations who were taken in the Arrow Cross "razzia" of 20th October.
About forty of us will return four days later.
We had no idea which way to go and where our comrades might be. We started towards Budapest and while walking or accepting lifts on retreating Army trucks we were making enquiries. Whenever we heard of camps run by the Arrow Cross and containing middle aged Jews, we went to the camps and presented our list. By the evening of our first day we collected 2 comrades and they were released by the Arrow Cross without any problems. In fact, it was so easy that in the second camp we visited I met a good school friend of mine, Peter Arányi and invited him to join us. He refused, saying that his father was taken to Germany some time ago and he wants to find him, so he is looking forward to getting to Germany. He did not return.
We travelled right through the night. At one stage we got a lift sitting on the top of a German Tiger tank, being driven by a German soldier peeking through the small window of the tank while we were holding onto guns and cannons outside. We could not resist making some remarks about the retreat of the bloody Germans and we were stumped at hearing the German driver of the tank warning us that he understands Hungarian. From then on our conversation was rather more careful and distinctly un-political.
Sitting on our Tiger tank we were suddenly in the middle of a column of Jews marching towards Budapest. We got off the tank to make our enquiries in case there were some of our people amongst them. They were led by Arrow Cross guards and we found no one we knew amongst them. The Jews were dead tired and could hardly walk. They begged the guards to slow down or to allow them to rest. The young guards, - they were between 15 and 18 years old, encouraged the older men to sit down and have a rest, while the rest of the column marched on.
After a while the guards returned and shot the stragglers. They put the rifle against their heads and pulled the trigger. I know, I saw it. Some 15 people were killed and left lying on the roadside.
Next day we visited some more camps and found Steven Petö's father, uncle and some of our comrades. George Lászlo found his brother and he was sprung also. At this point our corporal suggested that he should be paid not 100 Pengö for the trip but 100 per person. We agreed. By the time we finished he earned it all.
With our band grown to a largish group of some 20 or 25 people, it became unwieldy to travel with a group that large and it was decided that while the group stays hidden in a disused shed on the outskirts of Gödöllö, the corporal and myself will go to another camp we heard about and where there might be some more of our people and maybe Father.
We got a lift on a horse cart out of Gödöllö and on the way met the people from the Valkó camp digging their quota of ditches in a forest. There were 11 of our comrades in that camp and my Father also. He was back at the camp excused of work on that day. The corporal and I left, promising my comrades that I will wait for their return from work and take them with me.
The camp of course was not a camp along the lines of Dachau or Auschwitz or Bergen Belsen. It was a series of farm buildings and in some of these the families of farm labourers still lived. The Jews were accommodated in sheds and hay lofts, while the farm carried on its business as best as it could.
When we arrived, we found 3 of the Arrow Cross guards in one of the one room flatlets previously occupied by a peasant farm labourer and his family. With them was a woman in bed and the guards were in a state of undress suggesting that they joined the peasant woman for some entertainment from time to time. This was actually confirmed later by another peasant woman, living in a flatlet next door, who told us that she was constantly used by the guards.
The guards agreed that we can have and take with us any of the Jews who are on our list and I went outside to change the list once again to include all our people and to await the arrival of the working detail. While waiting I found the sick bay and there was our neighbour, Dr. Földes, who told me that Father is well, although he was excused from work that day for a minor ailment. He was not on the main farm but on another one some 5-600 meters away up a steep hill.
While talking to Dr. Földes one of the guards arrived and told the doctor to get all the sick to dress and get all their belongings together because they are going home. He passed on the message and soon the 5 sick came and stood awaiting instructions. After a while the 3 guards came out, lined themselves up opposite the Jews, one of them started to shout at them and said that they are malingerers and not worth feeding and the three of them started to shoot the sick Jews.
I stood next to them and it took me some time to realise what is going on. By that time the corporal got hold of me and pushed me away from there, to stand in line with the executioners and so I could see some of the people being shot at begging for their lives. To no avail, after at least 20 ill aimed shots, there was quietness. The guards invited my corporal to go and use his pistol to finish off some of them who were still moving, but he refused and the three guards returned into their room for some more ammunition.
When they disappeared, Dr. Földes, who stood on the landing of a loft watching it all from above, shouted at one of the dead: "Now, go now" and one of them, unharmed, jumped up and started to run. He got away before the Armed Cross guards returned to put a few more bullets into the dead, after which they made their way up the hill to take care of the sick Jews in that part of the camp. I rushed to my corporal and implored him to go and save my Father who was one of the sick in that camp. He went, but either did not do anything or couldn't because I heard the shots, some 6 or 7 of them, followed by some more.
The corporal returned first and we went into a room used by the cooks. This is where we were, when the guards sent every one out, except me, to bury the dead. When we realised that the guards went back to have some more drinks, I gave the corporal a photograph of my Father and asked him to go up the hill and identify him. He went and came back to say that the man is lying on his face, but he has very little gray hair. There was no doubt about it, they murdered my Father.
There was very little I could do but to wait for my comrades whom I promised to take back to the Company. I could have left after what has happened, but I never considered it. While waiting, one of the cooks returned from burying the dead and knelt down in front of me and begged me to take him with me. He was the brother of an Olympic gold medallist, and himself a gymnast until he fell and broke his hand, which was now withered and useless. He was petrified that if the guards realise that he is crippled, they will kill him. He offered everything he ever owned, money, gold, everything as long as I will spring him from the camp. I promised to take him and explained to him that he need not pay me, except that eventually he should re-pay the 100 Pengö which I will advance on his behalf to the Corporal.
It needs to be told at this point that some 5 or 6 months after the end of the war I met a young fellow on the street, who was very familiar to me. When he told me what his name was and I saw his withered hand, I knew where I met him, but he could not place me. I helped him, by telling him that we met at Valkó.
He looked enlightened: "Sure, I remember now. We got out of that place just in the nick of time." I agreed with him.
"I wonder what happened to the young fellow who got us out of there," he said, "he wanted me to pay him 100 pengös, but I had more sense than to pay. Did you ever pay him, or didn't you ?"
I had to tell him who he is talking to and it gave me a great deal of satisfaction to see him stuttering and wishing that he could disappear. I had to enlighten him, that it was I who paid the 100 Pengö for every one of the people I saved and it was worth every penny.
Another one of the people present in the camp wanted to come also and I told him to call himself József Kálmán instead of Father, whose name was already on the list, but not needed any longer, since I believed my father to be dead at this stage. I asked Dr. Földes if he wanted to come with me, but he was too frightened and he stayed.
The corporal was getting nervous. It was becoming dark and the workers were still not back from their trench digging. We wondered if they weren't in some trouble, being shot or whatever. It was almost 9 at night when they returned and all 11 came to the room. What with no decent lights other than candles, the steam of a watery meal being cooked, the cooks and all the people who were assembling to be taken out of the camp, it was a scene reminiscent of Dante's Inferno and it was not surprising that I did not notice an extra man until he squeezed my hand and asked me if I have heard of Mother lately. It was my Father, very much alive, emotionally drained from waiting all afternoon beside the shot man until he died and then burying him.
Within a short time we formed ourselves into two rows and walked away from the camp. After about an hours walk we met a peasant on a cart and Father and I and the Corporal got on to the cart. Father had to hold both of us in case we fall off the bouncing unsprung cart. I was becoming delirious and running a high temperature once again. I remember dreaming about becoming a Swiss citizen and returning to Champery.
On our way to Gödöllö we met two young Gendarmes who had the man, who escaped his execution that afternoon in chains, taking him back to the camp. The gendarmes did not believe his story of killings and decided to take him back to the camp from where he must have escaped. We explained to them that it is all true. Even they were shocked, took the chains off the man and literally gave him to us. He came with us eventually to Budapest, and after being "executed" once again and his body pushed into the partly iced over Danube, he was finally killed when a Russian truck run over him!
We got to the place where we left Petö, Lászlo and the others from the camps and found no trace of them. It was obvious that they were caught. We wasted no time to get away ourselves and we marched towards where our Company was.
We stopped about halfway in a village and went to the courtyard of a pub in the hope that they will be able to feed us. While we were there a member of our own Company arrived with his escort. He was in Budapest and while there he collected some mail for his comrades in 701/101. There was a letter for me from Mother telling me that she heard that Father might be at a place called Valkó and that she got for all of us Swiss consular protection papers, a certified copy of which she enclosed.
I must confess that both Father and I cried. Not only did we find out that Mother was alright, but it was a tremendous feeling for us to know that somebody was still thinking of us and cares. It might sound stupid, but this is how we felt then.
We continued on and the news of our approaching the farm where the Company was billeted preceded us. There were comrades coming down the hill to meet us and help us back to where we started from three days ago. Not having slept more than two or three hours during the three nights we were away, made us almost incapable and while the corporal and I were most concerned about the loss of Petö and Lászlo and their group, we could not properly describe what the situation was. Stephen Petö's young brother, who was in our Company was silently crying, knowing that he lost his father and brother at the same time.
My Father was alert enough to go into conference with Bocsor, Kövári, Kelemen and some of the others and they came to the conclusion that we should move back to Budapest as soon as possible. The Company started to pack up and when I awoke from my stupor that afternoon I was told that we are going to Budapest.
Just as we were called to assembly our friends including Petö and Lászlo turned up. They were indeed caught, but talked themselves out of trouble, were released and they returned to the shed to await the Corporal and me, not knowing that we were there already and left without them. They assumed that we had some sort of calamity and having waited for us for an extra day, gave us up for lost and made their own way back to the Company.
Once again we travelled overnight, my fourth night on the hoof in a row, and arrived back to Budapest and our home on 5th November 1944. It was my parents' 26th wedding anniversary and never has my Mother received a greater surprise present than the one I brought her on that morning. Here were two of her family returning from their separate places of captivity and returning together. Another one of those miracles, that kept on happening daily and hourly those days.
In spite of our Swiss Protected status, Father and I could not feel safe in the flat. We knew that in spite of that piece of paper, we are not only at the mercy of the Arrow Cross thugs, but also that being men we had to serve or appear to serve somewhere.
The 701/101 Company, on arrival to Budapest, dispersed for the individual members to go home to find or not to find their families. Once again it was arranged that we should meet and some of us made it at the appointed time and place. Some were missing, having been picked up. Those of us who made it to the meeting place were all keen to get back into service once again, finding it safer to "belong". It was not easy. Once again no one wanted us.
Lieutenant Bocsor and Father had some discussions and I was called in to see if I wanted to join Bocsor who was living with Baron Tornyai whose full name was Tornyai-Schwartzenberger. He was a fat bloke, well known throughout the bohemian coffee society of Budapest and he was married to an actress, whose father was the most Hungarian of Hungarian actors: Mr Kálmán Rózsavölgyi, who was married to a Jewish lady, and whose half-Jewish daughter was the Baroness.
The Baron invited Bocsor to stay with them and thus he had a permanent Army officer escort. In any case he lived in the safest flat in the whole of Budapest, because no Arrow Cross member could conceive that the famous Rózsavölgyi was even remotely connected to anything not 101 % Aryan.
Bocsor in turn invited Kövári, Kelemen and after some prompting by Father, me to stay with them in the Baron's flat. We accepted and I left our flat to move in with the Baron and all the other multitude. Father left about the same time, being picked up by one of his old customers, vitéz Baskay Gyula, who was a largish land owner and a Member of the Upper House, a very exalted position.
Baskay was a gentleman of the old school. I did not know him well, because he was regarded as a very important person and as such I was never in a position to talk to him if I saw him in Father's office. When the problems became really bad after the German occupation in March, he contacted Father and offered his help. When he heard of Father having been arrested he came and offered his help to Mother and me.
This was quite surprising, because Baskay was not regarded by Father as anything but a customer, a member of the gentry and just one of the many land owners who were civil to a lowly supplier of agricultural and hardware requisites to the farms owned by the Church and the landed gentry. If Father would have been asked to list his 10 customers who could be termed as friends Baskay wo