Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

David Kahan - April 29, 1982

Hungarian Political Leaders

Do you remember names? Imrédy?

Imrédy, yes. He was a high Hungarian, prime minister I believe? Was a high Hungarian official, yes.

Did anyone speak of him or Kállay?

Kállay, yeah, I remember him too. Kállay, as far as I can remember, that he, I think I was told by some Jews that he talked maybe against the Jews but he really wasn't that bad a guy. Too many details I cannot tell you honestly. It was too far away and it's been too long.

How about Admiral Horthy?

Uh, I remember, well him, of course, that he was the leader of Hungary I was taught in school. As far as the Hungarian situation, to the best of my knowledge from what I read and heard, that many--Hungary was an ally of Germany. With all the badness that Hungarians had under Horthy, against the Jews. The Germans were trying desperately to deport the Hungarian Jews, but Horthy and, and, and his, his ministers, even though some of them were anti-Semites uh, stood up against Hitler and they refused to deport the Jews. They said, "They are Hungarian citizens." As a matter of fact, I was in Budapest in the winter of '44 with my mother. Uh, things were hard to make a living those days. My father was a teacher and Talmud Torah teacher. He wasn't making much money. My mother used to travel to Budapest to buy merchandise and then sell it in our town. And I went with her and I heard a lot of Polish-speaking people on the streets of Budapest and I was explained there. I, I, I was asking, "Who are these people?" And they said that they were Polish refugees. I don't know the numbers, but there were thousands and thousands of Polish refu...Jewish refugees in Budapest, living freely and the Hungarian government was well aware of that and they were very tolerant while Horthy was still in power.

Did things start to get worse after 1941? Do you remember if, if anything changed? Did you stop going to school? Was there rationing?

No, no. Nothing like that, no. Rationing I believe yes, was part of that. The salt I think, it was hard to get sugar, we did have rationing, but...

Was it different for the Jews than for the rest of the people?

I don't think so, no, no. Nothing at all. I believe that we had our ration cards and we were not treated any differently. And, and uh, uh, again, perhaps I have forgotten some of the things, but I think I remember pretty well my childhood. There was no serious change in our lives. Um, it was more difficult, but uh, no physical harm and, and we were struggling before and we were struggling now. I don't think it made that much difference to us.

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