A young, handicapped, Hungarian Jewish man from Subcarpathia (now, largely in Ukraine) born with dwarfism, sits in a wicker chair at Auschwitz-Birkenau during selections, in which camp officials would decide which arrivals would be gassed and which would be kept alive for slave labor. Although most arrivals with disabilities were immediately selected for the gas chamber, some were spared immediate death for grisly experiments performed at the camp by SS-Hauptsturmführer and camp physician Dr. Josef Mengele. The fate of this young man is unknown. Because he was photographed by camp personnel, it is likely that he was singled out for Mengele’s experiments. Mengele used Auschwitz as an opportunity to continue his anthropological studies and research on heredity, using inmates for human experimentation. The experiments had no regard for the health or safety of the victims and most died or were killed. He was particularly interested in twins, people with heterochromia iridium (eyes of two different colors), individuals with forms of dwarfism, and people with unique physical abnormalities. Auschwitz-Birkenau, Auschwitz, Province of Silesia, Germany (now and prior to the German occupation of Poland: Oświęcim, Lesser Poland, Poland). May 1944. Image taken by either SS-Hauptscharführer Bernhardt Walter or his assistant, SS-Unterscharführer Ernst Hofmann.

As the fall of the Germans got closer and more certain, more and more people tried to put some distance between themselves and the Arrow Cross Party, the Hungarian variant of Nazism. This phenomenon has its roots in human nature. In general, people believed the slogans of the Arrow Cross press about a Jewish-Bolshevik-Plutocrat front- which seemed to prove that the Jews were the most powerful people on earth: at one and the same time they held in their hands, through their diabolical cleverness and their web of contacts, the Western capitalist countries and Russian Bolshevism. Consequently, whichever of these groups reached Budapest first - the Western capitalists or the Russian communists - their first move would surely be to punish or reward people for their mistreatment of the Jews at a time of crisis. So a trend began - one might even say a secret movement - aimed at providing people with suitable alibis. Everyone tried to exonerate himself in advance. People lined up witnesses and contacts designed to show how they had sabotaged the regime, and how many Jews, and particularly how many Jewish possessions, they had saved. Rumor had it that some people began to visit the ghetto, and look up the occasional Jewish neighbor. Wags called this sudden enlightenment ‘alibi-baba’. The term really described a characteristic lament in all humankind: a tendency to turn towards the party in power. It was precisely the opportunists who now believed that the Jewish sun was rising.


Maskerado: Dancing Around Death in Nazi Hungary, Tivadar Soros

Hungarian Jews from Carpathian Ruthenia (today, mostly in Ukraine) depart from railway stock cars at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and are processed; those deemed young and healthy enough for work will be selected for internment at the camp as laborers, while the elderly, children, women with young children, the weak and disabled will be sent to the gas chamber. Auschwitz concentration camp, Auschwitz (Oświęcim), Poland. May 1944.

A Jewish couple is photographed in the Budapest Ghetto after the arrival of the Soviet Army in Hungary. The ghetto was created on 29 November 1944  by the fascist Hungarian government, led by Ferenc Szálasi. It was surrounded by a high fence and stone wall that was guarded so that contraband could not be sneaked in, and people could not get out. The ghetto lasted for less than three months, until the capitulation of Hungarian and German troops in Budapest on 13 February 1945 following the Battle of Budapest. More than half of those that were forced into the ghetto in 1944 were sent to concentration camps, starting almost immediately from the establishment of the ghetto. From occupation to liberation, the Jewish population of Budapest was reduced from 200,000 to 70,000 in the ghetto. Budapest, Hungary. February 1945. Image taken by Yevgeny Khaldei.

Hungarian Jews, recent arrivals at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, who were not selected for interment and labor, are moved onward to the gas chamber for execution. The elderly, women with young children, children, the ill or disabled and “surplus” individuals were routinely singled out for immediate extermination upon arrival after selections to separate the healthy and able-bodied from those deemed unfit for work. Auschwitz concentration camp, concentration camp, Auschwitz (Polish: Oświęcim), Małopolska Voivodeship, Poland. May 1944.
Hungary remembers Holocaust amid boycotts, protests

Pécs (Hungary) (AFP) - Hungary bean 70th anniversary commemorations of the Holocaust on Wednesday amid boycotts and protests by Jewish groups which accuse the government of whitewashing the country’s role in the mass deportations of Jews in 1944. Marking the day when Hungarian Jews were first placed in ghettoes in 1944, ceremonies were held around the country as part of “Holocaust 2014”, a programme of events organised by Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government. In Budapest, President Janos Ader and Deputy Prime Minister Tibor Navracsics lit candles at a monument by the Danube commemorating the thousands of Jews shot into the water in 1944-1945 by the Hungarian fascist Arrow Cross militia. A ceremony was also to be held at Budapest’s Holocaust Museum, with trees planted and candles lit to remember the 600,000 Hungarian Jews who perished in the Holocaust.
Source: AFP

An elderly Hungarian Jewish woman, previously interned at either the Tét or Berehovo Ghetto, arrives by cattle car at Auschwitz II, also known as Birkenau extermination camp. Too old and infirmed to work, she would have undoubtedly been sent to the gas chambers following selections. Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, Auschwitz (Polish: Oświęcim), Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland. May 1944.

Hungarian Jews from Carpathian Ruthenia (today, mostly in Ukraine) arrive by train at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. The first transports of Jews from Axis ally Hungary to Auschwitz began in early May 1944 and continued even as Soviet troops approached. It is estimated that from an original population of 861,000 people considered Jewish inside the borders of Hungary between 1941 and 1944, about 255,000 survived; a survival rate of just 29.6%. Auschwitz concentration camp, Auschwitz (Polish: Oświęcim), Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland. May 1944.   

Hungarian and German soldiers round up Jews in Budapest for deportation. From the start of German occupation in 1944, Jews and Gypsies (Roma) were deported to the Auschwitz-Birkinau concentration camp with complete cooperation of Hungary’s fascist leader Ferenc Szálasi of the Arrow Cross party. By the end of the war, the death toll was between 450,000 and 606,000 Hungarian Jews and an estimated and 28,000 Hungarian Gypsies. When the war ended, Szálasi was captured by American troops and returned to Hungary. He was tried by the People’s Tribunal in Budapest in open sessions and sentenced to death for war crimes and high treason and was hanged on 12 March 1946. Budapest, Hungary. October 1944.
The Legacy of George Soros, Part 1

“There have been many who have impacted United States politics, but perhaps none more than George Soros. A man who in his book, “The Alchemy of Finance”, admitted to an exaggerated view of his place in the world. “I have always thought of myself as some kind of God or economic reformer,” he wrote.

He told biographer Michael Kaufman that it was his goal to “become the conscience of the world”.

Born in Budapest in 1930 to Tividar and Erzebat Schwartz, he changed his name to Soros in 1936. When the Nazis occupied Budapest in 1944, his father split the family into groups, buying forged papers to identify them as Christians, and bribed German families to take them in. George, an atheist was placed with a German Hungarian official named Baumbach.

Soros sometimes accompanied Baumbach on his job, which was to deport Hungarian Jews and turn their property over to the Germans. Soros felt no guilt over this, as he told CBS news in December 1998, because he took no active part….”

Krausz Street Named After Savior of 40,000 Jews

Krausz Street Named After Savior of 40,000 Jews

New Jerusalem Street to Commemorate Savior of 40,000 Jews During Holocaust

By Michael Zeff / Tazpit
(JERUSALEM) – Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat inaugurated a new street in the Israeli capital in an official ceremony on Tuesday, August 24. Named after Moshe (Miklós) Krausz, the little known Hungarian Jew who saved about 40,000 Jews during the Holocaust, the street naming publicly recognizes and honors…

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All of the Aristocratic Twirls - Proclamation Issued Against the Dogs

20 AUG 1882. Austin Daily Statesman.

“SAMUEL OF POSEN.” Another Young Man Who Was Liable to Run the House.

Some time ago a young man, said to be a Hungarian Jew, applied to Captain Tom Smith, of the Brunswick hotel, for employment, stating that he was penniless and desired something to do by which he could gain an honest livelihood. Captain Smith replied that he had no employment for him, unless he would take the position of hotel bootblack which, while rather humble, about a well patronized public house is quite lucrative. The young man said he would accept the position and went to work. He stayed just five weeks, and in that time had cleared fifty-nine dollars over and above expenses. He then left for San Antonio, much to the relief of the proprietor of the Brunswick, who was afraid if he remained much longer, like “Samuel of Posen,” he would own the house. Before leaving Austin he purchased a ticket in the Louisiana lottery, and Captain Smith has just received information that he has drawn the capital prize of $75,000. When that young man again visits Austin he will not be domiciled in the bootblack stand, but will register his name of the Brunswick book, giving the autograph all of the aristocratic twirls incident to recently acquired wealth.

The Dog Law.

Following is the section of the city ordinance upon which the mayor’s proclamation was issued against the dogs.: “Article 152(5). It shall be the duty of the city marshal to erect a pound suitable for the impounding of all dogs, as hereinafter provided, at such place as the mayor and city council may direct, which pounds shall be under the control of the city marshal and it shall be the duty of the city marshal to cause all dogs found running at large within the city limits of the city not wearing a collar and license plate of medal, as provided in section 1 and 2 hereof, to be taken up and impounded. He shall see that proper care is taken of all dogs so impounded by him and shall deliver the same to the owner or owners upon an order from the assessor and collector after the payment of all costs as hereinafter provided, and he shall keep a record of all dogs impounded by him and shall take a receipt for all dogs, delivered to the owners thereof, and shall make a full report thereof to the mayor at each regular meeting of the city council.” The proclamation goes into effect on the 25th.