Object numberM2009/066:007
DescriptionHandwritten letter from Árpád Klein, Székesfehérvár, 10 April 1946, to George Medak, Sydney.
Excerpt: "My daughter and I were assigned to the workers side, we suffered very much in many different places during eleven months, it wasn’t human, but seemingly we were condemned to live and returned home, but maybe it would have been better for me to die there. My poor husband died at his work post in December 1944, about my 22 years old and 16 years old sons I haven’t heard anything until now and I can’t even hope that they will return some day.One of my brother’s sons, who also came back from Auschwitz, was there together with poor Erno who has lost a lot of weight and was gassed with many others."
Part of a collection of letters related to George and Iren Medák. George was born in Ercsi, Hungary on 26 February 1900. He viewed with alarm the success of Hitler’s territorial expansion as well as the radicalisation of German antisemitism. The Anschluss in 1938 was the catalyst that prompted him to put into action plans that resulted in his family’s successful emigration to Australia. He immigrated with his wife, Iren (nee Revesz) and six-year-old daughter, Veronica. They arrived in 1939. George tried desperately and repeatedly, albeit unsuccessfully, to get permission for his brother Dr Erno Medák, his wife Boriska and their young daughter Magdalene, to join them in Australia.
In December 1941 George was arrested as an ‘enemy alien’. Detectives took him away from his home to Liverpool internment camp, and from there to Tatura. He was released after about five weeks, and in February 1942 he joined the Australian Army. He had nothing but praise for the quality of care whilst in detention. During this time, his wife “walked the streets of Lane Cove” obtaining character references from friends, neighbours, work colleagues and the church ministry in order to petition for her husband’s release.
After the German occupation of Hungary—March 1944— letters from Erno stopped arriving. George’s quest to discover the fate of his family resulted in 22 letters of response from friends, neighbours and officials such as the Post Master in the villages of Sárosd and Seregélyes. They offer rare insight into the experiences of Jews living in rural Hungary, as well as the Nazi-allied Hungarian regime’s anti-Jewish laws, its forced labour service (munkaszolgálat), ghettoization, searching for “hidden Jewish wealth”, despair, suicide, deportation, and the decimation of rural Jewry. Through the letters he learned that his brother Dr Erno Medák and Erno’s wife Boriska, their young daughter Magdalena (Magdi) were murdered in Auschwitz in 1944; George’s mother Gisella Medák was also murdered.
George died June 1955. Veronica’s parents had hidden the knowledge that they were Jewish and she only found out in 1972 when her mother died. The collection includes copies of the letters of reference and a travel permit allowing Iren to travel for her dressmaking business and her daughter’s music lessons.
Excerpt: "My daughter and I were assigned to the workers side, we suffered very much in many different places during eleven months, it wasn’t human, but seemingly we were condemned to live and returned home, but maybe it would have been better for me to die there. My poor husband died at his work post in December 1944, about my 22 years old and 16 years old sons I haven’t heard anything until now and I can’t even hope that they will return some day.One of my brother’s sons, who also came back from Auschwitz, was there together with poor Erno who has lost a lot of weight and was gassed with many others."
Part of a collection of letters related to George and Iren Medák. George was born in Ercsi, Hungary on 26 February 1900. He viewed with alarm the success of Hitler’s territorial expansion as well as the radicalisation of German antisemitism. The Anschluss in 1938 was the catalyst that prompted him to put into action plans that resulted in his family’s successful emigration to Australia. He immigrated with his wife, Iren (nee Revesz) and six-year-old daughter, Veronica. They arrived in 1939. George tried desperately and repeatedly, albeit unsuccessfully, to get permission for his brother Dr Erno Medák, his wife Boriska and their young daughter Magdalene, to join them in Australia.
In December 1941 George was arrested as an ‘enemy alien’. Detectives took him away from his home to Liverpool internment camp, and from there to Tatura. He was released after about five weeks, and in February 1942 he joined the Australian Army. He had nothing but praise for the quality of care whilst in detention. During this time, his wife “walked the streets of Lane Cove” obtaining character references from friends, neighbours, work colleagues and the church ministry in order to petition for her husband’s release.
After the German occupation of Hungary—March 1944— letters from Erno stopped arriving. George’s quest to discover the fate of his family resulted in 22 letters of response from friends, neighbours and officials such as the Post Master in the villages of Sárosd and Seregélyes. They offer rare insight into the experiences of Jews living in rural Hungary, as well as the Nazi-allied Hungarian regime’s anti-Jewish laws, its forced labour service (munkaszolgálat), ghettoization, searching for “hidden Jewish wealth”, despair, suicide, deportation, and the decimation of rural Jewry. Through the letters he learned that his brother Dr Erno Medák and Erno’s wife Boriska, their young daughter Magdalena (Magdi) were murdered in Auschwitz in 1944; George’s mother Gisella Medák was also murdered.
George died June 1955. Veronica’s parents had hidden the knowledge that they were Jewish and she only found out in 1972 when her mother died. The collection includes copies of the letters of reference and a travel permit allowing Iren to travel for her dressmaking business and her daughter’s music lessons.
Production placeHungary
Production date circa 1946
Object nameletters
Materialpaper
Dimensions
- width: 211.00 mm
height: 290.00 mm
Language
- Hungarian Letters to Mr Medák, No 7
Dear Gyuri
I am only able to answer with delay to your letter that Spitzer forwarded to me, because every time I went to Seregélyes to talk to the person, I needed to talk to about Erno’s things, I couldn’t find him home. I was there again yesterday, and I managed to talk to him. Mudrony Dezso, the tenant, whom you might even know, if you remember a little, who used to visit often at poor Erno’s. Before Erno was called up approximately at the end of February, Erno handed over to him a gold stick, a gold chain with a medal, a brooch and several smaller objects. He has the list from Erno, of the things he received, and he still has everything that was handed over to him. His own he couldn’t save, he is completely ruined but he saved theirs. He also had two suitcases containing clothing belonging to them, but they were pillaged together with his own. His address is: Mudrony Dezso,Seregélyes.
Unfortunately, now I only can describe very sad things. At the end of February Erno enlisted as a doctor in a forced labor unit in Transylvania. In the letters he sent from there, he only wrote about good things, to ease the family’s worries. When the Germans marched in in March, poor Auntie Boriska and Magdika moved in with us, when suddenly the letters from Erno stopped arriving. By then we have read that the Jews were crowded into ghettoes. We knew that the poor man was taken somewhere. Unfortunately our destiny was the same, we also were taken to Auschwitz, as him. Poor Auntie Boriska and Magdika with many others were sent to the wrong side at our arrival. My daughter and I were assigned to the workers side, we suffered very much in many different places during eleven months, it wasn’t human, but seemingly we were condemned to live and returned home, but maybe it would have been better for me to die there. My poor husband died at his work post in December 1944, about my 22 years old and 16 years old sons I haven’t heard anything until now and I can’t even hope that they will return some day.
One of my brother’s sons, who also came back from Auschwitz, was there together with poor Erno who has lost a lot of weight and was gassed with many others. My brother and I came home at the end of May, last year, and found a completely ransacked house, we had nothing left. A very nice dowry was prepared for my daughter, nothing, not even one piece was found. We unfortunately didn’t place anything for safekeeping, and now it is very difficult because of the dearness here, is difficult to buy food, there is no money left for clothing. We live in Fehérvár, if you write: Fischer József Berenyi út No. 2 Székesfehérvár
I know your little daughter must be a nice big girl by now.
Warm greetings to you, your wife and little daughter
Mrs Klein Árpád
Regards to Hont Pista
Székesfehérvár, 10th of April, 1946
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Dr Veronica Goldrick