ObjektnummerM2009/066:006
BeskrivelseHandwritten letter from Andor and Panni, Paks, Hungary, 17 April 1946, addressed to Gyurika (George) and Irenke, Sydney. It follows previous correspondence between George and Andor and Panni. Andor tells George to please believe the horrible facts surrounding his family’s death and that no matter how many people he asks that it won’t change. He provides information about that history. He will try and recuperate some of what was lost but says that is unlikely; he writes about stolen property and the mistreatment by the Hungarians of Jews returning. He asks George not to send any more parcels, as they have the essentials. "It's not the loss of riches that causes us pain."
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.
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.
ProduktionsstedHungary
Produktionsdato circa 1946
Emnevictims, searching, families, final solution
Objektnavnletters
Materialepaper
Mål
- width: 204.00 mm
height: 286.00 mm
Sprog
- Hungarian Paks, 17/4/1946
My Dear Gyurika and Irénke!
I received your letter of 23rd of March, I am very sorry that you only receive mail from me irregularly. I hope this one will reach you.
Before your previous letter (illegible word) I wrote to Mrs. Klein Árpád, I started to think she didn’t receive my letter, when I received from her a letter, which I am enclosing here.
My Dear Gyuri, whomever you are going to ask, knows the same, the horrible facts described in Mrs. Klein’s letter, that I imparted to you several times.
I repeat: from the 5th to the 14th of June 1944 we were together with poor your dear Mother, with Borika and Magdi at Csikós’s brick factory at Székesfehérvár, in the ghetto. Because the loading of the railway carriages was done according to villages (90 people with their belongings in one carriage) I haven’t seen them ever again. On the 14th of June I met with poor Erno in Auschwitz and I spent almost all my time with him until the 11th of July, when I was taken with a labor gang to (illegible place name) that belonged to the camp of Dachau. Erno was left behind, but I was informed, while still in Germany, that poor Erno couldn’t cope with all the privations and perished there.
I received your power of attorney and together with your brother in law we will try to proceed in such a way, that we achieve the best possible result for you. I hope to be able to travel to Budapest this week and then after consulting with your brother in law we will establish contact with Mendron Dezso, if it is necessary and if the case demands it, we will travel personally. After Mrs. Klein Árpád’s letter I hope to be able to recuperate something, and that is a very rare occurrence here nowadays. In my previous letter I asked you not to send parcels. We have the essentials, our house is so damaged that for the time being is inhabitable; the annexes are beyond repair, they were so damaged during the bombing raids. We may have furniture enough for a room, and that had to be brought back piece by piece from the village, gather them by force from the thieves (end of page 1) also found some of our clothing and underwear, maybe 5% of what we used to have. They didn’t even left a nail in the shop, I can’t reopen it, and I don’t really want to either. I received back my lands, in an extremely neglected state, from all the machinery I only found a damaged sowing machine. I have a borrowed horse and an other one bought with a loan, and the most necessary equipment. If I get an average crop, I will be able to pay back everything and buy more equipment. What is needed for everyday living I earn it in small deals, and my Panni is working with knitwear in her nephew’s shop, so we earn enough for subsistence. Personally, I would like very much to join you there. My Panni doesn’t like the idea, but if there is the possibility of a decent livelihood, surely she will take a liking to the idea. The problem is that we don’t speak English. You know that we are hardworking people. I ask you to inform us about possibilities of earning and subsistence and about life in general over there. The best solution would be to find somebody that would like to come to live to Hungary and we could swap estates. Maybe this possibility exists and then our livelihood would be solved.
Just in case, here are our data: I was born on the 25th of July 1900 in (illegible), my Panni on the 16th of September 1900 in Paks, my job is farming right now, I own 44 acres of land, and a damaged two storey house. The maid’s house is standing, could be included in an exchange; also 3 acres of grapes and peaches. We could make here a good living, but it is impossible to forget what happened to us, and I don’t want to go through democracy with the same surroundings as we went through the fascism. Just because of the memories, we have to go away from here; everything reminds us of the happy past and this is impossible to bear. So is the barbarism of most of the people that don’t feel sorry for the perished ones but for the few who returned, because they ask back the goods stolen from them, many times at no avail. For example, I found my horse and one of my cows, and until now they were not returned to me, because (illegible). A decent human being can’t imagine the complete moral debauchery in the last six years, and it can not be erased in one year.
My Dear Gyuri, I ask you again, even if you sent this parcel, don’t send any more, don’t deprive yourself, you also have to work hard for your money. Even if not at the old standard of living, but we will be all right somehow, and is not the loss of riches what causes us pain. I wish we would have lost everything, but our dear Ágika, Karcsi and family, Gizuék, Jenoék and many many members of our family, some of whom you didn’t know, seven members of my Panni’s local family would have returned.
Lots of kisses for you and Veruska
From Andor and Panni
KreditrammeSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Dr Veronica Goldrick