This is a picture taken in the Dohany Street Synagogue in 1942 of the reserve officers who had established the Committee of the Jewish Ex-Servicemen. During the High Holy Days they tried to convince as many World War I officers as possible to come to the synagogue to show that the Jewish community had a proud tradition as Hungarian citizens and to display that Jews served loyally in the Hungarian Army, despite what the Hungarian government was saying. This was a significant gesture, since this was a time of many official anti-Jewish laws, but Jewish ex-servicemen still came to synagogue in their uniforms, demonstrating their ties to Hungary.
In 1942 Miksa Domonkos, a decorated soldier in the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I, pictured in the first row, third from the left, was employed by the Jewish community to organise the effort to provide clothing to the Jewish forced laborers. As of 1944, he also acted as the de facto mayor of the Budapest ghetto, bringing in food and medicine to save lives and working closely with Raoul Wallenberg to protect more Jews. In the 1950s, the communist secret police arrested Miksa Domonkos and accused him of murdering Wallenberg. He died in 1954 after months of torture.
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The Jewish Community of Hungary – Jews have lived in Hungary for approximately 600 years. Attitudes towards the Jewish community differed depending on the leaders; some were very welcoming, while others subjected the Jews to harsh taxation and blood libels and expelled them from certain areas of Hungary. By the mid-nineteenth century Jews had achieved full emancipation and the community prospered, with many belonging to the social, academic, and financial elites of the country. The Jewish community at the time consisted of Orthodox, traditionalist (Status Quo Ante), and Neolog communities. Prior to World War I, the Jews comprised around 5 percent of the total Hungarian population and 23 percent of the population of Budapest. By the outbreak of World War II, the Jewish population numbered around 825,000. In 1944, towards the end of the war, the Nazis took over Hungary, and within a very short period most of the Jews were murdered. Around 200,000 Hungarian Jews survived the war. After the war, only 140,000 Jews remained in Hungary, while others immigrated to Israel and other western countries. In the following years, the Jews remaining in Hungary were challenged once again, this time by communist rule. However, after the fall of communism in Hungary in 1989, the community rebuilt itself and is today the largest in East-Central Europe with around 75,000–100,000 Jews. Most Hungarian Jews live in Budapest, where there are 20 active synagogues and a variety of Jewish religious and cultural institutions.
The Jews of Hungary During the Holocaust – In the years before World War II, the Jews in Hungary comprised five percent of the population. They were very successful, and many belonged to the commercial, political, academic, and social elites. Their success caused much resentment, and there was widespread anti-Semitism including the passing of anti-Jewish laws and the emergence of fascist parties such as the Arrow Cross Party. Under the rule of Miklós Horthy (1920–1944) Jews lost most of their rights and were called up to serve in unarmed labour service units, where many died due to the difficult conditions. In March 1944 the Nazis took over Hungary, and Jews were rapidly rounded up and sent to ghettos. The deportation of Jews to Auschwitz began in May 1944 under the supervision of Adolph Eichmann with the assistance of the Hungarian authorities. Ninety percent of the Hungarian Jews were killed upon arrival. Few efforts were made by the Hungarians to rescue the Jews, however international efforts by the US president and the Swedish king urged a halt to the deportations, and diplomats such as Raoul Wallenberg, Carl Lutz, and others took heroic steps to protect Jews. Finally Horthy ordered the discontinuation of the deportations, and Eichmann left Hungary. The situation for the Jews remained dire, and the Jews of Budapest were sent to live in the ghetto. Thousands of Jews were murdered on the banks of the Danube and others forced to march to the Austrian border. In all around 565,000 Hungarian Jews were murdered, most of them in a short period of eight weeks.
Raoul Wallenberg – Raoul Wallenberg was born in Sweden on August 4, 1912 to a prominent family with distant Jewish roots. After serving in the Swedish Army and studying architecture at the University of Michigan, he worked in South Africa and Mandatory Palestine, where he met German Jewish refugees. When the Nazis occupied Hungary, the United States looked for ways to organise a rescue programme for the country’s Jews. Wallenberg was chosen to lead the mission and arrived in Budapest in July 1944, when 400,000 Jews had already been deported. Under the ruse of working for the Swedish Embassy, he was responsible for saving as many as 100,000 Jews. One method for protecting Jews was the schutzpass, a document he invented that stated that the holder was under the protection of the Swedish government. The schutzpass is credited with saving 20,000 people. Budapest was liberated in February 1945 by the Soviet Army. Wallenberg was last seen on January 17, 1945 accompanied by Soviet officials. The Soviets took him for a spy, and after being taken in for questioning, he was never seen again. The date and circumstances surrounding his death are unknown.
