This is a black and white photograph of Bozsi and Pal Spiegel’s wedding in Eger, Hungary in 1937. The groom is wearing a white tie and a hat, and the bride is carrying a bouquet of flowers and wearing a long, white wedding gown, a veil, and white gloves. The other women in the photograph are wearing dark clothing and hats. The married couple seem to be leaving the wedding ceremony.
The groom, Pal Spiegel, was from Pest and worked in the family pickle business. The bride, Bozsi Friedmann, came from a more middle-class family. Her father, a Neolog Jew, was a tailor who specialized in making suits. Her mother came from a traditional family, and the Friedmann family kept a Kosher household, did not work on Shabbat, and celebrated the festivals. Pal and Bozsi moved to Pest after their marriage, and Bozsi was a housewife. Their daughter, Julika, was born in 1939. A few years later, Pal suffered from health problems and committed suicide. After Pal’s death, Bozsi returned to Eger to live with her parents and worked as a seamstress. During the Holocaust, life for Hungarian Jews living in small towns, such as Eger, was far worse than for those living in Budapest. Bozsi, her daughter, one of her sisters, and her parents were deported to Auschwitz in 1944. One of her sister Panni survived and later said:
Two other sisters, Anna and Piri, were in Budapest during the war. At first they were forced to live in one of the compulsory “yellow star houses,” and then in the ghetto, where they survived the war. Three of Bozsi’s brothers-in-law were sent to forced labour; only Anna’s husband, Istvan, survived.
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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.
