Bay Zoltán

Bay, Zoltán Professor Zoltán Bay was Chief Scientist and Director of Research at the laboratories of Tungsram, a manufacturer of light bulbs and other electrical appliances. In 1938, with the help of the Jewish factory owner Lipót Aschner, Bay founded the first center for atomic research in Hungary. He was also a senior lecturer at the University of Science in Budapest. After the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944, Aschner was arrested by the Gestapo and deported to the Mauthausen concentration camp. Bay was appointed manager of the firm, and did his best to protect his Jewish workers and their families. He helped some of his workers get letters of protection from various foreign government legations, in hopes that these documents would save them from deportation. He even paid salaries to Jews, something that was against the law. When he saw that he couldn’t prevent the deportation of all the Jewish workers in his factory, Bay allowed them to flee the factory and go into hiding. In November 1944, during the Arrow Cross rule, a group of Bay’s Jewish workers were rounded up and taken to the train station for deportation. Bay went to the station and, despite the resistance of the guards, managed to get his workers off the trains so they would not be sent to the Third Reich. Bay risked his life by helping Jews, something that was considered a capital crime. Among those he saved were György Szigeti, György Lakatos, Ernő Winter and others. Bay became a leader of the Hungarian scientific community after the war. Many of the Jews he saved also took up senior scientific positions and distinguished themselves in research institutions and as members of the Hungarian and international scientific academies. On December 16, 1998, Yad Vashem recognized Zoltán Bay as Righteous Among the Nations.