Elias Ilona (Tóth)

Elias, Ilona Ilona Tóth’s father was born in Hungary. When she married Benjamin Elias, a Greek Jew who owned a flourmill, her father cut off all contact with her. Ilona and her husband lived in an area of Yugoslavia that was annexed to Hungary in 1941. Ilona helped Jewish fugitives who arrived from Austria and Germany. She also helped Jews to escape from Yugoslavia to Hungary and hide. One of those she saved, Elemér Neuman, later testified that Ilona Elias helped find him a hiding place when he fled from Belgrade to Újvidék / Novi Sad (today Serbia). Ilona Elias later smuggled him to Bácstopolya / Bačka Topola (today Serbia) in southern Hungary, and arranged a hiding place for him there as well. She helped other Jewish fugitives by helping them find work, or by giving them food and clothing. After the German invasion, many of the Jews in the area were arrested, including Ilona’s husband. They were taken to a concentration camp under German administration in Bácstopolya, which was the camp from which the first Hungarian Jews were transported to Auschwitz by train on April 28, 1944. Ilonka brought food and clothing not only for her husband, but also for other Jewish inmates. Every few weeks the Germans did a selection of Jews in the camp in order to organize the next shipment of Jews. On one of these occasions, Ilonka’s husband was chosen for deportation. Ilonka tried to get him released, but was beaten by the guards. She followed the transport train until it arrived in the city of Baja, where the Jewish inmates were placed in a camp prior to deportation. By bribing an officer, she managed to get her husband out, along with five additional Jews. In order to cover up his deed, the officer said they were not Jews, but political prisoners. All six Jews were saved. After the war, Ilona and her husband moved to Israel, where she continued to save Jewish lives by volunteering for the Magen David Adom emergency medical organization. She also volunteered her help insupport of Israel’s soldiers. She later testified that, as a Christian, she felt that it was her responsibility to work to redress the treatment of Jews by the Nazis. On February 19, 1976, Yad Vashem recognized Ilona Elias (née Tóth) as Righteous Among the Nations.