Baranski Tibor

Sterneder, Margit Margit Sterneder worked in the Chinoin pharmaceutical factory, in Újpest, a Budapest suburb. Sterneder was a devout Roman Catholic who, in the name of Christianity, rejected both the racist ideology and the anti-Jewish laws that were official policy during the war. Sterneder became friends with a Jewish woman by the name of Dr. Hedvig Szekeres (née Spitzer), who was employed in the factory as a chemist. Over the years, Sterneder had become very close both with Szekeres and her family, and the friendship became even stronger after the passage of anti-Jewish legislation beginning in 1938. After the German occupation, the Jews of Budapest were forced to enter yellow-star houses in June 1944. Szekeres feared for the life of her six-month-old son and turned to her friend Sterneder, asking her to save the baby from deportation. Despite the risk it entailed, Sterneder agreed, taking the baby into her home for three months while Szekeres, her husband László and other members of their family entered a yellow-star house. Szekeres believed that lives of the Jews were no longer in danger under the Lakatos government, formed in August 1944. In September 1944, she took her son back from her friend Sterneder. When the Arrow Cross party came to power, in the middle of October, the situation for the Jews became much worse. Sterneder feared for the fate of Szekeres and her family. At the beginning November, she asked a family relative, Tibor Baranski*, a theology student who had just returned to Budapest from Kassa / Košice (today Slovakia) to approach the Vatican representative in Budapest and to ask for a letter of protection for the Szekeres family. The Vatican representative agreed, and thanks to the papers Baranski obtained for them, the lives of all nine members of the Szekeres family were saved. On January 11, 1979, Yad Vashem recognized Margit Sterneder as Righteous Among the Nations. Baranski, Tibor Tibor Baranski, born in Budapest, wasstudying for the priesthood in the city of Kassa / Košice (today Slovakia) near the Russian front. At the beginning of November 1944, Baranski was forced to leave Kassa and return home. When he arrived in Budapest, a relative, Margit Sterneder*, asked Baranski to procure Vatican letters of protection for a Jewish family by the name of Szekeres. Dressed as a priest, Baranski went to the Papal Nuncio, Angelo Rotta*, who listened to Baranski’s request and gave him nine letters of protection, one for each member of the Szekeres family. Encouraged by his success, Baranski returned to Rotta the next day to ask for another set of letters, this time for another Jewish family. Rotta agreed to his request, and then asked Baranski if he was willing to go to the brickyard in Óbuda, which was serving as a camp for Jews prior to their deportation. Again, Baranski was to disguise himself as a priest, and to present Vatican letters of protection, which would hopefully allow him to take some 50 Jews out of the factory. To help Baranski make a powerful impression on the Arrow Cross party members who were guarding the Jews, Rotta gave Baranski his own beautiful diplomatic vehicle, which flew the flag of the Vatican. Baranski’s mission was successful, and all the Jews who Baranski presented as having Vatican protection were released. After this, Rotta appointed Baranski as secretary of the department responsible for bestowing Vatican protection on Hungarian citizens. He was also made manager of the Vatican’s “protected houses,” buildings in which those who received protection letters could expect to live relatively safely, beyond the reach of the anti-Jewish laws. At the time, these houses sheltered many thousands of Jews. As part of his job, Baranski traveled in the Vatican’s name to Hegyeshalom, a border town where Jews were transferred to the German Reich. Using both real and fictitious letters of Vatican protection, Baranski got many of these Jews released, then traveled withthem by train back to Budapest. Toward the end of the war, Baranski braved the bombardments in order to rush out after Jews who had been sent out on death marches. Despite the danger, he approached Jews marching along the main roads, or at various stopping points along the way, and gave them letters of Vatican protection. In his official capacity, Baranski paid for the upkeep of thousands of Jews living in the Vatican’s protected houses. He also did what he could to guarantee their security, fighting off the gangs of Arrow Cross members who ignored the houses’ protected status, entered the compounds and attacked the Jewish residents. At one point, Baranski, dressed as a priest, went to the train station, where Jews who had been part of the forced labor-service were in the process of being deported by Hungarian gendarmes. After a short argument with the officer in charge, Baranski got many Jews with Vatican protection letters taken out of the train cars, saving their lives. After the war, Baranski finished his studies and was ordained a priest. In 1948 he was arrested and indicted on trumped up political charges. He was jailed until 1953. In 1956 Baranski left Hungary as well as the priesthood. He married and settled with his wife in the United States. On January 11, 1979, Yad Vashem recognized Tibor Baranski as Righteous Among the Nations.