Fekete Kornélia (Bücher)

Fekete (Bücher), Kornélia Kornélia Bücher (later Fekete) lived in a large building in Budapest where she was friendly with both her Jewish and non-Jewish neighbors. After the German occupation, Bücher was approached for help by her Jewish neighbor, Marcel Herczeg. Herczeg asked that she move in with him and his wife as a kind of defense against the round up of Jews by the authorities. She agreed. With the silent assent of the building’s concierge, a sign, which said, “Only Christians live here,” was hung on the building’s front door, even though the Jewish couple was still hiding in the apartment. At the request of other Jewish residents, Bücher hid jewelry and other valuables, either in her apartment, or in the safe in the store where she worked. She guarded these items faithfully, and returned them after the war. Among the building’s residents were József Rácz and his wife Éva. József was drafted into a forced-labor company, and Éva, who was pregnant, was very worried for her own future and for the future of her unborn child. Bücher gave Éva her own original birth certificate, together with her father’s certificate of baptism. With the help of these documents, Éva was able to move to a small town far from Budapest. However, after suspicions were raised there about her being Jewish, she moved back to the city. Using Bücher’s name, she was accepted at a maternity hospital as a Christian, and at the end of June gave birth to her son Péter, who was listed in his birth certificate as the son of Kornélia Bücher. Bücher helped Éva Rácz keep in touch with her husband, who was still in the labor company, throughout the period that she was hiding in various places under a Christian identity. In the fall of 1944, Rácz learned that his unit was to be deported to the Third Reich. Through Bücher he was able to send word to his wife, who managed to arrange a letter of protection for him from the Portuguese embassy. Because Rácz’s sister was a Brazilian citizen, an embassyworker brought the letter personally to the train station, and got Rácz off the deportation train at the last minute. József and Éva Rácz moved to Sao Paulo after the war. On August 1, 1993, Yad Vashem recognized Kornélia Fekete (née Bücher) as Righteous Among the Nations.