Bilkei Nándor & Margit (Buchwald)

Bilkei Gorzó, Nándor Buchwald, Margit Nándor Bilkei Gorzó was a Roman Catholic theologian. He and Zsigmond Pártos, a Jew, were close friends. Pártos worked in banking. He was, for example, the private secretary of the famous banker, Simon Krausz, for a while. Pártos was also involved in the real estate business and sold villas near Lake Balaton. As a consequence of the Anti-Jewish Laws, he lost his job at the end of the 1930s. At this time, he turned to his old friend, Nándor Bilkei Gorzó, who became the “frontman” for Pártos’s new business, meaning that officially Bilkei Gorzó was the owner. They founded a small factory to make cinnamon and vanilla essence, as well as lemon concentrate, in Rákospalota near Budapest, across the street from Bilkei Gorzó’s home. On March 21, 1944, two days after the occupation of Hungary, the Germans arrested and interned Pártos in the Kistarcsa internment camp. He was released in October 1944. After the Szálasi take-over and the beginning of the Arrow Cross reign of terror, Pártos turned to the Bilkei Gorzós to hide him, his wife, and two children. Nándor Bilkei Gorzó and his wife, Margit, took them in as Hungarian refugees from Transylvania, into their home in Rákospalota at no. 45 Sződliget Street. After a week, Nándor Bilkei Gorzó moved the Pártos family to the home of some acquaintances in the nearby village of Fót. Only the Pártos’s 18-year-old daughter, Veronika Marianne, who was the same age as the Bilkei Gorzós’ daughter, Erzsébet, stayed behind. The Pártos family remained in Fót with the Szabolcsiks, Ferenc and his wife, Margit, until the liberation in the beginning of 1945. Veronika Marianne lived with the Bilkeis until the arrival of the Red Army. The Bilkei Gorzós were in constant danger, as they had a German officer garrisoned in their home. Nándor Bilkei Gorzó introduced Veronika, who spoke German well as his own daughter. Nándor Bilkei Gorzó participated in the 1956 anti-Soviet Revolution as the commander ofRákospalota. After the suppression of the revolution, he was imprisoned. On December 18, 2005, Yad Vashem recognized Nándor Bilkei Gorzó and his wife, Margit Buchwald, as Righteous Among the Nations.