Farkas Lajos

Szabó, Gyula Farkas, Lajos In the early summer of 1944, only a few short months after the Germans occupied Hungary, Ilona Kemény (neé Fried, 1899) was living with her parents, Lajos and Regina Fried. Ilona’s husband Károly and their son Géza had already been taken to the forced labor camps, and by June she and her parents – along with the rest of Budapest’s Jews – were forced into the “Yellow Star” houses. In October 1944 the Fascist Arrow Cross party came to power, and the brutal persecution of Jews began. Soon the Arrow Cross ordered the evacuation of the “Star” houses; the residents, by now mostly women, children and the elderly, were first herded into the ghetto and then deported – never to return. On the day of their evacuation, Ilona Kemény and her cousin Rozália Feith (neé Fodor) were standing in the ranks outside along with the others. Somehow they managed to slip away unnoticed, and the two rushed to an acquaintance to seek help. He was unable to help but suggested they turn to an institute of the Salesian order, which was close by. The two women went over there and were greeted by director of the institution, Lajos Farkas. He took the women in without asking any questions, and gave them shelter over the next few days. The place, however, was over-crowded and so Farkas accompanied Ilona and Rozália to a Salesian friary in the town of Visegrád, across the Danube. There they were warmly welcomed by the director, Gyula Szabó; there were, in fact, quite a few other Jews already in hiding there, including an acquaintance of the two, Mrs. Köves. The women had had a narrow escape: a few days after they left Farkas’s institution Arrow Cross Fascists stormed the place, arrested all those who were hiding there and brutally tortured brother Lajos. Over the following two months Ilona and Rozália received kind and loving care from Szabó. They shared a small but comfortable room, and although they volunteered to help with any kind of work, though they werenever asked to do so in the kitchen or elsewhere. They nevertheless helped with sewing and mending clothes. As the head of the friary, the risk taken by Szabó in hiding the Jews was enormous – many who were caught doing so were arrested and executed without trial, sometimes simply shot on the Danube banks. The two women posed as refugees from Transylvania, and so with Szabó’s help and protection managed to survive the war. After they were liberated, Szabó personally escorted the women back to their home in Budapest. There they met Ilona’s son, Géza, and her husband Károly, who managed to survive the work camps. A few years after the war the family moved to New Zealand, and after his parents’ death Géza returned to live in Budapest. On 3 May, 2011, Yad Vashem recognized Gyula Szabó and Lajos Farkas as Righteous Among the Nations.