Lukácsi Jolán (Klimes)

Lukácsi, Jolán Lukácsi, Mrs. József (Ilona) Before the war, Ede Hajós worked in a factory producing hand-made shoes that belonged to József Lukácsi. He was a former corporal and driver in the Hungarian army. Like many other Jewish families, the Hajós family was forced to move into a designated "Yellow Star" building in the summer of 1944. These buildings were later to form the ghetto, as well as the site from which Hungarian Jewry were deported to the concentration camps. When the Arrow Cross took power in October 1944, Hajós asked Lukácsi to look after his family. Soon after that Hajós was taken away for forced labor, never to return. He was probably murdered in Bergen Belsen. Lukácsi's daughter, Mária Rubb, remembers how the Jewish family arrived at their home with false identity papers. They were introduced as Transylvanian refugees. The Lukácsi family lived in Rákoscsaba, a remote neighborhood of Budapest. The house was surrounded by a garden. Some of the Hajóses went to hide further along the street in the home of Józsefné (Ilona) Lukácsi's sister, Jolán, who was married to József’s brother, Lajos Lukácsi. Thus five members of the extended Hajós family – Margit Hajós (née Grünwald, b. 1909), Klára Grünwald (b. 1924), Erzsébet Grünwald (b. 1926), Éva Hajós (b. 1934) and Erika Hajós (b. 1941) – were hidden by the two Lukácsi families from October 1944 until liberation in January 1945. The Lukácsis took a great risk in hiding the refugees, as Russian, Romanian and German soldiers often passed through the area, and Arrow Cross soldiers frequently searched the vicinity for Jews. Rubb also praised their neighbors, who were aware that they were hiding Jews, for not turning them in, as they could have been severely punished and even shot for their actions. Józsefné and Jolán Lukácsi took most of the risk, as their husbands, József and Lajos, who supported their wives' actions, were in the army and came home only on holidays. Józsefné Lukácsi diedin 1976 and Jolán Lukácsi in 1995. The rescuer and survivor families remain on very close terms to this day. On May 31, 2010, Yad Vashem recognized Jolán and Józsefné (Ilona) Lukácsi as Righteous Among the Nations.