Telléry Mária (Mayer)

Telléry, Mária Maria Telléry (neé Mayer) was married to Dr. Géza Tellery, the father of their two daughters, Maria (b. 1930) and Sari (b. 1931). In 1942, the couple separated and Géza left home. Maria and her daughters remained in their home until October 15, 1944, the day the Arrow Cross Party took control of Hungary under the leadership of Szálasi Ferenc, the Hungarian fascist. When Arrow Cross guards began to persecute and shoot Jews by their thousands, Mária moved with her daughters to her parents' home in Buda on the western side of the city. From there, she started to help endangered Jews and other persecuted people. Mária knew the families of the many children she saved and was friendly with them. Two of these children were four-year-old Maria Eszter Mérie and her 18-month-old sister Anna, who were living with their mother and grandmother. Their father, like most Jewish males, had been taken away for forced labor. The grandmother feared that as the situation worsened, they would find it harder and harder to hide with the two girls. As she looked "Aryan," with bright, blue eyes and an excellent command of the German language, she took the chance of taking her granddaughters by tram all the way to Pest, and left them with Mária Telléry. The girls stayed with Telléry for some three weeks and then returned home. At the beginning of November, after the Arrow Cross Party assumed power in Hungary and the deportations were restarted, the girls were placed once again with Telléry, this time in her parents' home. Two of Telléry's aunts also lived with her parents, as well as many others in hiding: some coming for false identification papers that Telléry made for them, others for shelter. When Budapest's Jews were incarcerated in the ghetto, there was a relatively "safe" feeling and the girls were returned to the capital. With the help of relatives and false identity papers they were able to leave the ghetto and enter a "Red Cross home," where theyremained, protected, until liberation. During the summer of 1944, ten-year-old Daisy Gerber was hiding at the Tellérys' home with their daughters. When she returned to Budapest, the "Yellow Star homes” for Jews were already a reality and Daisy, her mother, her older sister Noémi (aged 13) and her younger brother Bence (2) were forced to move into one of the designated buildings. Daisy's father had been taken away for forced labor. On the day the Arrow Cross Party came to power, Sári Telléry came to check on her friends. Without hesitating, and understanding the severity of the situation, Daisy’s mother asked Sári to take them all to her home. Sári did not hesitate. They all removed the yellow stars from their coats, and sneaked out to the street without being apprehended by the armed guards. Sári took them on the tram to her home, and Mária put all three of them up in one room, taking care of their food and all their other needs. Two weeks later, Mária showed up with forged identity papers. They moved to the home of a policeman, Simon János, where they stayed until liberation. Among other children that Mária Telléry hid and saved from certain death were Józsika Pollák, (10), Évika Pollák (12), Katalin Okányi (4) and Edit Okányi (3). When the siege on Budapest was at the peak, most of the time the family and the refugee children hid in the cellar, where they were taught that in case they were questioned, they should say that they were refugees from Transylvania, a common occurrence due to the war and the advancement of the front line. Mária Telléry also hid several adults, among them the lawyer Károly Havas and his wife Klári; Maté Szabó and his wife Mária; and Dax and Mayer András, deserters from the Hungarian Army. On June 14, 2011, Yad Vashem recognized Mária Telléry (née Mayer) as Righteous Among the Nations.