Varga István

Dávid, Erzsébet Varga, István In 1944, Erzsébet Dávid and István Varga were both working at the registry office in Debrecen. Dávid worked as a clerk and Varga as the registrar. Aside from the legal work, which they did, they would also take blank Christian documents, such as Christian birth and marriage certificates, and fill them in for Jews. In so doing, they saved the lives of numerous Jews both in Debrecen and in Budapest. They also gave out about 50 blank baptism certificates to Jews. Among the many Jews that they saved were several members of the Fenyvesi family. Erzsébet Dávid, a deeply religious Calvinist, had known the Fenyvesis for a long time. The Fenyvesis, Aladár, his wife, Anna (née Schwarcz), and their son, Károly, lived in Budapest. One day, Dávid sent them false documents with István Varga. Aladár Fenyvesi was no longer able to take advantage of the documents since he had already been taken as a forced laborer, but his wife and son did make use of them to live in a neighborhood where no one knew they were Jews. Erzsébet Dávid also provided a Christian birth certificate for Mrs. Fenyvesi’s mother, Róza Schwarcz, and for her eldest daughter, Elza. In the summer of 1944, Dávid and Varga were arrested for forgery. They were freed when the local prison was hit by a bomb and the prisoners who had survived the explosion were simply let go. After the war, Erzsébet Dávid became the registrar of the registry office of Debrecen. She died in 1948, when she was only 49 years old. On August 1, 2001, Yad Vashem recognized Erzsébet Dávid and István Varga as Righteous Among the Nations.