Item 23: Holocaust survivors from Hungary ; Ivan Halasz interviewed by Pierre Lang, 1991

MLOH 500/154-155

item

18/03/1991

Nonmusical Sound Recordings, Oral Histories

997332

Sound Recording : CY MLOH 500/154-155

2 sound cassettes (2 hrs.)

Ivan Halasz was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1911 into an assimilated family. He and his brother worked in a parquetry factory in Brescht, about 50 km from Berlin. In 1931, due to the depression, Ivan lost his job and returned to Budapest, where he became a sales agent. He was married in 1938.

In 1939 Ivan was called up into the Hungarian Army and worked driving army trucks. At this time his son was placed in the care of an Armenian family for safe-keeing. Ivan lost his rank in 1941 because he was Jewish and was taken to the Ukraine and the Russian front where he drove a tractor, often pulling German trucks and tanks out of the mud. When his company was called back to Hungary in December, Jewish soldiers were demobilized and Ivan rejoined his family in Budapest.

On 19 March 1944 German troops invaded Hungary and thereafter Ivan's family, along with many other Jews, were forced into 'Jewish houses'. In July Ivan was transported to Bergen Belsen concentration camp, Germany. He was held in a special part of the camp with 1000 others, to be used as hostages for exchange. When the British army got closer Ivan was put on a train to Theresienstadt concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. In May 1945 that camp was liberated by the Russian army.

Ivan returned to Budapest via Prague and was reunited with his parents and his son. He discovered that his wife had been been killed after being taken to the Danube following a raid by Hungarian Nazis on the Jewish houses.

After the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 Ivan's son left Hungary for Innsbruck, before moving to Australia in 1957. Ivan and second wife could not obtain exit visas from Hungary until 1976, when they joined him in Austalia.

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Log of interview available in the Mitchell Library Reading Room -

Original Mitchell Library allocated tape number 81.