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Part 2: A Family Photo
and the thoughts it provoked in me...
Leslie Rübner
My only paternal cousin sent me a family photo (above). Judging by the clothes they were wearing and my father’s age it must have been taken in the late 1920s’. The family were in traditional formation in the back yard for a group photo. My father (in the picture, the boy sitting in the front left), at the time, was probably in the army.
The family property was in northern Hungary, in Balassagyarmat, one of the oldest Kehillas (Jewish religious congregation) in the country. I knew the house well; I remember a summer spent there with my mother and younger brother, David. This house, as the way most houses were built, touched the pavement and at the end of the property, the wall continued as a fence with an arched gate big enough to drive a horse and cart through comfortably. In the neglected back yard, there was not a blade of grass, only a few fruit trees here and there. There was a well for clean, healthy water. The entrance to the house was through the kitchen, as was customary in Hungary in those days. At the door was a little table with a jug of water and a bucket on the floor to wash one’s hand. Inside it was darkish and pleasantly cool. I had a close encounter with the wall outside and I can confirm that it was covered in pebbledash. I climbed up to the window and got out by jumping off and scraped the skin off my tummy.
Back to the photo. On the back row on the left is my Aunt, the first wife of Uncle Shie, who is standing next to her. He was my grandparents’ oldest child. On his left is Uncle Shuli neatly dressed; not the way I remember him. The two girls come next, Aunts Hindi and Neni. In the middle between my father and an unknown girl is my great-grandmother Gitl Heber.
The boys survived the Holocaust. Uncle Shie was on business in London when the war broke out. He applied to the Home Office several times to obtain a visa for his family, but by the time the visas arrived, the Hungarian authorities had stopped all Jewish emigration. His entire family [including his first wife] perished in Bergen Belsen. The two girls [my aunts Hindi and Neni], by then married with substantial families, were murdered with their husbands and children in Auschwitz.
Uncle Shuli and his wife Ilonka found refuge in the Swiss diplomat’s safe haven, the Glass House [and escaped to London during the Hungarian Uprising in 1956].
My Father, Avraham (Armin) first served in the Hungarian Army and carried on in a Labour Battalion in the virgin forest of Bryansk, in the Ukraine, ending up in a German Concentration Camp. He survived [and my parents, my brother and I also escaped Hungary during the uprising in 1956].
Balassagyarmat – Centre of Jewish Life
Balassagyarmat, a little town on the Ipoly river with an unpronounceable name, was an important Ashkenazi Orthodox centre. The first Chief Rabbi of this town was Aharon Dovid Deutsch aka Rabbi Dovid Prague z’tl he was born in 1812, in Raudnitz, Bohemia (today Roudnice nad Labem, Czech Republic), a descendant of the Maharal of Prague. He studied in Presburg under Rabbi Moses Schreiber, the Hasam Sofer, where he was part of a group of students, described as the Rebbe’s favourites. He moved to Budapest, where he taught Talmud in a small Yeshivah.
In 1851 Rabbi Dovid Prague was asked to be the Chief Rabbi of Balassagyarmat. A post he accepted and one of his conditions was that the Kehilla should build a Synagogue with a seat for all. A strong-willed person, he managed to unite a community of different levels of religious observance. Of course, pretty soon there was a need for another shul to be built in addition of the big one.
My grandfather, after whom I am named, was one of the gabbaim (a person who assists in the running of synagogue services). He supplied the community and beyond with matzos, made in his matzo factory for Pesach. He also went to Greece to purchase Arba Minim for the festival of Sukkot and did whatever was needed for the Kehilla.
My grandmother, Yittel was a born businesswoman. She scouted the countryside for goose feathers which she sold on to wholesalers. All three boys followed in the feathers wholesale business.
In 1868, a year after the compromise with Austria, the Hungarian government granted full emancipation to the Jews. The government wanted to see an organised single Jewish unit, like (lehavdil) the different Christian denominations, in order to pay their wages and deal easily with the Community (A Cult Tax was levied on all to cover this expense).
The different communities from all over the country congregated (Jewish Congress) in Budapest in a discussion that eventually lasted 2 years.
The not so religious communities wanted a kind of relaxed Judaism where it would be acceptable to break the Shabbat if you were so inclined, amongst other things. The religious communities, on the other hand were looking forward to a proper set up within the Halacha with an acknowledged Rabbi as Chief. One of the leaders of the frum (religious) communities was Rabbi Dovid. In the end, the community split into three factions. The two main ones were; and still are the Orthodox and the Neolog (Conservative). A small number of communities kept the status quo.
Rabbi Dovid died 26, April 1878. His works were published posthumously by his sons under the title of “Goren Dovid” He was succeeded by his son, Yosef Yisroel. My uncle Shie (a great Talmid Haham) studied under him. Following tradition, David (Chaim Aron David) Deutsch, Baal Tevuos Goren, the grandson of Aharon Dovid Deutsch followed his father as Chief Rabbi of Balassagyarmat.
On May 5th and 10th 1944 Balassagyarmat Jewry was ghettoised in two enclosed areas. The community was pressed into these small places where there was severe overcrowding, no water and no food. As part of deportation zone 3, the ghettos were liquidated in June 1944.
There were two transports to Auschwitz and Mauthausen concentration camps, The Deutsch dynasty came to a stop with the murder of the last Chief Rabbi. My two Aunts, their husbands and my numerous cousins also perished together with the whole Kehilla.
Thus, an important community came to a sudden end. After the Second World War a new community was established, but the original is irreplaceable.
For more information, visit: www.balassagyarmatizsidosag.hu/en/short-history-jewish-community-balassagyarmat
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