Budapest First Day

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Good morning, afternoon or evening - depending on who is reading this…

Getting caught up today (Tuesday, August 5th) during a nice afternoon break here in Budapest. We arrived on Monday in the afternoon. The flight was an hour late because of rain and such, but all went well and it was hot (no rain) when we arrived in Budapest around 1:30 pm. We met Aggie (our Budapest city guide) at the airport and started right in on touring. We began at the Heroes Square with the statues of the kings of Hungary. Aggie gave a thorough but very humorous overview of Hungarian history. We then moved on to Jewish history in Hungary. We heard how the Jews lived first up by the castle (as in most cities), and how they were excited to come to Budapest because there was only a peasant class and an upper class. Over the centuries there were good and bad times. One of the good times was under the Turks, but then 80% of the Jews were massacred for being on the side of the Turks when they were defeated. Under Queen Maria Theresa, the Jews had to “disappear” and pretend to be Christians because of her intense anti-semitism. When she spoke to a Jew she demanded that a curtain be placed between her and the person so she would not have to breathe the same air. But her son was better and life improved.

By the time before WWII - 80% of corporations in Budapest were in Jewish hands. And a huge minority of Budapest residents were Jews. We heard how so many survived (but still 600,000 died) because Hungary’s president insisted to Germany that he needed them because they ran all the factories - so without them the Nazis would not have all the materials they needed during the war. So, the Jews were protected until almost the end of the war.

But, the last six months of the war Hungary had to begin deporting its Jews too. First, the foreign Jews who had come to Budapest for safety; then the Jews from the outlying areas; finally the Jews of Budapest. (Aggie told us the story of how her own father at the age of 20 was hiding with a Christian family outside the ghetto but was in love with a Jewish opera singer in the ghetto who he knew would be deported and die. So, he put on the arm band of the Arrow Cross - the Hungarian Nazi youth - and showed up at the gate of the ghetto. There he demanded that this girl be brought to him because she was going to be shot and throw into the Danube like so many other Jews before her. They obeyed his order and brought her out and he was able to rescue her. They married, but later divorced because the singer did not want children - so he remarried and Aggie was born.)

Aggie was adamant that while the Nazis were responsible for the deaths of millions of Jews, the WORLD was responsible for the deaths of the 600,000 Hungarian Jews. Why? Because by the time those Jews were being deported, the entire world knew what would happen to them. In addition, she reminded us of the fact that Eichmann actually started negotiation with the Allies to give them the 1 million Jews of Hungary who were left in return for some concessions in the war. The Allies turned this down. Why? Because there was no place for the Jews to go. Some countries were willing to take 100 Jews. Palestine was controlled by Britain and an agreement by Britain had been reached to keep Jews out. Canada’s leader said - taking one Jew would be more than he wanted. So, the Hungarian Jews were sent to die.

We learned about why Hungary was on Germany’s side from the beginning of the Nazi period in order to have Germany’s assistance in regaining for Hungary the lands taken from Hungary at the end of WWI. We learned about the years of the Holocaust and about several of the diplomats and Jewish leaders who negotiated or improvised documents to save thousands and thousands of Jews. We heard why some who saved Jews were seen as heroes by the Jewish community, and some as collaborators because they had to play up to Eichmann and others to free Jews.

We heard theses tales mostly as we sat in the Doheny Synagogue - the second largest in Budapest. And we heard more from Yehudit - the Jewish woman who guided us through the Jewish Museum. At the museum we saw beautiful Judaica silver from all over Europe, arranged by life cycle and holiday. There were stained glass windows of scenes from the Torah, each one with the names of several donors. One of the names was “Adler” and we took a photo in case this is a relative of the Adler in our temple back home whose family came from Hungary. We saw beautiful Torah crowns and spice boxes. We heard the story (I remembered it from my last visit) of how all was stolen one night years ago before bars were put on the windows and a guard hired. All the silver was gone. And then a few years passed, they started to rebuild the collection, and the police tracked down all the stolen items. They were found in a pigpen in the countryside. It took years to restore them. Luckily, none had been melted down --- because of the kind of old silver they were made from.

One amazing story was of a gorgeous Seder plate that was on several layers. It was brought in after the robbery by an elderly Jewish man. He wanted to donate it because he was going into surgery the next day and might not survive. It became the first piece in the new collection of the museum.

We also saw a silver dish with almonds - each nut with a name inscribed on it. I will talk about that more in a sermon, but it was for assigning a member of the Jewish community to pay for the funeral of a poor person.
That same afternoon (it was a looooong afternoon - hot and a bit exhausting for several of us), we saw the beautiful weeping willow sculpture put up in the Doheny Synagogue courtyard by the artist Varga Inre (Varga is the surname). It was in memory of the Hungarian Jews killed by the Nazis and the Arrow Cross. There was also a stained glass piece in the courtyard. The leaves on the tree can be inscribed with names of those who died, and the funds go to help the community center there.

We also learned about how the Joint Distribution Committee (the Jewish branch that distributes funds from world Jewry to needy Jewish world communities) is the main support of Hungary’s Jewish institutions. However, there are many synagogues and centers and day schools now in Budapest and competition for funds is strong. That is a major reason why the Federation in Budapest (the umbrella of Jewish groups) has refused to recognize the Progressive (Reform) congregations of which there are now two groups. If they were recognized, the funds would have to be shared with them, too. So, our non-Orthodox groups truly depend on the Reform Jews of the world for financial support.

(It’s not like there were never reforms in the Judaism of Hungary. Hungary developed a unique Jewish style called Neolog. You can look it up on the web, but it was more or less a modern Orthodox where the sermon was in the local language and organ was allowed on the Sabbath. Men and women still sat separately, but the women were not behind a wall.)

Back to our touring day. We left the Doheny and Museum area and walked a few steps to a memorial to a man named Lutz from a northern country - maybe Sweden or Switzerland. (Hope I have that right…) He was a diplomat who was able to give out “protection” documents, maybe 1500. He was so frustrated as he considered the number of Jews he would not be able to save, that he produced fake identical documents and numbered them over and over again from 1 to 1500. The Nazis couldn’t tell them apart, so he saved many thousands more. The memorial shows a Jewish man prone on the ground reaching up, and a golden angelic figure reaching down from the heights with a cloak for the man to hold on to. There is a tree growing over the sight - which is built into a small cement corner against a couple of buidlings. Miraculously, that tree, planted in earth below cement, continues to bloom. Sadly, Aggie pointed out a sign along the side of the area that says not to walk dogs there - and she flipped it around to show us that on the other side someone had spraypainted anti-semitic graffiti and a swastika recently. She had seen it while touring, and reversed it so that the marred side faced the wall.

Aggie pointed out that anti-Semitism is a very big issue in Hungary, but that Hungary is also a wonderful place. She reminded us that the Soviet period was a period of terror - and so many were secretly murdered. Yet, her father always reminded her that the Russians did one very good thing. They liberated the city from the Nazis - and if they had not done that at the moment they did, she (Aggie) would never have been born as both her parents would have perished. She laments that the Russian defeat of the Nazis is not appreciated, even though she is clearly anti-communist. She explained how Jews began by embracing the Communists when they liberated the city because they were putting an end to the Nazis. And then she explained how within a year the Jews for the most part left the Communist party. (By the way, we learned that in the last 10 years before Hungary became a free country again - leaving the Soviet Union - only 5% of Hungarians were officially members of the Hungarian equivalent of the Communist party. Back in the Czech Republic, 85% were still members at the end of the Communist rule.)

(Last political education we received: that Nationalism in Europe should not be confused with patriotism in the U.S. The “right” in Europe means the kind of nationalism that defines a “pure” citizen; the “left” in Europe means civil rights and open market economies. It’s not like the left and right in Europe. Plus, in Hungary there is a growing rise of Nationalism and a party connected with it. They have even put up a museum ostensibly about the evils of the Soviet period, but it subtly glorifies the Arrow Cross view of Hungary. Scary stuff. There is even a new 200 person unit in the army now that wears black uniforms and the red and white striped arm bands identical to the Arrow Cross, but without the actual cross. When an elderly Holocaust survivor friend of Aggie’s saw this for the first time on the street, she refused to go out with Aggie to the synagogue because she was sure she would be killed. When the Nationalist politician gave a rousing broadcast speech one night until midnight, this same elderly woman called Aggie at home and begged Aggie to pack up her own family and leave the country. Aggie’s answer is that the European Union of which Hungary is a part forbids any governmental anti-semitism; so - as the EU grows stronger, Jews are safer. Without that assurance, perhaps Jews would really start leaving Hungary. )

So, we finally arrived at our hotel on foot where our bags were waiting for us. We had a free evening, and Peter and I went out with three others along the Danube to a small outdoor restaurant and ate goulash soup and salads. It looked like a storm was coming, but we finished in time for a couple of us to walk over the Chain Bridge (we were just a few steps away) and back again. It was lovely all lit up on the Bridge, and also on the Buda hills above us where the Buda Castle Palace is situated.

The rain really was threatening, so we quickly returned to the hotel by about 9:30 pm and called it a night. The Sofitel Hotel is one of the nicest I’ve been in EVER. I highly recommend it, thought not sure I could afford it if not as part of a tour group. It’s a 5 start hotel. Gorgeous lobby. Great service. Great room.
Tomorrow: the Buda side of the city, the memorial of shoes, and the Raoul Wallenberg memorial are on the schedule.

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