Zoltan Mathe collection

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 

Zoltan Mathe collection 

folder 1 

Consists of one photograph of Zoltan Mathe at age 13 in Budapest, Hungary, wearing a Magen David. The photograph is dated August 10, 1944. Also includes an essay entitled,"Toward the Precipic" by Mr. Mathe, in which he describes the German invasion of Hungary, his bar mitzvah in April 1944, and watching his father and older brother be taken away for forced labor. When the Arrow Cross took control of Budapest, Zoltan, his mother and sister were rounded up, but released due to the intervention of Jewish friends posing as soldiers. The family assumed the identities of Christian refugees from western Hungary who came to Budapest to escape from the Red Army. They were separated with Zoltan in an orphanage and his mother and sister doing housekeeping work. The family, along with Zoltan's father and brother, was able to reunite in January 1945, though many members of the extended family were deported to Auschwitz and perished. The essay was published in"Encore: A Celebration of Thirty-Five Years of Creative Work by HILR Members" in April 2012.