us-005578-irn524293
type: RecordSet
archival history: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
biographical history: Béla Ingber (1913-2003) was born in Munkács, Hungary (later Czechoslovakia; now Mukacheve, Ukraine) to Kálmán Ingber (1882-1944, born in Kielce) and Eszter Mermelstein (1884-1944, born in Gdansk). He had seven siblings: Ilona (1905-1944), Jenő (Eugen, 1906-1942), Ferencz (b. 1908), Jóska (1910-1989), Adolph (Oli, 1915-1998), Miki (1922-1981), and Erzsébet (Libu, 1925-2012). Kálmán worked as a horse and cattle trader. He was religiously observant and the family’s life centered on Jewish holidays and practice. In November 1938, Germany gave Hungary control of part of Czechoslovakia, including Munkács. Soon Hungary instituted anti-Semitic restrictions limiting Jewish economic and educational opportunities. Béla and Ferencz were both conscripted into Hungarian Labor Companies (Munkaszogalat), auxiliary Jewish units to the Hungarian military. Bela had previously served in the Czech Army but, as a Jew, he could no longer be a soldier. Oli illegally immigrated to Palestine in 1939, and later joined the British Army. Jóska obtained a visa to come to the United States to attend the World’s Fair in Flushing Meadow, New York in 1939. He remained in the U.S. after start of World War II and enlisted in the United States Amy to both assist in the war effort and obtain citizenship to help his family emigrate from Europe. By sheer coincidence, he and Oli met each other in a movie theater in London shortly before D-Day. Jenő moved to Prague where he worked as a journalist writing anonymous anti-Nazi editorials. After someone betrayed him, he was arrested and deported to the Mauthausen concentration camp. He was shot and killed on 1 October 1942 while trying to escape. Following the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, conditions worsened for the forced-laborers, and their Hungarian supervisors grew increasingly sadistic. Ferencz’s unit was sent to support Hungarian troops fighting in Russia, and he perished in unknown circumstances. The last letter the family received from him was …
has beginning date: 1928-01-01
has end date: 1963-12-31
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had identifier: 2
has or had some members with language: eng
has or had some members with language: hun
has or had subject: 843
has or had subject: 701
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn524293
record resource extent: box 1
record resource structure: The collection is arranged as three series. Series 1. Biographical material, 1947-1963 and undated; Series 2. Correspondence, 1943-1959 and undated; Series 3. Photographs, 1928-1956
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: The collection consists of correspondence and photographs documenting the Holocaust-era experiences of Béla Ingber, originally from Munkács, Hungary (now Mukacheve, Ukraine) as a forced-laborer in Hungary during World War II and as a Jewish refugee in Italy from 1945-1947. Correspondence includes postcards to Béla while he was a forced-laborer from his father Kálmán Ingber in Munkács, and post-war letters from his brothers Jóska, Miki, and Oli and his sister Libu. Photographs include depictions of pre-war family life, Béla and his brothers in the Czech Army, Béla as a forced-laborer in Hungary, and Béla and his wife Marika Leiner after the war in Italy. Also included are Béla’s displaced persons identification papers and a personal narrative about his wartime experience.
title: Béla Ingber family papers