United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Sarah Koranyi (1896-1957) was born Sarah Schwarcz in Budapest. She was the youngest of seven children in a poor family that kept kosher. Zsigmond (Zsiga) Koranyi (1889-1982) was born Sigmund Kohn in Zilina, Hungary (later Slovakia). He had seven brothers and sisters, and his family was moderately religious and kept kosher. Sarah and Zsiga married in 1917, settled in Budapest, changed their last name to Koranyi, and had two children: Marta (1921-2015) and Erwin (1924-2012). Zsiga’s brother Sandor escaped Zilina with his wife and mother-in-law, but the rest of their relatives were deported to Auschwitz and killed. Zsiga helped his brother’s family and other Jewish refugees in Budapest find safe places to stay. One of those refugees was Marta’s future husband Jan Sebor (b. Erwin Schwalb, 1913-1996) from Zilina. Marta was assigned forced labor at the Riegler Paper Factory, but a friend helped her escape. Her brother Erwin helped obtained Swedish protection documents from Raoul Wallenberg for her family. When Franz Szalasi’s Arrow Cross government no longer recognized the Wallenberg documents, Marta started working as a secretary at Wallenberg’s “satellite embassy” at 1 Jokai Street, and she and her family lived in a room in the same building. They survived an Arrow Cross raid on the building in January 1945 and were liberated. Marta and Jan Sebor were married in April 1946. They spent some time in Czechoslovakia, but their employment options were limited when they refused to join the Communist Party. They traveled in Europe before migrating to Israel in 1949. Her parents settled in Montreal, and she and her husband immigrated to the United States and settled in New York in 1956.
Copyright Holder: Ms. Marta Koranyi Sebor
folder 1
The Koranyi family papers are arranged as a single series.
The Koranyi family papers include a postcard, two Swedish protective documents, a photograph, and a photocopied clipping documenting the survival of Zsigmond (Sigmund), Sara, and Marta Koranyi in Budapest during the Holocaust. Marta’s friend Gabrielle (Gabi) sent her the postcard in June 1944 from a sealed deportation train destined for Auschwitz, where Gabi was killed. A rough English translation of the Hungarian postcard reads, “My little Martha, Since the morning we have been standing with our packings, we don’t know where we are going. Think of us, Many Kisses, Giza. Please send a card each to Natal Mocsari Kender St; Mrs. Adolf Kuntcler so that they should know about us.” Raoul Wallenberg issued the two Swedish protective documents in the collection. One claims Sara Koranyi was a Swedish citizen and spared from wearing a yellow Star of David, and the other attests that Sara was related to Marta Koranyi, who worked for the Swedish legation in Budapest. The photograph depicts artwork honoring Zsigmond (Siegmund) Koranyi for his role in protecting Jewish refugees in Hungary. The clipping from the Montreal Star describes Sigmund’s interest in the Eichmann trial in 1961.
Koranyi family papers