us-005578-irn707874
type: RecordSet
archival history: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
biographical history: György (George Pick) was born March 28, 1934 in Budapest, Hungary. He was the only child of middle class Jewish parents. György’s father, Istvan, was an engineer responsible for producing hydraulic grape presses for wineries. His mother, Margit Pick (née Kornhauser), worked as a legal secretary. The Pick family could trace its history in the Austro-Hungarian Empire back 230 years, and György had many close relatives in the city. In the 1930s, Hungary’s authoritarian government pushed the country into close alignment with Nazi Germany. Hitler’s speeches were broadcast on the radio, and even though György could not understand German, he was disturbed by the anger he heard in the dictator’s voice. Hungary’s anti-Jewish laws were passed between 1938 and 1941. Modeled after Germany’s Nuremberg Laws they defined Jews in racial terms, excluded Jews from various professions, and severely restricted their participation in economic life. As a result, György parents lost their jobs. In 1940, Hungary officially allied itself with the Axis powers. György’s father was conscripted into a labor battalion and sent to the newly annexed territory of Ruthenia, where he was forced to build roads for the military. He was released after three months, but was reconscripted in 1943 and again in 1944. György attended school until March 1944, when German troops occupied Hungary. In mid-May 1944, the Hungarian authorities, in coordination with the German Security Police, began to systematically deport the Hungarian Jews. In less than two months, nearly 440,000 Jews were deported from Hungary. Most were deported to Auschwitz, but thousands were also sent to the border with Austria to be deployed at digging fortification trenches. By the end of July 1944, the only Jewish community left in Hungary was that of Budapest, the capital. In June, the Picks, along with other Jews in the capital, had to move into special buildings marked with yellow stars, and all of their belongings were confiscated. Th…
date: circa 1912-1946
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had identifier: 3
has or had identifier: 2
has or had some members with language: deu
has or had some members with language: heb
has or had some members with language: hun
has or had subject: 701
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn707874
record resource extent: folder 1
record resource structure: The Pick family photograph collection is arranged in a single series.
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: The Pick family photograph collection consists of photographs of the Pick family of Budapest, Hungary, and the Kornhauser family, and their friends before and immediately following World War II. The images include both victims and survivors of the Holocaust. The photographs also include images of George Pick with his preschool class, first and second grade class photographs taken at the Jewish Boys’ Orphanage School in Budapest, a group photograph taken at the wedding of Dr. Jozsef Szalai, two pictures of a Hungarian Jewish labor battalion constructing a road in Cluj (now Cluj-Napoca, Romania) and a group photograph of a postwar reunion of Hungarian Jewish survivors in Budapest, 1946.
title: Pick family photograph collection