legacy of rescue: a daughter’s tribute b y marta fuchs

Legacy of Rescue:

A Daughter’s Tributeby Marta Fuchs

Tokaj, Hungary (pop 5,000)

Our house today

• Built when my Dad’s father got married, mid 1890s

• Dad and Henry both born there

Marta and Henry early 1950s

With mom in our backyard (plum trees, corn, potatoes, berries)

My father,

Miksa Fuchs (1911-2000)

before the war, 1931

My father’s first forced labor battalion, 1940

• Hungarian Jewish men of military age • drafted into labor battalions attached to the Hungarian

army to fulfill required military duty• anti-Jews laws prevented them from serving in regular

army

Zoltán Kubinyi (1901-1946)

• Became my father’s Commanding Officer in 1944 after predecessor had accident going to headquarters seeking permission for decimation

• Seventh Day Adventist, kind, respectful, Conscientious Objector, no gun in his holster

• Rescued 100 Jewish men by defying Nazi/Hungarian orders, refusing to march the battalion from Russia to concentration camp

in Germany

• Instead marched them toward Hungary, arranging hiding in farmhouses along the way

 Ending of Dad’s February 1988 testimony to Yad Vashem

requesting Righteous Among the Nations recognition for Kubinyi:

Zoltán Kubinyi was a true human being in the deepest sense of the word. During this catastrophic event, when civilized, intelligent people were blinded with irrational hatred, and innocent people, mothers with babies in their arms were slaughtered, HE WAS A MAN. Risking his own life, he stood up for and defended the innocent, persecuted people.

The memory of Zoltán Kubinyi deserves the highest honor that a person could possibly deserve for his altruistic, heroic, and self-sacrificing activities.

 (my translation of Dad’s letter in Hungarian)

Márton Kubinyi (1944 -) 6 months old when his father went off to war

His mother refused to

believe word of his father’s death in Siberia and prayed ‘til the end of her days for his return

Márton had to drop out of school at age 14 to work in order to support them

Son, Márton Kubinyi (right) -- Budapest 1994receiving Yad Vashem commendation on behalf of his father

Tokaj Synagogue Holocaust Commemoration in 1994

(restored Synagogue is now part of Cultural Center, concerts held there)

Tokaj, view from Synagogue window

Zoltán Kubinyi and his wife(received photo from son when met him in 1994, Holocaust Commemoration,

Tokaj)

Visiting Márton Kubinyi and his family -- Komjáti, Hungary, June 2011

Mom today age 94

Mom and Dad, 1996 (married 50 years then)

Dad under his lemon tree with Torah and flower crown for Shavuot(Mom’s family tradition to make)

www.legacyofrescue.org