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Judit Ungárné Komoly (* 1933)

• Judit was born on October 5th, 1933

• Judit survived the 2nd World War in Budapest together with his father

• Judit‘s mother was killed in a concentration camp

• She is the family member of Ottó Komoly, who saved thousants of jews in Hungary

• Judit and her father was liberated by the soviets in Budapest

• After the war she studied to be a kindergarten teacher

• She spent 4 years at the Moscow Pedagogical Institute

• She was a techer and psychologist in her professional life

• After retirement she organized training in Judaism and social work at the Jewish University of Budapest

Judit Ungárné Komoly

Ancestors, Childhood 

Born on October 5th, 1933 in Budapest, from her mother’s first and her father’s second marriage. Her father was 36 years old then, her mother likely a year older.

Her paternal family had been a defining role in her life. Her paternal grandfather David Kohn, deceased 2 years before Judit was born and was one of the first Hungarian zionist and belonged to the founders of The Hungarian Zionist Association.

His wife Emilia Klauber was a warrior lady and she handled their business, a huge scrap yard which at the time was a great industry. Emilia deceased 1 year after Judit’s birth, but Judit’s grandparents had had a great influence on her. David Kohn and Emilia Klauber had 6 children, David Kohn had taken part in many zionist congresses, spoken on the Basel Zionist Congress discussing the official language of the new Jewish government and David Kohn proposed the German language, since every Jewish person knew how to speak German in that time. Out of the 6 children, the eldest man was Otto Komoly (he transitioned Kohn to Komoly), who was actually a hero, he is mentioned by Judit later on.

Judit’s father was from a family like this.

Her parents got married in 1932, her mother didn’t want to take on the Kohn family name due to the jokes around the name, because of this the name Kohn had been changed to Komoly, and this is how Judit’s mother became Lajosne Komoly. Six months after Judit’s birth, her maternal grandmother had deceased, this led Judit’s mother to depression and as a result she didn’t take care of little Judit as much as she wanted to.

Judit had spent her first 10 years in the 9th district under 8 Kén street, whereby she hadn’t received much of maternal care, but her father’s youngest sister spent a lot of time taking care of Judit, her name was Dora. Judit’s father took great care of her, she received a lot of compassion from him. 8 Kén street was the Hungarian Petroleum Industry Co., which was an oil refinery company and Judit’s father was the chief engineer of this company.

It was a very pleasant place, but she had grown up in a way where half of their apartment faced boilers and factories, and the other half faced the garden and a football pitch.

Within this proletarian environment, the family was very conspicuous. Judit had gone off to kindergarten, Dora also played a role in this as she couldn’t carry on her studies due to Numerus Clausus, but she did finish the Montessori kindergarten teacher training and this is where she recommended Judit to be taken into, this was at Veres Pálné street.

At the time, Judith had no idea that she was Jewish, her family were not religious, Judith did not receive a religious upbringing. Eventually school age came, those were tough years for Judit. She went to school in 1939-40, this school was at Bakát Square.

In the meantime, unfortunately, she had to learn that she was not like the others, so she received a lot of unpleasant things to remember.

She had religious studies in the first grade, others there said that people of other religions go to religious studies elsewhere, so they’d go to separate Jewish religious studies with a couple of other Jewish girls, although this never bothered Judit at all.

However, she was more interested in when one of the teachers from the third grade had asked: “who remembers what she was being called before?”. Judit put her hand up and  said “Kohn,” after which she only called the teacher Kohn.

Another experience of such was that she had been going to school alone from the third grade onwards, it proved to be safe due to the underpass of Boráros Square, she could easily go to school from Ráday or Lónyai Street. Once on her way home, some older  boys took her cap away in Kén Street and called her a smelly Jew, from then on, her housekeeper escorted Judit home from the tram to Kén Street. The Hungarian Petroleum Industry Co. was declared a military plant, therefore it had been assigned a military guard and a shelter had to be built. The soldiers were nice, they played with Judit, she liked the construction of the shelter, the fact that everyone got given a gas mask, the rehearsal alarms. As a child Judit had an experience of this as if it was an interesting game.

German Occupancy 

The German occupation had arrived and a yellow star had to be worn.

Judith had pharyngitis at the time, which meant that she could always lie in her parents’ bed. Then came Dora, who told them that everyone will have to wear a yellow star from tomorrow and said: ”But do not be ashamed, for this is the badge of the Jews, and you must wear it with pride, for this is our badge, this is the shield of David.“

By this time they already had the yellow material, when her mother bought it the salesman told her, „line it withred inside, because it will have to be turned around.”

The next day the sirens went off - until then it was just a rehearsal alarm, they went down to the basement and there were horrible noises outside, the whole place was trembling.

It was a carpet bombing, the oil refineries were being bombed in the area by the British and the Americans. When they came outside, their apartment was half ruined, the factory was in flames, it was terrifying. It was not possible to go back to the apartment, her father and mother stayed there, Judit and her aunt went to Buda by foot to the daughter of the headmistress (whose son Judit was in love with). In the meantime, school was over, and Judit finished fourth grade in 1944. She received her school certificate in the headmistress’ office because of the yellow star, so as not to be ashamed of it in front of the others. She really appreciated this.

The apartment on Kén Street had become uninhabitable and they shortly moved into 12 Klauzál tér  (half of it belonged to her mother). Her father was not on duty for two reasons: he received a military award during World War I, so he had an exemption, second of all being the chief engineer of the wafare he was not taken away.

Her mother once carefully guided Judit when she was visiting her uncle, Ottó Komoly, who lived in Bérkocsis Street at the time. By this time there was already a curfew out for the Jews, they could only go outside to the streets in a certain period of time.

This was followed by Horthy‘s proclamation, although exiting the war wasn’t successful, for a short time they were able to remove the yellow star and moved from Klauzál Square to Brant‘s apartment. They lived there thinking that the war is done and they are finally free, but then came the Arrow Cross party seizing power. In the house on Bujovszki Street there was an air raid warning, when a deputy caretaker stood in front of them and said that „Jews cannot go to the basement”.

They had to escape and go to the star house in front of the apartment on Bujovszki Street, it was at 6 Ó Street.Judit handled this well, there were a lot of kids, they played, they handled this cheefully. They played, performed plays, and felt nothing of what was going on. After the Arrow Cross party seized power, his father was called in for labor service and they had to retur from the apartment on Bujovszki Street to the star house.

Otto Komoly

Otto Komoly is least known in Hungary, 3 streets in Israel and a mosava bear his name and he also has a huge plaque. The name of Otto Komoly is well known in England, thanks to the Jewish Educational Trust. In Hungary, he has a plaque in Jewish Museum. He was the one who most embraced his father‘s ideals. Otto Komoly and Judit‘s father had managed to graduate from university before Numerus Calusus.

Ottó Komoly was a static engineer and initially worked as such.

He had soon grasped the Zionist ideas and from then on he became an active Zionist and wrote a lot on this subject, and then re-founded the Hungarian Zionist Association.

During the Holocaust, he was appointed as the head of the Swiss Red Cross (Class A), organizing the rescue of the Jews. Together with Rezső Kastner they organized the Kastner train, and a seat was always reserved for him on this train.

They gave a lot of money to the Germans and that’s why they let this train into Switzerland. Otto thought it to be immoral to escape from this train, they only reserved a seat for their daughter, and Dora and her husband went with him as well.

The famous and wealthy Jews got to board this train, which is obviously debatable in retrospect. Ottó Komoly took an active part in the rescue of the Jews, he also dealt with a lot of other things at the same time. They freed people from marches and labor services, fed orphanages, he saved thousands. Among other things, Judit‘s father was also brought back from the labor service.

Meanwhile, women, including Judith‘s mother were gathered in the star house with the help of the auxiliary caretaker. This is when her mother was taken away and she saw her for the last time. Her mother asked a woman there to take Judit to the Greenhouse and then a man would be sent for her, because by then her mother already knew that Judit‘s father had returned from the labor service. They even met in the apartment of Ottó Komoly, her parents’ last meeting was at 3 Bérkocsis street. Her mother kept sending her whereabouts in the post from every location she resided at to let her know where she was. She was in the brick factory once, Otto Komoly sent a man for her, but she was not found. Apparently, Judit’s mother died in typhus in Dachau.

Judit was taken to the Greenhouse (at Vadász Street), she was very hungry in the basement at night, suddenly she started digging around and found a lot of nuts on the ground, she ate them. The next day she was taken to Baross Street, to the office of the Red Cross, where she was reunited with her father, who already knew that her mother was in the process of deportation.

From Home To Home

Afterwards, the Red Cross - appreciating Otto Komoly‘s fantastic rescue work - rented a villa around Andrássy Way (Mihácsi Mihály street), Judit has not yet lived in such a beautiful villa. This was Otto Komoly‘s office, but Judit and her father had also lived there. Judit was very happy there, but she prayed every night for her mom to be brought back. His father helped his brother Otto and was nervous about the mother’s comeback (he smoked a lot too). There were no more bombings, because Budapest was enclosed by then, this is when her father said, „Listen Jutka, we‘ve been enclosed, it’s about to end very soon.”

They had to leave Mihály Munkácsi Street because they realized that it was a Red Cross office. They moved into an apartment at Benczúr Street; his father, one of Ottó Komoly‘s girlfriends and Judit. By then, they already knew that her mother will not come back now, as Budapest was enclosed. This apartment too, became uncertain. Therefore, a car went for them in which an arrow cross member took them to a safer place, but he was one of them. This member was György Aczél, who was the link between the communist and Zionist rescue. There stood a  tall building at today‘s House of Representatives and they were taken to its highest floor, from where she could see the exploded Margaret Bridge, in the middle of which a tram was stood still. Her father wasn‘t really talking to her at the time, he was very depressed. However, there were a lot of books in this room and that’s when Judit started reading Tolstoy’s book War and Peace.

From there they had to go to Hotel Pannonia, because Jews were being hidden there as well. They had walked from Rudolf Square to the top of Rákóczi Way.

They got there and were searching for Mrs. Komoly, but they told them not to go in because a raid was going on, so they went to another place. Her father held her hand, making Judit feel safe.

They walked over to Benczúr Street, where his father no longer went down to the basement, because if her mother could not be in the basement, she would not go down either. By this time, the Russians were firing at Budapest. Judit’s father was sitting upstairs and smoking a cigarette. By this time, her father was severely depressed.

This is where they were liberated. The soldiers marched along today’s Hercegprímás street wearing their hats, while the Germans were already clearing away next to the Basilica. They were liberated, it was a great joy. They went to Bérkocsis Street, but Ottó Komoly wasn’t found anymore, because the arrow members took himby his name.

He was probably tortured by them and shot into the Danube.

After The Liberation 

Otto Komoly’s daughter had aliased into the evolving Israel at the time, but Dora didn’t go  in the end because there were two half-orphaned nieces as well as her younger brother.

Dora and her husband returned. By this time Judit had already attended the first year of high school in the Jewish high school, when she came home from school, Dora welcomed her with open arms, and had been her foster mother ever since. Dora’s daughter and Judit have been talking about her as such ever since.

Her father’s condition had gotten progressively worse, it turned out that his wife was dead. Supposedly she died in a typhus, which is a more merciful death, because in the last days the patient is no longer conscious. His father was examined, he tried to restore the Hungarian Petroleum Industry, the fuel was bad, he smoked, he was depressed.

Her father once said something important at 3 Bérkocsis Street:

„Dad, tell me, how can it be that God lets people murder each other because they‘re of different religions?” - “Because there isn’t.“

That was a very defining answer for Judit at the time.

Judit didn’t like living in that house at the time, Mrs. Komoly and Dóra Komoly were looking for Ottó among the many corpses in Budapest. But they were not found, they were taken by the Danube. Mrs. Komoly aliased to Israel and went after her daughter. Dora sold the apartment and they moved to Újpest.

Judit attended the Jewish high school now (Radnóti), was an enthusiastic Zionist, and she also took part in the organization. Her groups of friends were in a kibbutz, there were also two Zionist camps. One day the kibbutz became kolkhozes, they became communists.

By this time, Judit had become a very militant teenager communist, along with her uncle, who was an old, convinced warrior communist.

Judit began to get involved in the communist movement, with the same enthusiasm as her involvement in Zionism. Judit left the Jewish high school and went to the Huba Street kindergarten teacher training centre where she became a kindergarten teacher.

In the meantime, she got involved in the youth movement, she was also a good student, she even received a Soviet scholarship and award.

She had studied Russian and went to university in Moscow. She spent 4 years at the Moscow Pedagogical Institute. There she graduated and received her major in pedagogy-psychology. Then she went home to Hungary, which was in the beginning of 1956.

The ministry said there was no job for her, but if she could find one for herself, she would be appointed. She looked around and found a job at the teacher training centre in Eger, which was in the 1956-57 school year. They were very kind, the colleagues were not bothered by the Soviet scholarship and the party membership either.

Dora was Judit‘s support all along the way, if she isn’t there for her, Judit would have been lost. She went home from Eger to Budapest on the weekends and then the October Revolution came. She had taught at a high school in Budapest for 2 years after Eger.

It was then that teacher training was upgraded to a higher level and she was seeking out good party members. Judit had applied for teacher training and taught there for 45 years. Her professional career was fulfilled here, and this is where she became a psychologist. She later developed a method for teacher aptitude testing, from which she obtained a scientific degree. When she retired from there, she was approached by the Joint Foundation to organize training in Judaism and social work at the Jewish University of Rabbi Training along with Alfred Schőner.

Judith never really felt like a beautiful girl, but she had some great loves.

She met her lover, Péter Ungár, relatively late. He was also a Soviet scholar, he studied in Leningrad. They got married in 1966 and lived in a happy marriage for 48 years.

She adopted two of his daughters from Peter‘s first marriage, and no children of her own were born. One girl became a psychiatrist, the other girl was never really a fond of Judit.

Her husband died in 2014.