Letter : Paper : typed, handwritten : Ink; pen : beige, black, blue ; Ht: 29,5 cm x W: 22 cm
Other Title Information
Documentary Artifact
Date
May 25, 1942
Physical Condition
Good
Language
Hungarian
Notes
4 pages, single-spaced. Folded once horizontally and once vertically. Document is a photozopy of aletter from Ferenc Weinberger to Jusztinián György Serédi, Prince Primate of Hungary. The original is located in the Jewish Museum in Budapest. In it, he accuses the priests of the Catholic Church, the members of the Upper Chamber, and the Hungarian landowner class for their anti-Semitism and for inciting the lower classes. Beginning with descriptions of incidents in which Hungarian policemen kicked Jews off a train, and did not let other Jews board a train, the author describes how the Jews have been humiliated and their basic human rights denied to them; how they never questioned the laws against them, even though they seen wrong from Christian, national and humanistic perspectives but have been accepted as legal tenets. The author says he could accept the fact that Jews would have to leave the country, but that they should be given enough time to leave and a more humane treatment. The author concludes the letter saying that he just wants to describe his feelings to Seredi. Narrative: Ferenc (Feri) Weinberger was the younger brother of Gusztáv Weinberger, the donor's father. In 1943, he was sent to the Bor copper mines, in Serbia, as a Jewish forced laborer. In the fall of 1944, the mines were evacuated in the face of the Red Army and Yugoslav partisans; Feri and thousands of others were deported to concentration camps in Germany. He was imprisoned in Flossenberg on November 9, 1944, and was transferred to Commando Hersbruck on December 3 of that same year. He died on December 26, cause of death unknown. This collection of correspondence was used as part of the research for the following book: Kalman Naves, Elaine. Journey to Vaja: Reconstructing the World of a Hungarian-Jewish Family. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1996. Print.