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Miskolc and Surrounding Towns Residents, as Reported by Survivors After the Holocaust

Introduction by John J. Kovacs (A Miskolc Survivor)

· Background
· Database
· Acknowledgements
· Searching the Database

Background

This database contains information about 10,831 Holocaust victims from Miskolc, Hungary and surrounding towns.

The purpose of this project is to commemorate approximately ten thousand Jewish victims of the Holocaust of the city of Miskolc and of those who lived in 134 different towns in the county of Borsod. (For a complete listing of the surrounding towns and information available, please see the "Database" section below. 

The city of Miskolc in the 1940s was reported to be the second largest city in Hungary, with a population of about 100,000, which included approximately 14,000 Jews.  Miskolc was also the seat of the county of Borsod.  Besides Miskolc, Jews lived in some very large and some small towns in Borsod county that we call "the surroundings." (See the below map of the County of Borsod.)

From the early 1940s, many Jewish Hungarian men of military age, who were able to perform physical labor, were inducted into labor service units as part of the Hungarian military since Jews were not allowed to carry arms or wear uniforms with military insignia.  From about 1942 they could only wear civilian clothes, an armband, and a military cap without insignia.  By 1944 most of the able bodied men were in labor service units.

The rest of the Jewish population remained in their homes until the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944.  Thereafter, Jewish men, women, children and the elderly outside of Budapest were progressively put into ghettoes and later deported to concentration camps.  Jews of Miskolc and surroundings were deported in jam packed freight cars to Auschwitz in June 1944.  The trains left the Miskolc area on June 11, 12, 13 and 14 and arrived in Auschwitz on June 13, 14, 15 and 16.  Later on, members of some labor service units were also deported to German concentration camps and they also died in labor service, especially on the Ukrainian front.

The Miskolc martyrs list was compiled by members of the Jewish Community who survived the Shoah and returned to Miskolc and surrounding towns from concentration camps or labor service after WWII.  A copy of this list was located at the Kazinczy Street Synagogue of Miskolc in 2007 and was used for this project.  This original community list at the synagogue consists of approximately 406 manually typed pages, some already faded.  Thus, our list of martyrs for the city of Miskolc contains 6,588 names with a person’s occupations and street address as available from the community list.  In comparison, the Miskolc Yizkor Book, entitled "Miskolc és Környéke Mártirkönyve" (The Book of Martyrs of Miskolc) by Rav Slomo Paszternak, 1970, contains an estimated 300 or more names, but it does not include a list of occupations and addresses.  The two Miskolc lists vary however, as some names are spelled differently and some may be available in one and not in the other list.  Thus the advantage of our and the original community list used in this project is that besides the name and year of birth of the martyr it also contains the occupation and former resident street address for the city of Miskolc.  This additional information can be important to the genealogical researcher as many of the names are similar.  For the list of martyrs in the other towns of Borsod county, our list contains 4,243 names in 134 towns whereas Paszternak has a pproximately 66 additional towns and an estimated 3,400 more names.  For the other towns we do not have street addresses.

VICTIMS OF THE HOLOCAUST

Miskolc Fourth Grade Jewish Elementary School Class 1942 In the "Erzsébet Izraelita Elemi Iskola"; probably most of these students perished in the Holocaust in 1944: see the list of the student names and their former addresses below.

Fourth grade photograph copyrighted © 2010 by John J. Kovacs

The names of the students in the photograph are listed by rows starting with the student on the extreme left of each row.  Most students should have been born in 1932.  Those listed with a birth year other than 1932 are probably listed in error.  Names were recorded by John Kovacs based on his memory and the addresses were taken from the Miskolc community list.  The address column was left blank when a person’s surname and given name was not in the community list; the reason could be that they survived or their relatives or friends did not report them.

Top Row Address in Miskolc
Czeisler, György Ady Endre u. 22 b. 1932
Groszman, László  
Wruszerbai, Imre  
Weisz, Andor Zöldfa u. 25 b. 1934
Neuwalder, Ernö Kazinczy u. 6 b. 1930
Adorján, György Lonovits u. 2 b. 1932
Markovits, Dezsö  
Gotlib, Lajos Arany J. u. 100 b. 1932
Herskovits, Miklós Vörösmarty u.55
Váradi, György Mindszent u. 20 b. 1930
Bonis, Péter He is not listed, but believe he lived on Széchenyi u.
Schlezinger, Jenö Rózsa u. 4
Silberman,Salamon Paloczy u. 6
   
Third Row Address in Miskolc
Róth, Ernö  
Schwarz, László Vörösmarty. u. 18
Bornstein, István  
Ronai, István  
Klein, Zoltán  
Rosenberg, Miklós Szentpály u.12 b. 1934
Mandel, Pál  
Márkusz, László  
Deutsch, Ernö  
Pugács, Ernö  
Lichtner, Ernö Paloczy u. 7
Lusztig, Sándor Tetemvár alsos 2
Ungar, Arthur  
   
Second Row Address in Miskolc
Róth, Adolf Mindszent u. 4 b.1933
Komlós, József  
Lefkovits, Marton  
Zsupnik, Miklós Lehel u. 2 b. 1932
Feig, István Széchenyi u. 89 b.1932
Hauer, Bertalan, School Principal    Leventa u. 14 murdered by Hungarian fascists
Buxbaum, József, Class Teacher survived
Kovács, János ** Bizony Ákos u. 15 b. 1932 survived
Weisz, György Vay u. 15 b. 1932
Márkusz, Tibor Szendrey u.17 b.1932
   
Front Row Address in Miskolc
Winger, Ábel  
Kohn, Gyözö  
Kovács, Pál Vörösmarty u.16 b. 1932 (my best friend)
Goldstein, László Zsolcai Kapu 32 b. 1932
Schönbrun, Miklós Zsolcai Kapu 14 b. 1934
Grün, Gyula  
Preusz, Lázár Hunyadi u. 14 b. 1932
Rozenfeld, Pál Szentpéteri K. 57 b. 1932
Stern Sándor Széchenyi u. 87 b. 1932

**This photograph was preserved by Kovács János, one of the students who survived.  John Kovacs, Bloomfield, MI, j.kovacs@sbcglobal.net.

Memorial to the Martyrs in Miskolc Kazinczy Street synagogue

English translation of the Hungarian text follows:

This is a memorial for our blood.
They died a martyr’s death in Auschwitz for their Jewishness.
The deportation death trains left on June 11, 12, 13, and 14, 1944 and arrived in Auschwitz on June 13, 14, 15, 16, 1944.

Memorial to the Martyrs in Miskolc Kazinscy Street Synagogue

The following is the introduction in Hebrew and Hungarian to the original list of names in the Synagogue collection.
The English translation of the Hungarian text follows:

For the everlasting mourning of the surviving Jewry of Miskolc and surroundings and for future generations we have immortalized the names of those murdered in the Holocaust.  Each name has a soul.  These many thousands were our blood:  the splendid youth, tired old men, mothers who held tightly their children, attentive fathers, affectionate partners in marriage, school boys and girls, playful children and the youthful mothers under whose hearts were the lives of future children.  Names of human beings!  Our people suffered the ultimate humiliation and were cruelly annihilated during the years of 1940-1944 through the cruel use of starvation, bullets, ropes, fire and water.

Introduction to List of Names

Database

This database includes 10,831 records of residents from Miskolc and surrounding towns.  The fields for this database are as follows:

  • Name (Surname + Given Name)   (See Note 1 below)
  • Maiden Name
  • Husband’s Given Name   (See Note 1 below)
  • Year of Birth
  • Occupation   (See Note 2 below)
  • Last Residence – Town    (For a complete list of surrounding towns, see Note 3 below)
  • Last Residence – Street Address    (For the city of Miskolc only)
  • Comments   (See Note 4 below)

Note 1:  Given and husband’s given names.

In some cases, the record will show the name as "N."  Although it is possible that this could be the first initial for a person’s name, we believe the "N" denotes unknown.

Note 2:  Occupations.

To aid the researcher in translating the occupations from this field from Hungarian to English, please see the JewishGen InfoFile "Hungarian Occupations" at http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Holocaust/HungarianOccupations.html.

Note 3:  Towns.

In addition to Miskolc, the following is an alphabetical table of towns within the "Miskolc surroundings".

Aggtelek Felsöábrány Mezökeresztes * Sály
Alsóábrány Felsökelecsény Mezőkővesd Sáta
Alsószuha Felsönyárád Mezőnagymihály    Sikátor
Alsótelekes Felsőzsolca Mezönyárád Szakácsi
Alsózsolca Galvács Mucsony Szalonna
Arnót Gelej Nagybarca Szendrö *
Ároktő Gesztely Nagycsécs Szentistván
Balaton Görömböly Nagyvisnyó Szentsimon
Bánréve Hámor Nekezseny Szihalom
Barcika Hangony Nemesbikk Szirma
Bélapátfalva Harsány Nyékládháza Szirmabesenyő
Belsöböcs Hejöbába Omány Szuhakálló
Berente Hejőcsaba * Ónod * Szuhogy
Bogács Hejökeresztur Ózd * Tardona
Boldva Hejöpapi Parasznya Tibolddaróc
Bolyok Hejöszalonta Pusztaravasz Tiszabábolna
Borsodgeszt Hódoscsépány Putnok * Tiszadorogma
Borsodivánka Igriczi Radostyán Tiszaeszlar
Borsodnádasd Jákfalva Rakaca Tiszagyulaháza
Borsodszemere Kácsfürdö Rakacaszend Tiszakeszi
Borsodszentgyörgy    Kánó Rudabánya Tiszaluc *
Bükkaranyos Kelemér Ragály Sajóecseg Tiszapalkonya
Center Keresztespüspöki    Sajóivánka Tiszaszederkény
Csermely Királd Sajókápolna Tiszatarján
Csokva Kisgyör Sajókaza Trizs
Dédes Kistokaj Sajókazinc Újgyör **
Diósgyör ** Kondó Sajómercse Uraj
Disznóshorvát Külsöböcs Sajonémeti Vadna
Domaháza Kurittyán Sajóörös Varbó
Dövény Lénárddaróc Sajópálfala Vatta
Edelény * Mályi Sajópüspöki Viszló
Emöd Mályinka Sajószentpéter * Vizsoly
Encs * Martonyi Sajószöged Zádorfalva
Erdötelek Meszes Sajóvámos Zubogy
Mezöcsát * Sajovelezd

The towns with one asterisk (*) are the larger towns with over one hundred names in the list.  The towns with two asterisks (**), Diosgyor and Ujdiosgyor, are now part of greater Miskolc.

Note 4: Comments:

This field includes references to Hungarian familial relationships, as follows:
  • Fiu = Son
  • Gyermak = Child
  • Leány = Daughter
  • Özvegy = Widow

Acknowledgments

The information contained in this database was indexed from records compiled by the Jewish Community of Miskolc, a copy of which was given to John Kovacs at the Kazinczy Street Synagogue, and he provided it for this project to ensure that the Jewish victims of Miskolc would not be forgotten.  JewishGen volunteers, Freija Lindholm and Kurt Friedlaender, performed the data entry steps for this set and Gary Deutsch, John Kovacs, Sam Guncler and Viviana Grosz proofread the data entry work.  John Kovacs also reviewed all proofed pages and the entire project for accuracy and consistency.

In addition, thanks to JewishGen Inc. for providing the website and database expertise to make this database accessible.  Special thanks to Warren Blatt and Michael Tobias for their continued contributions to Jewish genealogy.  Particular thanks to Nolan Altman, coordinator of Holocaust files.

Nolan Altman
Coordinator - Holocaust Database
March 2011


Searching the Database

This database is searchable via JewishGen's Holocaust Database and the JewishGen Hungary Database.


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