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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Memoir:
Letter to Agi
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Volume 9c
Pal Romer
Letter to
Agi
published by the
Concordia University Chair in Canadian Jewish Studies
Copyright �
Pal Romer, 2000
Key Words
Aranyida (town in Hungary), Arrow Cross gang,
Auschwitz, cattle cars, collaborators, death camps, Debrecen, dental office and
laboratory, forged papers, Hungary, Hungarian soldiers, Karputalja (town in Hungary),
Kassa (town in Hungary), Kecskemet (town in Hungary), kosher, labor camps, liberation,
lice, Nyiregyhaza (town in Hungary), Orthodox Community, People’s Court, Protected
Houses, refugees (post-war), revenge, Russian soldiers, Siberia, Swiss Safe Conduct
Papers, Szabolcs County, Ujfeherto, Varpulota (town in Hungary), yellow star armbands
Abstract
Pal Romer was raised in an Orthodox family in
Nyiregyhaza, Hungary. His family was under severe financial difficulties and he worked to
help his family survive. His family became very dependent on his financial assistance.
Romer did not receive a religious education, but one rabbi did teach him about Zionism.
Many of his friends were interned for their political beliefs in 1943-44.
After the German occupation of Hungary in March
1944, Romer was drafted into a Labor Camp in Kassa, Hungary, although he was taken to
various places to work. On one of these days of forced labor when he was working at a
railway yard, he witnessed rows of cattle cars full of desperate people he could hear
yelling and screaming. A letter thrown from one of these cars was from his mother telling
him she was being deported somewhere. It was only after the war that he learned the
destination of those cattle cars was Auschwitz.
Romer and four others were given Swiss Safe Conduct
papers and allowed to go into Budapest to stay in a so-called "Protected House".
This house was then raided by the members of the Arrow Cross Gang who ignored their papers
and forced everyone in the house on a march heading eastward. Romer and his friends
escaped by sleeping in a woodpile and were forgotten the following morning when the march
resumed. After walking toward the Danube, Romer and his friends were liberated by Russian
soldiers. He eventually made his way back to Nyiregyhaza, arriving exhausted and in poor
physical condition. While hoping for some relatives to return, he worked for Russian
Headquarters by finding collaborators and sending them to Siberia. He later became a
member of the People’s Court and tried people for collaborating or for participating
in deporting Jews. He also helped set up a dental office and laboratory and helped set up
a soup kitchen for returning refugees. It was during the time that he met his wife. None
of his relatives survived the Holocaust. The memoir is in the form of a letter to his
child, Agi.
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