Scoutmaster Europe Journal 2002
Report #3
7/12/2002
Hello Everyone,
So to continue from yesterday... I am here in northeast Hungary, in Kisvarda which is about 25 km from the Ukranian border. This whole northeast section of Hungary is very rural and agricultural is the main business. All the fresh produce makes eating here a pleasure for me. Unlike larger cities in Hungary and elsewhere in Europe, there are no McDonald's nor any Pizza Huts, but I do not miss them. The roads often have horse drawn carts loaded with all kinds of farm products like hay and manure and produce. I am never sure what I have to pass until I can smell it.
I am staying at a campground near the historic ruins of a castle called a Var. There's a bathing complex of mineral and fresh water pools beside the campground; it's a great place to cool off as temperatures have been high.
However, my first order of business was to visit the Kisvarda Museum; it's located in one of the largest structures in town, the former synagogue. The building is right in the central town square. The area around the central square is shaped more like a triangle, and it has the main church, library, a new statue of Saint Laszlo, lot's of shops, and the Museum-Synagogue. Since not many Jews live in Kisvarda any longer, I am glad they preserved the synagogue even if inside, it no longer resembles a synagogue. The main hall is used for local historical displays of folk-life, paintings, and other objects of historical interest.
There is a second, smaller hall dedicated as a memorial to the Jews from Kisvarda who died in the concentration camp at Auschwitz. There are marble plaques on the wall of this memorial that have the names of about a third of the 3000+ people who died. My purpose for going to the museum was to present the director with a bronze plaque containing the names of the eleven members of my family who came from Kisvarda and died in Auschwitz.
When I was here three years ago, I tried to arrange for a plaque to be made locally, but that proved impossible. I didn't know it, but just after I returned to the United States from that trip, the former museum director died. That's probably why none of my letters were answered. So before this trip I had a bronze plaque made back home, and brought it with me to the museum. The new director is a woman named Vofkori Maria. She accepted the plaque and promised to have it mounted very soon. Maria comes from Transylvania, and considers herself Hungarian. Much of Romania, including Transylvania was part of Hungary until the end of the First World War. Maria speaks excellent English because she and her husband lived in Toronto, Canada for six years. Her only son was born in Canada. She spent a couple of hours with me talking about sources for genealogical information, and taught me a short lesson in Hungarian history.
Joseph II, ruler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire ordered the first census in Europe in 1784. Other census followed, but modern Hungarian records only date from 1895. Maria thinks that the earlier census data might be a source for information about my family roots. The official information I got from Hungarian sources only gets me back to my great-great grandparents who were born in the 1880's.
A local researcher, Nezo Istvan, works in the Kisvarda library. He's written a book about the history of the Jews of Kisvarda, which I purchased even though my Hungarian is not really good enough to read it. I spent several hours with Istvan too, and he was very helpful. He had a copy of the list of Jews deported to Auschwitz, and found and copied the pages with the names of my relatives. Interestingly, the names of some of the young children that I learned from my relatives are diminutives, like Joey instead of Joseph. Of course, I had no idea what the full names were in Hungarian until now. The records list their official full names. Another interesting idea that Istvan suggested is that some of my relatives may be listed with different last names. Grosz was my mother's family last name. It's the Hungarian spelling of the German word gross, which you may recognize as meaning "big." Well in Hungarian the word for big is nagy (pronounced nudge), and Nagy is also a common Hungarian last name!
I don't know how typical this is, but people in my family seemed to use various first names at different times. Sometimes the names were the Yiddish versions, sometimes the diminutive or nick names, and sometimes they used their full Hungarian names. I even think they may have altogether changed their names too. Actions such as changing names may be necessary when things are not politically stable. As a result, doing genealogy is difficult. But I'm making progress slowly.
Well, I feel like I have accomplished at least one of the purposes of this trip, getting the plaque to the museum. Another purpose of this trip is to visit Carei, a town in Romania where my paternal grandmother's family came from. Carei used to be part of Hungary too; it was called Nagykaroly in Hungarian. Tomorrow, I will leave Kisvarda and proceed to Romania. If I meet Count Dracula, I'll be sure to let everyone know.
Philip Sternberg