Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on March 13, 2024

Ive always loathed Russia: its regime, its remnants of enduring Stalin-worship, its rulers century of malign influence on the world. The cold-blooded autocrat Vladimir Putin, whose invasion of Ukraine is all too redolent of the USSR, is succeeding in his aim of shattering the security and stability of Europe. I watch clips of Putin addressing vast cheering crowds in Moscow and wonder: whats wrong with these otherwise sophisticated people? The alternative narratives are mere clicks away on their smartphones, yet they choose to swallow Putins dangerous lies and propaganda. Have they learnt nothing from their own history?

With the secret police prowling the streets, she needed to deflect suspicion

My Russia-phobia is nothing new: when I was four years old, my family fled Hungary in the aftermath of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. This popular uprising against communist repression had been brutally crushed by Soviet tanks: civilians were massacred, thousands imprisoned, the revolutions leaders hanged. Perhaps its not altogether surprising that I feel the way I do about Russia. But then I remind myself that, if it werent for one particular Russian, I wouldnt be alive today. Or, to be more precise, I would never have been born.

My mother, Vali Racz, was a celebrated singer and actress in Hungary during the Second World War. Thanks to her glamorous looks and sex appeal, she was labelled the Hungarian Marlene Dietrich. In March 1944, the Nazis occupied the country and began rounding up Jews. As a Catholic, she wasnt personally under threat, but many of her friends and associates were Jewish. Several of them now desperately sought her help.

She didnt disappoint. For eight months, her villa in Budapest provided a clandestine refuge for five Jewish fugitives. With the secret police prowling the streets, she needed to deflect suspicion, so she openly socialised with Wehrmacht officers.

Link:

The remarkable story of my mother, the heroine of the Holocaust - The Spectator

Category: Holocaust
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