Hungarian Memories

An account of Julius Gluck’s family,

his years of growing up in Hungary,
his experiences during the war
and afterwards

By Nancy Gluck

November 2007
 Contents

Introduction ......................................................................... 3

Hungarian Marbles .............................................................. 4

Four Boys .......................................................................... 12

War Years .......................................................................... 20

Coming Back ..................................................................... 28

Hugo and Jolan .................................................................. 34

Sarospatak.......................................................................... 38

Family Names and Relationships ...................................... 41

Maps .................................................................................. 44
 Introduction
I have been hearing the stories for Which school?
over 30 years: the summer days on the The Jewish elementary school.
Bodrog River, Imre and the boots, the The one you showed me in Saro-
Christmas lights on the trip to Vineland by spatak?
bus in 1946. While I was growing up in Yes.
southwestern Ohio, my husband Julius, who When we were in Sarospatak, he
was born in eastern Hungary, grew up in showed me the school he attended from age
Sarospatak, was deported to Auschwitz, sur- six to 10. He did not mention then that the
vived, and came to the United States. school was where the Sarospatak Jews were
I understood his story only gradu- held.
ally, after we traveled to Israel, Hungary My first drafts were almost as bare
and Vineland, New Jersey. I met his step- as the interviews. The members of my
mother Jolan, who also came to this country memoir class have helped me to see that
after the war. I met his surviving cousins: this memoir is also my story. My part is not
Gabor, Agi and Imre. the experiences Julius reports, but the many
Like many survivors of those times, years I have known him and his family, as
Julius talked very little with his children and well as what I have learned about the world
grandchildren about his experiences before they came from.
coming to America. In a memoir class, I It has helped to study the family
assigned myself the task of telling his story. photographs together. Who are these peo-
Interviewing Julius has been like ple? Where are they? What happened to
trying to empty a bucket with a teaspoon. them? We have also found wonderful im-
My husband is an engineer, he reports only ages on the Internet: relevant maps, aerial
essential facts. photographs of his home town, and pictures
What happened then? of the Polish castle where he was a slave
They took us away. laborer.
Who was “they”? Julius says he is pleased that his
The gendarmes. children and grandchildren will know him
The Hungarian gendarmes? better. We offer this memoir to his son,
Yes. daughter and grandchildren, to his cousins
No Germans? and descendants of cousins, and to the
No, the gendarmes brought the or- members of my own family who know and
ders. love him.
Where did they take you? Nancy Gluck
The school grounds. November 2007

3
 Hungarian Marbles
When you dump a bag of marbles on now Frank’s second wife. When your rela-
the living room rug, a few stay where you tives have been decimated, you cling to
dump them, but most of them roll away, whoever is left. After the war, the adult sur-
waiting to surprise your bare feet in the vivors who lost wives or husbands remar-
dark. That’s how I think of the Hungarian ried quickly, desperate to recreate the fam-
Jews after World War II, dumped down and ily life they had lost and make new connec-
rolling off into the world. I met Julius Gluck tions.
in 1975 and we married in 1979. In the 30- We have visited relatives, friends,
some years we have been together, Julius relatives of friends and friends of relatives
has tried to find those Hungarian marbles in Detroit, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Mont-
and I have tried to sight along their trail real, Buenos Aires, Basle, Cambridge, Pra-
back to Hungary. gue, Aruba, Haifa and Tel Aviv.
Julius and I meet Hungarian Jews Some Hungarian Jews did leave be-
wherever we travel. In Montreal we visited fore World War II, and they prepared the
Julius’ Uncle Laci who was staying with way for the ones who came later, the survi-
Frank and Lily. I had never heard of Frank vors. My husband Julius is a survivor, and I
and Lily. Who were they? What was the want to tell his story for his children and
exact relationship? I learned that Laci’s sec- grandchildren. They know Julius, but they
ond wife, Rosika, had a deceased brother know little of his life in Hungary and the
who had been married to Lily, who was times through which he passed. I can put

Austria-Hungary before World War I. The Kingdom of Hungary within the Austro-
Hungarian Empire was much larger than independent Hungary is today.

4
Hungarian Marbles, continued

myself into this memoir because it is also ent country after World War I. By the time
my story. My part is not the experiences Hugo settled in eastern Hungary in 1924 he
Julius reports, but the many years I have was in a new country, but he did not change
known Julius and his family, as well as his citizenship. Julius was born in Hungary
what I have learned of the world they came but, when he applied for postwar compensa-
from. I have listed some of the relatives at tion, today’s Hungarians held his father’s
the end of the memoir and have also in- origins against him. Since his father was not
cluded a family tree, drawn by Julius. a citizen of the new Hungary, neither was
We have to take a big view of Hun- Julius. He was a Hungarian Jew all right,
gary. Hungarians are Hungarians, whether but not their Hungarian Jew.
they come from present-day Hungary or In moderately prosperous families
not. Julius’ father, Hugo Gluck, was born in like the Glucks, the marbles did not roll far
Ruskov in what is Slovakia today but was in the years before World War II. Comfort-
part of the Austro Hungarian Empire then. able and satisfied with their lives, they
Hungary was separated off as an independ- moved about within the Hungarian-

Six Gluck brothers and brother-in-laws, 1904. Their prosperity and assimilation are apparent in their
dress. Julius’ grandfather, Herman Gluck [front row, right], was the oldest of the six. Next to him is his
brother Lajos, father of cousins Vilma and Doci. The boy is Hugo Gluck, Julius’ father.
5
Hungarian Marbles, continued

speaking regions of the former Austro Hun- Glucks sat at the big table in the formal din-
garian Empire: today’s Hungary, the Czech ing room for the Passover Seder. Although
Republic, Slovakia and the Transylvania he did not understand the ceremony in He-
area of Romania. brew, Julius loved being with his cousins
Hugo Gluck, Julius’ father, was born and looked forward to the presents the chil-
in 1894, the oldest son and one of the six dren received. The family followed tradi-
children of Herman Gluck and Juliska tions and kept a kosher household, but
Horowitz. On that side of the family Julius spoke Hungarian, not Yiddish in the home.
had four cousins. Of Julius’ parents’ genera- Grownups spoke German when they wanted
tion, only Hugo, his brother Laci and his to say things to each other that the children
sister Elza survived the war. Of the cousins, shouldn’t understand. The family turned to
two survived. the wider community for commerce and
Grandfather Herman Gluck had education. Uncle Bela, for example, was
various enterprises including an inn and a educated as a chemical engineer although he
stone quarry. During World War I he never practiced the profession.
bought an estate in Kelenye, Slovakia, Julius barely remembers his Grand-
where every year, three generations of father Gluck, who died in the early 1930s.

Juliska (Horowitz) and Herman Gluck in the 1920s. They were the parents of Hugo Gluck,
Julius’ father, and lived in what is now Slovakia.

6
Hungarian Marbles, continued

After his death, Uncle Bela took over man- tate, Hugo, influenced by the Bolshevik
agement of the estate. When Julius was revolution, proposed to distribute the land to
about eight, the family gathered for the dou- the peasants. His parents did not agree to
ble wedding of Uncles Bela and Laci. this, but Hugo stayed on to help establish
Julius’ says, “Before the festivities, my little the farm.
brother Imre collected the flowers decorat- I never knew Hugo, who spent his
ing the tables and sold them to the guests. last years in Vineland, New Jersey, and died
After the meal he became drunk by polish- before I met Julius. Every year we go the
ing off whatever wine was left in the cemetery, to the graves of Hugo and his sec-
glasses.” ond wife. The Jewish cemetery near Vine-
Grandmother Gluck spent the sum- land is on a country road, a very quiet place.
mers on the estate. Julius remembers her as No one else is ever about during our visits,
a small woman in the big kitchen at but on Memorial Day the local veterans
Kelenye, fully in charge of two maids and group comes. By Hugo’s headstone, we find
several daughters and daughters-in law. She an American flag and a World War I
pious, praying daily – something no other marker. “Why the marker?” I ask.
member of the family did – and fasting “He fought in World War I,” Julius
every Thursday. She spent the winters with says. It’s true that Hugo became an Ameri-
one of her married daughters or wherever can citizen and fought in that war, but I
she was needed to help with a new or a sick don’t think the veterans realize that he
grandchild. She lived into the war years and fought for the other side.
died in Auschwitz.
Julius’ father, Hugo, received an
education in economics in Vienna and
Grenoble in the years just before World
War I. He served as an officer in the Austro
Hungarian army on the Russian front, where
his life may have been spared when a
pocket Bible stopped a bullet. He was cap-
tured by the Russians and held by them un-
til the end of the war. As an officer, he had
a rather privileged existence and learned the
Russian language. He also knew French,
Rakoczi Castle today has been restored and is
along with some German and Slovak. When a major tourist attraction in Satospatak. When
he returned from Russia to his parents’ es- Julius was a boy it was called Windishgraetz
Castle for the family that last occupied it.

7
Hungarian Marbles, continued

Julius’ mother was Julia Schwarcz, through Romania to the Danube. A bridge
the second daughter of Moricz and Berta crosses the river at Sarostpatak and con-
Schwarcz. Both Julia and her sister Frida nects the lowlands on the south with the hill
were born in Sarospatak in eastern Hungary, country on the north. The farms were in the
near the present border with Slovakia and lowlands and the vineyards were in the
Ukraine. Their father Moricz was also born hills; Moricz went back and forth between
in Sarospatak and lived there all his life. them, usually in a horse-drawn buggy.
Their mother, Bertha Klamer, was from Sometimes he put a piece or bread or a
Slovakia, where she had been the young green onion in his pocket for a snack on the
widow of an army officer before marrying road and took the young Julius with him.
Moricz. Julius still likes to nibble during a journey.
Moricz lived in town, had a butcher Moricz had a reputation for financial
shop and managed his farms and vineyards shrewdness. Family legend says that at one
in the surrounding countryside. Sarapastak time he was a financial advisor – a sort of a
is located on the Bodrog River, which flows court Jew – to the grand people of Windish-
south to join the Tisza at Tokay, then on graetz Castle. If true, his advice had ended

The Moricz Schwarcz house in Sarospatak, circa 2000. Moricz lived on one side and
had his shop on the other. The central entrance with its carved wooden door led
back to a courtyard and additional apartments.

8
Hungarian Marbles, continued

by the time of Julius’ boyhood. Moricz died cal training in Budapest and practiced as a
in 1933 during the depression. When his country doctor in Sarospatak with Frida ini-
daughters, Frida and Julia, received their tially helping as his nurse. They had two
inheritance they found that the debts ex- sons, Sandor and Gabor.
ceeded the value of the farms and vine- Very few Hungarian Jews have
yards. Frida, with her brother-in-law Hugo, Hungarian last names. When I came to
worked to manage the lands and pay the know Gabor Szabo in later years. I looked
debts until Hugo left for America in 1938. up szabo in a Hungarian-English dictionary
Then Frida continued to manage everything and found that the word means tailor.
until 1944. “Why,” I asked Julius, “did most of your
Frida may have had nurse’s training; family have German surnames, while Ga-
she worked as a nurse during World War I, bor’s branch had a Hungarian one?”
assisting with the wounded brought to Saro- Julius explained that in the eight-
spatak from the Russian front. She married eenth century, the order came from Vienna
Dr. Gyula Szabo. He had received his medi- that the Jews must take family names.

The Szabo family, circa 1935. From left: Frida (Schwarcz), Gabor Szabo, Sandor Szabo, Dr. Gyula
Szabo.

9
Hungarian Marbles, continued

“Most Hungarian Jews took German names Horthy, took over in Hungary, Naci and
because the Germans were running things. Elza departed for Slovakia, where the Com-
The Szabos were on the border between munity Party was lebal and where Naci had
Ruthenia and Transylvania, so far back in a store selling agricultural machinery and
the sticks that they didn’t know the score.” also became a banker.
Julia Schwarcz had a general, civil Non-Hungarians are often disturbed
education and married Hugo Gluck in 1924. by the name of Julius’ uncle, Naci, which
They met through a matchmaker, a shad- sounds just like the Nazi of Hitler’s Nazi
chen, aided by the fact that there were al- Party. I asked Julius once if family mem-
ready family ties. Hugo’s sister Elza was bers were disturbed by the similar sounds of
married to Naci Roth, who had been a Naci and Nazi. “Why should that bother
neighbor of the Schwarcz family in Saro- them?” Julius asked. “Uncle Naci had his
spatak. During the red revolution in Hun- name first.”
gary after World War I, Naci was a known Hugo settled in Sarospatak. Since he
Communist and active in the Party in Saro- was a Czech citizen, the nationalistic Hun-
spatak. When the rightists, led by Admiral garians gave him a hard time about his resi-

Julius with his parents, circa 1928. From left: Julia (Schwarcz), Julius Gluck, Hugo Gluck.

10
Hungarian Marbles, continued

dency, even though he was married to a lo- Julia. The Hungarian version of the name
cal girl. Using family money, he bought into Julius is Gyula or Gyuszi. He was not given
two lumber businesses, dealing in hard- a middle name, and the use of middle names
wood, railroad ties, firewood and tree bark was not a common practice at that time.
for the chemicals used in making leather. Four years later, his brother Imre was born.
Later, with another partner, he expanded In age order, the four cousins were
with three stores in Szeged, in central Hun- Sandor, Julius, Gabor, and Imre. Although
gary, and near Lake Balaton. Hugo was en- in the future, these marbles would roll far
ergetic and enterprising, but he also had the apart, the four boys grew up together in
support of a wide network of family and Sarospatak as close as four brothers.
friends.
Julius was born on June 8, 1925, in
Sarospatak, the first child of Hugo and

11
 Four Boys
Julius, his parents and his brother
The big house on Rakoczi Street in
Imre shared the house with Aunt Frida, his
Sarospatak Hungary, where my husband
mother’s sister, as well as with Frida’s fam-
Julius lived from the time he was six until
ily. Her husband, Uncle Gyula Szabo, prac-
they were all taken away, is near the center
ticed medicine in part of the house. Their
of town. In fewer than five minutes, he
sons, Sandor and Gabor, grew up with the
could walk to his grandparents’ house, the
Gluck boys. Sandor, the oldest, was compe-
big synagogue on the main street, the Jew-
tent in academics and sports and just a bit
ish elementary school, and the Protestant
aloof. Julius and Gabor were very close in
school where he studied as a teen ager. In
age and spirit. Little Imre followed along as
just a few more minutes he could reach Ra-
best he could.
koczi Castle or the bridge over the Bodrog
Sarospatak was a school and market
River.
town with a mixed population. The Hungar-
The house is tall, built of stone cov-
ian Protestants were the largest group, but
ered with reddish tan stucco, its façade right
there were also Roman Catholics, Eastern
at the sidewalk in the European style and
the windows set high – no casual looking in
is possible. I have seen the house from the
outside several times, but have never been
inside. Julius says that many of the ground
floor rooms have vaulted ceilings. On the
left a large wooden door closes off the en-
trance. On one of our visits, someone has
left the door open, so we peek through a
passageway large enough to admit a horse
and carriage to the courtyard beyond. The
courtyard is walled off on the left by the
adjoining building and on the right by a row
of tenant apartments and cow stalls. “I re-
member vegetable gardens and even a cow
in the back,” Julius says, but we can’t see
them now. There is a plaque on the house to
commemorate an earlier distinguished resi-
dent, but the Glucks and Szabos who also
Julius is front of the house on Rakoczi Street in
lived in that house do not have a plaque. Sarospatak where the Gluck and Szabo families
lived in the 1930s and early 1940s.
12
Four Boys, continued

Orthodox, Jews and Gypsies. The assimi- orthodox, a poorer and less educated group.
lated Jews like the Glucks obeyed the laws, I asked Julius if Sarospatak was a friendly
owned property, educated their children and or unfriendly place when he was young.
considered themselves good Hungarians. “Not friendly,” he said, “not friendly in the
The Gypsies did none of these things and street, after I started to go to school.”
were not to be trusted. Nevertheless, they He liked his first school, the Jewish
made music, so when Cousin Gabor studied elementary school, well enough, although
the violin, he initially had a Gypsy tutor. he did not consider himself an outstanding
The Jews made up perhaps 10% of the student. It was a small school with a total of
population and they had two synagogues: perhaps 90 students. Always a committed
the big one Julius’ family and friends at- gardener, Julius remembers fondly that pic-
tended and a smaller one for the strongly tures of vegetable gardens hung on the

Sarospatak today. The large building on the left is the Protestant gymnasium. Rakoczi Street runs
from left to right, in front of the gymnasium and behind the church. The house of the Glucks and
Szabos on Rakoczi Street faced toward the church—the back of the house is marked with an arrow.

13
Four Boys, continued

classroom wall. He competed in school which grew by the sunny side of the kitchen
games, feeling invincible in the long jump wall. And every summer, Julius never got to
and as a soccer goalie. eat a fig. He always had to return to Saro-
Julius remembers that, until he was spatak before the figs were ripe.
11, he went for at least a month each sum- At the age of 10, each of the four
mer to the Gluck estate Kelenye in Slova- boys transferred to the Protestant gymna-
kia. His grandmother and various daughters sium. The gymnasium was an elite secon-
or daughters-in-law were in charge of dary school which prepared students for the
Julius, Imre and other Gluck grandchildren. university and the professions. This gymna-
Big Imre, his cousin, was the ringleader, sium was founded in 1520 for the education
while Julius and his brother, known there as of the sons of the Protestant nobility. It
Little Imre, were the followers. They thor- charged tuition based on the religion of the
oughly explored country life, with daytime student, with Protestants paying the least,
expeditions to the fields and quiet evenings Catholics paying the next higher amount,
in the house, lamplit because there was no and Jews paying the most.
electricity. The house was large, with a The buildings, some dating back to
wide stone-paved hallway which led back to the 1700s, formed a quadrangle, very much
the lavatory. The toilet was on a platform, like a small college. It specialized in Eng-
like a throne, with several steps to climb up lish-language instruction. In addition to the
to it. Outdoors, Big Imre led his cousins up required English, the boys studied German,
and down the stony ravines or off to the Latin, mathematics, Hungarian literature
sheep farm where they helped to pack the and history. The approach was abstract:
sheep cheese into barrels. Every summer, physics and chemistry were taught from
small green figs formed on the fig tree books, with no little or no laboratory prac-

The pictures of the house at the Kelenye estate in Slovakia were taken after the war in 1948 .
The building was empty and neglected and was subsequently torn down.

14
Four Boys, continued

tice. Most of the students were boarders and frightened of the place where the staff spoke
came from other parts of Hungary. The three languages: German, Slovak and Hun-
Gluck and Szabo boys were day students garian. He liked the mountain scenery and
and Jewish, a small minority in the school. the abundant good food, but he was very
In Julius’ class of 30 boys, only two were bored. After several months in the Tatras
Jewish. the summer he was 11, he returned home,
Although Julius entered the gymna- but not to school. For two more years he
sium when he was 10, his education there had private tutors at home and returned to
was almost immediately interrupted by scar- the kinderheim each summer and at least
let fever and a subsequent series of ill- once in the winter, when rest on the open-
nesses, including pneumonia. He was kept air porches required many blankets.
at home all that year. After an x-ray exami- When his parents visited they some-
nation, his parents told him he had shadow times took Julius on brief excursions in the
on his lung and took him to a children’s mountains and to Poland on the far side of
sanitarium – a kinderheim – in the High Ta- the Tatras. No one ever told him that he had
tra mountains of Slovakia. There were many tuberculosis, although it seems obvious now
children there, spending their days stretched that he must have had. Those were the days
out on lounges on three levels of open-air before antibiotics, and the standard treat-
porches. Julius does not remember being ment was good nutrition, bed rest and

An early print of the Collegium classrooms and where the boarding students at the Protestant gym-
nasium may have lived.

15
Four Boys, continued

plenty of fresh mountain air. One result of right, is the strand, the sandy bathing beach
the sanitarium treatment was that Julius en- where the boys went to swim. To the left is
tered what he calls his “fat period”; photo- the gymnasium’s boathouse. When the
graphs of him taken then show a plumpness boarding students went home for the sum-
he does not retain as an adult. mer, the local boys had little competition
When, at age 13, Julius went back to for use of the boats. Once away from the
the gymnasium, he had to drop back a grade boathouse, it was even possible to take
in school, but he had gained his strong re- aboard a Jewish friend who did not attend
solve to live an active, outdoor life. the gymnasium. Together, Julius, Gabor and
In that outdoor life he enjoyed the their friend rowed upstream to explore the
rowboats that his school kept on the Bodrog river in flood or to go ashore in the forest.
River for use by the students. The present The boys found that swimming from the
bridge over the Bodrog is built on the foun- boat was a particular challenge: getting into
dations of the earlier bridge. When I stand the water was easy, but getting back into the
on the bridge during a visit I have the same boat was hard.
view that the boys had then. The brownish Those days on the water stay in
river flows slowly toward Tokay where the Julius’ heart. When we have a perfect sum-
grapes are grown for Tokay wine. To the mer day in Connecticut – warm, but not too

Julius and his family, circa 1934. From left: Imre, Julia, Hugo, Julius.

16
Four Boys, continued

warm, sunny and dry – he says, “Nice day, saluted, and they spent many happy hours
just like Hungary.” Julius has never been paddling up and down, with occasional
without a small boat of some sort: the fold- swims from the boat. It is a good last mem-
ing kayak, the plastic-hulled sunflower sail- ory to have.
boat and, more recently, a series of sea kay- Imre did not share Julius and Ga-
aks for exploring the Norwalk islands. bor’s affection for boats, but he did like to
About ten years ago, Julius went bicycle and walk. Together, he and Julius
back to Hungary to visit Gabor and bring explored the outskirts of Sarospatak. Their
him an inflatable two-man boat. Gabor did favorite walks were to the three family vine-
not have long to live, although neither of yards, acquired by their grandfather,
them knew then how short the time would Moricz, and now managed by Aunt Frida
be. They took the boat to the Tisza River, and their father. The best walk of all was
above its junction with the Bodrog, and in- out the Darno Valley Road. On one side of
flated it. Gabor put on a captain’s hat, Julius the valley, the vineyards ran up the hills,

The Bodrog River and bridge today. The building at the bottom center is Rakoczi Castle.
The open green area between the castle and the bridge was the location of the Orthodox
Jewish community and synagogue. Julius’ house was behind the church, upper left.

17
Four Boys, continued

with fruit trees along the road. On our most the roof, they decided it would be wise to
recent visit there, Julius and I found the leave before the keeper returned.
vineyards gone and the fruit trees neglected A few years ago in France, when we
and unpicked. Overripe fruit was dropping were exploring the great park at Versailles,
from the trees and fermenting in the ditches, Julius and I came upon a chateau in the neo-
filling the air with a plummy, slightly alco- classical style. “What is this?” he asked. I
holic scent. said that it was the Petite Trianon, beloved
In those boyhood years, each vine- by Marie Antoinette as a refuge from the
yard had a vineyard keeper who stayed in a great sprawling hotel which is the palace at
small hut during the season of growth and Versailles. “Oh!” Julius was shaking his fist
harvest, drying the plums on a slow-fired in the air like one of Mao’s followers with a
hearth. On one occasion, when the keeper little red book and chanting, with a smile on
was away, Julius and his friends entertained his face, “Non, Non, Trianon! Non, Non,
themselves by sliding down the thatched Trianon! No, No Never!” They did that in
roof into a pile of springy vine cuttings. Af- school, he explained, to denounce the Tri-
ter many slides, and some visible damage to anon treaty signed after World War I, a

The family vineyard in the Darno Valley, circa 1943. It is harvest time and the workers have
gathered to pick the grapes.

18
Four Boys, continued

treaty which took away from Hungary many home, but stayed in Budapest, awaiting his
areas in which Hungarians lived. The Hun- visa to the United States for which he had
garians wanted those territories back and applied earlier. He saw great trouble ahead,
eventually got what they wished for when especially since his situation made him sus-
Germany acquired the German-speaking pect to the Hungarians. His visa application
Sudetenland section of Czechoslovakia in said that he wanted to visit the World’s Fair
1938. In order to promote an alliance, Hitler in New York, but what he really wanted to
restored part of Slovakia to Hungary. As a do was to arrange to bring his family out of
result, the Hungarian army marched unop- an increasingly dangerous situation. He had
posed into southern Slovakia, and Hugo relatives in New York who might be able to
Gluck, Julius’ father, was put into prison. help. Julius, his mother and brother visited
The Hungarians arrested Hugo and Hugo in Budapest, but the boys were not
imprisoned him near Budapest on grounds told their father was leaving. His visa came,
of general suspicion. He was a Jew and they he left, and Julius did not see him again for
wanted to impress the Germans by being eight years. We can understand why Hugo
tough on Jews. He had kept his Czech citi- left, and certainly Julius understands it now,
zenship, probably because of the family but the teen age boy in Hungary felt that his
property in Slovakia, so he could be ex- father had abandoned them.
pected to oppose the German and Hungar- The four boys who grew up together
ian expansion into Czechoslovakia. in Sarospatak became three when Sandor
Hugo was confined for about a went to Szeged. Cousin Sandor, the oldest,
month, then released. He did not return was a lively boy, who liked sports, espe-
cially fencing. He finished at the gymna-
sium in 1942 and successfully matriculated,
passing the demanding examinations which
qualified a person for higher education. His
family sent him to Szeged to help in the
lumber store there and to study law. In war-
time Hungary, young men were drafted into
the army, but Jewish young men were con-
scripted into labor brigades. In the spring of
1944, they conscripted Sandor. He disap-
peared into the turmoil of the last year of
the war.
Hugo Gluck in 1938.

19
 War Years
Hugo Gluck, my husband Julius’ family out and now the borders were closed.
father, left for the United States in late He had been joined in the U.S. by his sister,
1938. Even before that, there were impor- Aunt Elza, and her husband, Uncle Naci. As
tant changes in Julius’ life. His health was a Jew and a communist, Naci was not safe
better and he returned to the gymnasium in a Czechoslovakia which had fallen under
that fall. The Glucks and Szabos rearranged German and Hungarian control. Miklos
their accommodations in the house of Ra- Horthy, the regent who had ruled in place of
koczi Street, moving his Uncle Gyula’s the king of Hungary since 1920, and the
medical practice to the first floor, while the conservatives were sympathetic to Ger-
families took the two apartments on the sec- many, eventually signing on to a formal al-
ond floor. For a time, his Aunt Frida and his liance in 1940. When the war started, truck-
mother Julia shared a kitchen, but after a loads of Polish refugees filled the main
time they subdivided the space. It is diffi- roads through Sarospatak. The boys from
cult for two women, even sisters, to share a the gymnasium stood along the road, wav-
kitchen. ing at the refugees. The school director re-
When Germany invaded Poland in minded them that Hungary was Germany’s
September 1939, World War II began. friend, but the boys’ sympathies were with
Hugo had not yet been able to bring the the Poles. Later, in 1941, when the Hungar-

Cousins at Rakoczi Castle, late 1938 after the border was opened with Slovakia.
Front row: Imre Gluck (Little Imre), Julius Gluck. Back row: Imre Friedman (Big
Imre), Sandor Szabo. Big Imre became Uri Gilad when he moved to Israel.

20
War Years, continued

ian army marched with the Germans into Glucks and Szabos with good connections
Russia, those English-language instructors on the farms had enough to eat during the
at the gymnasium who were British or Ca- war years. The Hungarian government pro-
nadian citizens were interned. English lan- tected its Jews from deportation until 1944,
guage classes continued, taught by Hungar- but did implement a series of restrictive
ian instructors who had lived and studied in laws, for example, severely restricting ac-
Britain and loved the culture. cess to the professions and forbidding ko-
Hugo was able to take only a limited sher slaughtering of meat. Young Jewish
amount of money with him, so almost all of men – including Julius’ cousin Sandor –
his considerable assets remained in Hun- were no longer conscripted into the army,
gary. His partners continued to operate his but into labor brigades. At first these bri-
various businesses and paid Hugo’s share to gades worked in Hungary, but later in the
Julius’ mother. The family income was not war many were sent as support to the Rus-
much diminished. sian front, a very dangerous place to be.
Although tea and meat were scarce The Gluck and Szabo boys did not
and sugar was rationed, people like the feel a direct effect of the restrictions. Jews

The combined Gluck and Szabo families, circa 1942. Front row: Julia Gluck, Dr. Gyula Szabo. Back
row: Julius Gluck, Gabor Szabo, Imre Gluck, Frida Szabo, a visiting Szabo cousin from Transylvania,
Sandor Szabo.

21
War Years, continued

received the same rations as other Hungari- of Hungary, perhaps through Spain or Por-
ans and members of the family could still tugal. Julia, Julius’ mother, did not want to
travel within the area and visit one another. take a chance on doing something that
They experienced some anti-Semitic bully- might well be more dangerous than staying
ing in the Protestant gymnasium. “Some of put. Hungarians – especially those who lis-
the worst of the anti-Semites were ex- tened to the BBC – were aware than Ger-
pelled,” Julius reports, with some satisfac- many was losing the war. When the Rus-
tion. Because they were disruptive? “No, sians defeated the German army at Stalin-
because they failed their courses.” grad in the winter of 1942-43, the Hungar-
During these years the family con- ian army fighting alongside the Germans
tinued to exchange letters with Hugo in also suffered terrible losses. Julius recalls
America, sometimes through the Swiss Red that the newspapers called it “straightening
Cross and sometimes through the Vatican. the front.” The Soviet armies went on the
Hugo wanted them to leave and, although offensive and by early 1944 had retaken
he could get visas for them, they would most of their territory. The Allied armies
have to manage their own transportation out were preparing to invade France. By all ra-

A few letters were exchanged with Hugo in America through the Red Cross. Both
sides of a 1943 letter are shown here.

22
War Years, continued

tional considerations, the destruction of the remove them from the eyes of local authori-
Jews should have stopped. It did not. Infuri- ties who might want to conscript them for
ated by Horthy’s protection of the lives, if the labor brigades. Julius thinks it was an
not the rights, of Hungary’s Jewish citizens opportunity for escape but, “I cannot see,
and concerned that the Hungarians would even now, where we could have escaped
make a separate peace, the Germans took to.” There were partisans in the hills, but he
over control of the Hungarian government did not learn of their existence until after
in the spring of 1944. Adolph Eichmann set the war. By March, the family brought the
up his headquarters in Budapest and in boys back to town. A sense of resignation,
March of 1944, the first roundups of the of despair even, was general in the Jewish
Jews began. community.
At this time, Julius was 19 and fin- In March, the local gendarmes
ishing his eighth-year class at the gymna- brought the orders to leave their homes
sium, preparing to take the dreaded matricu- within one day and assemble on the grounds
lation examinations that would qualify him of the local Jewish elementary school. They
for further, university-level education. In could only bring what they could carry:
late winter, in February he thinks, the three warm clothes and as much food as possible.
boys still living at home were sent to stay During that day of preparation, Julia stored
with family members at outlying farms to some of her possessions, including her pre-
cious mink coat, a gift from Hugo, with the
wife of a local Protestant pastor. After the
war Julius reclaimed the coat and sold it to
help support himself. For two weeks the
Sarospatak Jews were kept on the grounds
of the school, sleeping in the open, but re-
ceiving help from one of their workers who
brought them supplies from their house.
Julius says, “I felt mostly relief that I would
not have to take the matriculation exams.”
Uncle Gyula, the doctor, and Aunt
Frida were not at the elementary school.
Sarospatak had four doctors, two Jewish
and two Christian. Incarcerating the Jewish
Julius and cousin Gabor in Sarospatak, cirva doctors would have cut the medical staff in
1943. Until the spring of 1944, they continued to
attend the Protestant gymnasium. half, so the two Jewish doctors and their

23
War Years, continued

wives were allowed to remain free to serve taken to the ghetto and died on the way.
the community. I marvel at the mind that Julius learned of the deathes of Gyula and
sees the Jews in general as a menace while Frida at the time, but everyone kept the
trusting one’s life and health to Jewish doc- news from their son Gabor until after the
tors. Cousin Gabor, the son of Uncle Gyula war.
and Aunt Frida, was not exempt; he was Julius did not know where they were
with Julius, his mother and brother at the going. Germany? Poland? During four days
school grounds. of travel Julia spent much of the time weep-
After two weeks, the Sarospatak ing, grieving that she had not tried to take
Jews were loaded onto trains and taken to a the boys away. When they arrived, they
larger town a few miles away. Here the new knew where they were: the Auschwitz con-
arrivals were assigned rooms in the ghetto centration camp. On the train platform, SS
which had been established there. Julius, his officers and prison laborers unloaded them
mother, brother and cousin slept on the from the boxcars and separated them into
floor for two months, during which time groups. It was a selection, but Julius did not
groups were moved out by train. Julius and know then what a selection was, or that
his family were among the last to leave. The some were immediately selected for death.
two Jewish doctors and their wives who had Julia was taken away with the other women.
remained in Sarospatak heard of the depor- It was the last time Julius saw her.
tations and, just before Julius left, the four The men and boys were herded into
of them committed suicide, using the drugs large halls. Julius was still with his cousin
to which they had access. Julius’ uncle and and brother, as well as many acquaintances
aunt died quickly; the other couple were from Sarospatak like the family dentist. All
were required to strip off their clothes and
their hair was cut. They showered and
dressed in prison garb: trousers, shirt,
jacket, cap. Then they were marched up a
muddy road to a barracks so crowded that
some people shimmied up the supports to
lie on the rafters. Julius particularly remem-
bers the long walk to the latrines – always,
as he remembers, in a cold drizzle. They
had no occupation during this time, except
for marching, standing and being counted.
Jews lined up for deportation from eastern Hun-
gary, 1944.

24
War Years, continued

After several weeks, Julius’ group next months he worked with a shovel at a
was again put on a train and they journeyed construction site, chipped holes through
two days to a work camp near Breslau (now castle walls for the installation of telephone
Wroclaw) in Silesia, in what is now Poland lines and helped with window repairs. “We
near the border with today’s Czech Repub- peed all over the castle,” he remembers.
lic. “After being in Auschwitz,” Julius re- “The place was so vast and the walk to the
marks, “the work camp felt like a resort.” prisoners’ latrine outside the castle was so
The barracks were better and less crowded. long, that we urinated in any dusty corner
Regular meals were provided: bread and we could find.”
ersatz coffee in the morning, soup at mid- Although the war was going badly
day, and bread and soup at night. in the east, the castle was being prepared as
Julius and the others were assigned a local residence for Hitler, so refurbishing
to work details. They marched every day it had a high priority.
from their camp to Salzbrun Castle, now The boys were together in the bar-
called Ksiaz Castle by the Poles. During the racks, but in different work crews. A distant
relative had become a capo and got Julius’

Ksiaz Castle near Wroclaw in Silesia, Poland, today. When Julius worked on preparing the
castle to be a residence for Hitler, it was known as Salzbrun Castle and the nearby city was
called Breslau.

25
War Years, continued

brother Imre an assignment in the large un- Sometimes our most bitter regrets
derground system of tunnels which was part are not for what we have done, but for what
of the castle project. we have failed to do. Gabor and his brother
Gabor was particularly fortunate, Imre came to visit Julius, talking to him
working under a sympathetic foreman who through the window. Imre, who was also
gave him extra food. Gabor told me once very weak, begged for food or cigarettes. “I
that if he were a rich man he would build a did not help him.” In February all the peo-
monument to the potato because it saved his ple in the work camp were moved away
life. I treated the matter lightly. “You could from the advancing Soviet army. Those un-
commission a statue of a beautiful woman,” able to walk were taken on trucks. Julius
I suggested, “and call her the spirit of the says, “I was sitting on the ground and my
potato.” feet were so swollen I could not put my
“Not a woman,” Gabor said. “A po- boots on. They were loading the trucks and
tato.” the lagerfuhrer was beating me on the head
By the winter of 1944-45, however, with a stick and yelling at me to hurry up.
the prisoners were set to digging anti-tank Imre saw this and, although I had not helped
ditches. The food deteriorated and so did him when he asked me, he took off his
the condition of the prisoners. Silesia was boots, which were larger than mine, and
snowy and the ground had frozen. Julius gave them to me. We exchanged boots.”
became very weak and his legs swelled due Those who could still walk, including Imre,
to malnutrition. Through the connivance of Gabor and many Sarospatak friends, were
some of the Jewish capos, he was some- marched away to the west.
times able to slack off work during the day The residents of the Krankhaus were
and often had to be supported on each side also taken farther west in Silesia by truck, to
on the way back to the barracks. In January Doernhau, a sort of a holding camp. Every-
1945 he was taken to the Krankhaus, the one there was sick, in Julius’ memory. The
“sick house,” where he was kept with other food was very little and the Germans were
equally sick prisoners. Perhaps in more or- seldom seen and only at a distance. The
ganized times he and the others would have prisoners stayed in large rooms resting on
been sent back to Auschwitz for extermina- several levels of straw-covered boards.
tion. The only prisoners in the work camp Julius was given some help by friends from
who were executed, however, were those the old Jewish elementary school who had
who tried to escape. “They were hung.” Just preceded him there. One of Julius’ swollen
the same, extermination was a constant fear knees became infected. A prisoner who was
for those in the Krankhaus. a doctor used a razor blade to perform a

26
War Years, continued

crude operation, opening and draining the mediately addressed the situation of the
infected knee. “He gave me something,” prisoners, moving them into the abandoned
Julius remembers, ‘but I felt a lot of pain.” German officers’ barracks. Julius was too
After the operation, the wound remained weak to lift his feet over the threshold of his
open and draining, but the infection did not new room. The Russians forced the local
advance. He still has a long scar on his leg inhabitants to come in to clean up the camp
from that experience. and provide basic necessities, such as bed-
Some news reached the prisoners. ding and food. “I don’t know why I didn’t
They heard of the successful allied invasion die then,” Julius remarks. “Many did.” It
in the west and of Hitler’s suicide as the So- took him several weeks to regain enough
viets advanced on Berlin. The Germans dis- strength to walk around on his own.
appeared completely. On May 8 – a date I asked Julius what his thoughts
still celebrated in Europe as V-E Day – the were when he knew he was free. He an-
first Russian troops entered the camp. “I swered, “I was thinking only of food.”
was too weak to get up, but when one of
them came into the room, I knew from his
clothes who he must be.” The Russians im-

27
 Coming Back
“He didn’t come back.” When fam- as their physical strength ebbed, Julia clung
ily and friends reminisce, someone may ask, to her standards. She found a little sliver of
“What happened to your Uncle Bela?” The soap and brought it to her cousin. “Look,”
answer, “He didn’t come back,” politely she said, “you can wash your shirt.” Her
evades reciting the unknowns of Uncle cousin said she was too tired. Why bother!
Bela’s fate in the Holocaust. He was taken “Give me your shirt,” Julia said, “and I’ll do
away from his home, and he did not come it for you.” Shamed, her cousin washed it
back. herself. After several months, the women
Julius came back. His Szabo cousin were taken back to Auschwitz for another
Gabor came back, but Gabor’s brother San- selection. Julia did not come back.
dor did not come back. Of Julius’ immedi- I never met Julia, but I have a clear
ate family, his father, Hugo Gluck, was safe vision of the woman with the soap. There
in America. His brother Imre did not come are other images. “She was sociable,” Julius
back. Imre marched west from Silesia with remembers, “and loved to talk with people –
Gabor and other Sarospatak Jews in Febru- her neighbors, her close friend who lived
ary 1945. Gabor and two close friends ar- across the street. She loved us.” In memory
rived in Dresden in time for the American he sees his mother sitting at the tea table by
bombing of the city, in which the two the window in the front room of the house
friends were killed. Imre never reached in Sarospatak, holding her book and looking
Dresden; he died on the road. Julius says, “I down into the street.
think he must have been shot because he When Julius came back, he started
was weak and couldn’t keep up. Gabor al- by riding in a bus the Russians provided to
ways acted as if he didn’t know exactly Prague, where he spent several days before
what happened. I think he wanted to spare boarding a train for Budapest. He was
my feelings.” stronger and his knee had healed, but he had
For many years Julius believed his a continuous drainage from his right ear
mother died immediately after the first se- from a longstanding infection. On the train
lection at Auschwitz. Then, in 1995, we met he met a medical worker who looked at him
with a cousin of his mother, now an elderly with concern, and advised him to go to a
widow, in her apartment in Haifa. I sat by hospital as soon as he reached Budapest.
during a long, quiet conversation entirely in At the Budapest Jewish Hospital
Hungarian. Julius never weeps, but his Julius was almost immediately scheduled
voice was thick as he told me this woman for surgery, during which his infected mid-
was with his mother in a work camp near dle ear was removed. Antibiotics like peni-
Kracow in Poland. The work was hard, but cillin were not yet in use in Hungary. As he

28
Coming Back, continued

recovered, Julius realized that he had per- Julius was still alive. “He sent a postcard.”
manently lost all hearing in his right ear and That’s typical; he still likes to send post-
the right side of his face was paralyzed, due cards.
to damage to his facial nerve. Several later The following year, from the fall of
operations were ineffective at restoring the 1945 when he left the hospital, until the fall
nerve function. As he has aged, the differ- of 1946 when he received his exit papers,
ence between the two sides of his face has Julius went back and forth between Saro-
become more noticeable. spatak and Budapest. In Sarospatak, he
Julius spent two months in the hos- worked with Gabor to retrieve property and
pital and during that time he had visitors. raise money. Also, food was more available
First, a U.S. Navy man attached to the there than in Budapest. At one point he
American Embassy appeared, looking for traded cooking oil for English lessons. In
him. Hugo, now an American citizen, had Budapest he stayed with a distant relative,
learned of Julius’ survival, probably Aunt Josie, and also with a friend of his fa-
through one of the Jewish refugee organiza- ther’s. (Hungarians address relatives of the
tions. He appealed to the Embassy to find older generation as “aunt” or “uncle,” but
his son, and they did. Several old friends they are usually cousins of some degree.)
from Sarospatak, now in Budapest, came He remembers shipping flour from Saro-
and, most important, his cousin Gabor spatak to Aunt Josie and being pleasantly
came. He had returned to Sarospatak from surprised when it arrived safely. In the cha-
Dresden and was working with several rela- otic aftermath of the Hungarian defeat and
tives to try to recover some of the family the Russian occupation, he pursued getting
property. I asked Gabor how he learned that identification papers, a passport, and travel
documents He also resumed the study of
English and basic electronics.
Gabor had lost everyone close to
him except Julius, but he had a plan. He
would stay in Hungary and study medicine
at the University in Debrecen. In the next
years he built a career in medicine and be-
came a professor at the university. Although
he is gone now, his sons and grandchildren
still live in Hungary.
Did Julius consider remaining in
Budapest today. The bridges were rebuilt after
Hungary? “I only wanted to join my father
World War II.

29
Coming Back, continued

in America.” Julius had inclined toward en- family: her parents, her brother and her first
gineering in his last years in the gymna- husband. Everyone who was left – Julius,
sium, and he now intended to study elec- Gabor, Agi – had to start over, and Julius
tronic engineering in America. In an inter- wanted to be with the family he had left.
view at the gymnasium, the headmaster ad- Agi and her new husband eventually made
vised him to repeat his last year and take the their way to Israel, where they still live.
matriculation examinations. Julius refused. Big Imre, Julius’ enterprising cousin
He was going to America. “If you don’t ma- who used to lead the others into trouble dur-
triculate, you will never amount to any- ing country vacations, had also survived and
thing,” the headmaster warned him, but was now an officer in the Czechoslovak
Julius did not change his mind. army. He attended the wedding and after-
In the fall of 1946, while he was wards escorted Julius on a return to the area
awaiting his papers, Julius made a danger- of the High Tatras where he had recuperated
ous visit to Czechoslovakia. He still had no from tuberculosis as a child. Doctors in Bu-
passport, so a family friend smuggled him dapest had found evidence of renewed TB
over the border. His first purpose was to infection and recommended the curative
attend the wedding of his cousin Agi in powers of mountain air for Julius. Big
Kosice. Agi, who had survived in hiding in Imre’s assistance was necessary because
Budapest, had lost all of her immediate Julius had no papers and did not speak ei-

Cousin Agi in Haifa, Israel, in 2005 with her first great grandchild.

30
Coming Back, continued

ther Czech or Slovak. When approached by them were infiltrating the border into
the locals, Big Imre spoke Slovak and Julius Czechoslovakia. Suspicious local police
played dumb or spoke only English. A few were checking on strangers, and Julius was
years later, Big Imre went to Israel where he apprehended. Big Imre had left, and Julius
became Uri Gilad and an officer in the IDF. had to confess to being Hungarian. Despite
Julius spent some weeks enjoying the losses of the war, many family connec-
the mountain environment and even skied a tions still held good. The Hungarian-
little. Food was more abundant than in Hun- speaking police officer knew the Gluck
gary, but he felt insecure. He wrote to Uncle family and had been a good friend of Uncle
Laci who sent a large loaf of bread. Julius is Bela, so Julius was released. Another family
not sure now whether he actually ate the friend helped him to return over the border,
bread, or just kept it in reserve. riding like a vagrant in a freight train back
The Tatras form the border with Po- to Budapest.
land. In 1946, the surviving Polish Jews Julius remained in Budapest, trying
were being subjected to attacks, so many of to get his papers to go to America. He is no
finagler, and his orderly mind does not con-
tend well with an obstinate bureaucracy.
Perhaps at Hugo’s suggestion, one of his
father’s Horowitz cousins obtained travel
documents for the two of them. They trav-
eled together by train through Switzerland
to Paris, where they stayed for several
weeks while obtaining tickets on a large
American ship, the S. S. United States. Con-
ditions on board were crowded, with four
men sharing a cabin, but the food and other
arrangements were luxurious.
In New York, Julius was met by Un-
cle Naci and spent a few days with Naci and
Aunt Elza in an apartment in the South
Bronx. The apartment was depressing: Elza
and Naci were saving every penny to buy a
place in Queens, so they sublet a couple of
Imre Friedman in Israel, 1952. He had become rooms from an unpleasant landlord in a de-
Uri Gilad. cayed area. What was not depressing was

31
Coming Back, continued

the trip Julius made by bus to meet his fa- “When he left I was 13, but when he
ther in Vineland in southern New Jersey. saw me again I was 21.”
The bus passed alternately through empty What is clear is that Julius felt the
winter fields and neat country towns, blaz- love and practical support of his family.
ing with Christmas lights. During the next years, Julius lived during
I have tried to imagine that reunion the school year with Aunt Elza in Queens.
between father and son who had lost so Elza enjoyed her neat townhouse in Middle
much but still had each other. My questions Village where she grew flowers in the tiny
have not brought me any closer to knowing back yard and provided Julius with a room
how it was. of his own.
“How did you feel when you saw He spent summers and school vaca-
your father after eight years?” I asked. tions with his father on the chicken farm in
“Good. It felt good,” he answered, Vineland. Hugo had remarried and built a
expressionless. house, where Julius also had a room. When-
“Did he seem different to you after ever Julius spoke of the difficulties of his
all that time?” engineering studies, Hugo reassured him,
“No, not really.” “You can always live here on the farm.”
“Did you seem different to him?” Julius spent the summers exploring the New
“Probably.” Jersey countryside and always returned to
“How so?” Aunt Elza by bus, with a large delivery of
chicken and fresh eggs.

Vineland, New Jersey, at Christmas.

32
 He started with night-school English
classes in the spring of 1947. By fall he was
taking math and physics courses as a non-
matriculated student in the engineering
school at City College of New York. The
basic grounding and study habits from his
Hungarian gymnasium had prepared him
well. At the end of a year, Julius was able to
change his status to a full-time, matriculated
and free-tuition student. He obtained both
his engineering degree and his U.S. citizen-
ship in 1952.
Twenty years after he left, with the
confidence of his American passport, Julius
began a series of visits to Hungary, some-
times alone and sometimes with me or other
members of the family. He went to visit Ga-
bor and his growing family. Gabor died in The Szabos, 1966. From left: Gabor, Sandor,
1998 and his wife, Ibu, a few years after- Ibu, Gabor Junior.

wards, but the visits continue.

Julius and Gabor on the Tisza River in Hungary, summer 1996.

33
 Hugo and Jolan
Hugo Gluck, the father Julius met seen each other for 16 years, she cried
again in Vineland, New Jersey, after eight Hugo! and threw her arms around him. The
years, left Hungary in 1938. His visa appli- other thing I remember is that he wore
cation said that he wanted to visit the 1939 knickers, and children made fun of him on
World’s Fair in New York City, but his real the street until we explained that knickers
purpose was to find a way to bring his fam- were only worn here by young boys.” When
ily out of Hungary. Julius arrived in 1946, he became good
One of the first people he visited in friends with Clara and her brother Clifford.
New York was his cousin Vilma who lived Clara, in turn, became my friend in White
on Tremont Avenue in the Bronx. Her Plains in the 1970s and introduced me to
daughter Clara remembers, “I was at home Julius.
with my father and my mother was at work, Hugo stayed with his Aunt Hana and
when Hugo turned up at our apartment. I her daughter, Margaret, on Dyckman Street
was only 12 years old and terribly embar- in Washington Heights. Margaret was di-
rassed when Hugo kissed my hand in the vorced and struggling to support her son,
elegant Hungarian style. When my mother but the welcome they gave Hugo was a
came in, even though she and Hugo had not warm one.

Family party in New York, 1939. In the front row, cousin Margaret is on the left and
her son on the right. Hugo stands in the back, second from the left with Aunt Hana
Horowitz on the right.

34
Hugo and Jolan, continued

Hugo had entered the United States north, back to the city. That is how they
with a visitor’s visa and needed to acquire came to be in an apartment in the Bronx
immigrant status to bring his family in. when Julius arrived in 1946. Hugo, on the
With the flood of refugees from Germany other hand, liked New Jersey and country
and Eastern Europe the quotas were filled life. He obtained a small piece of land for
for years ahead. Hugo’s solution was to his chickens and boarded with a neighbor
journey to Cuba, where he stayed for six until he could build his own house.
months and became a Cuban citizen. A Hugo completed his house in 1948
faded snapshot taken in Cuba shows Hugo and that same year he married Jolan Klein,
in a spiffy tropical suit under a palm tree, whom he met through his sister. Jolan came
standing easily and smiling. Hugo was ad- from the same area in eastern Hungary as
mitted back into the United States as an im- Hugo. She survived the deportation and la-
migrant under the Cuban quota. No one in bor camp but lost her husband and only son.
the family cares to speculate about what in-
ducements he offered to make this possible,
but everyone speaks well of the Cubans: “a
warm and generous people.”
By the time Hugo returned from
Cuba the war had started, so he could do
little for his family in Sarospatak. During
the war years Hugo, his sister Elza and her
husband Naci operated a chicken farm to-
gether in Vineland, New Jersey. Jewish
agencies settled many of the incoming refu-
gees in Vineland, then the poultry capital of
the United States. For a generation, a com-
munity of Jewish chicken farmers in Vine-
land provided chicken and eggs for the New
York City market. Both the farmers and the
chickens are gone now. The poultry indus-
try went south, and the children of the Hugo on the chicken farm in Vineland, 1941.
chicken farmers went to college and joined His dress is casual, in contrast to all earlier pic-
tures. On the back of this picture is written in his
the professions. handwriting: “To my dear son Julius.” This pic-
The chickens and country life were ture must have been sent to Julius after the war
as all earlier pictures were lost.
not to Elza and Naci’s liking, so they went

35
Hugo and Jolan, continued

An American brother helped to get into the Fortune was a favorite of hers. She also
United States, where she first worked as a learned to drive a car.
housekeeper for a wealthy Jewish judge. In Vineland, Jolan worked hard. I
I never got to know Hugo, who died speculate that she made a second vow in
before I met Julius, but I knew Jolan well that labor camp: provide for the future. She
and admired her. Her nephew says that Jo- kept house for Hugo and managed the proc-
lan vowed in the labor camp that if she sur- essing and packing of the eggs. The farm
vived the war she would live as a Jew. Of was a joint enterprise and the income was
course she had been conventionally obser- for their joint welfare. In addition, Jolan
vant before, but now she was committed to worked in a garment factory and also sold
it. She made it a condition for Hugo that her home-baked pastries to an appreciative
they must keep a kosher home, and they clientele. That money was hers, and she in-
did, also attending temple regularly. vested it in the stock market, preferring
When Jolan came to a strange coun- large, stable companies like General Elec-
try in her middle 40s, she spoke little Eng- tric and AT&T. With help from a sympa-
lish. The Jolan I met spoke English well, thetic broker, she traded frequently, cashing
read English-language books for pleasure in on every small rise in the market.
and enjoyed American television. Wheel of

The house Hugo built in Vineland in 1948. He and Jolan are sitting on the porch.

36
Hugo and Jolan, continued

After Hugo died in of stomach ulcer In their more prosperous later years,
complications in 1964, she sold the chicken Hugo and Jolan were able to travel together.
farm and, with the proceeds from that and They toured Italy and went to Czechoslova-
her savings, she financed a comfortable re- kia to visit Hugo’s surviving brother. Nei-
tirement, first in an apartment in Vineland ther of them ever went back to Hungary.
and then in a retirement community in
Pennsylvania. When she died in her 90s,
there was enough left to provide legacies for
Julius and other relatives.
Jolan never stopped being careful
with her money. In retirement, she enjoyed
trips to Atlantic City on the senior bus. She
would exchange precisely $5 into quarters
and play the quarter slot machines until all
the money was gone. Then it was time for
lunch.
Jolan was proud of what she had ac-
complished – and liked to tell me about it.
She recalled how she once found Hugo
studying a catalog of chicken equipment in
order to buy feeders for the baby chicks.
Jolan looked at the catalog and asked why
two apparently identical feeders had differ-
ent prices. The higher priced feeders came
completely assembled, Hugo explained,
while the cheaper ones you had to assemble
yourself.
“Which ones will you buy?” she
asked. He would buy the assembled ones;
Jolan and Hugo in Venice, circa1960.
he didn’t want to bother putting them to-
gether. “If I put the cheaper ones together,
will you give me the difference?” Of course
he would, and that money went into her
stock fund.

37
 Sarospatak
After I married Julius in 1979, I After Tokay, the country becomes
went with him several times to Hungary. hillier. The old road from Tokay to Saro-
We always stayed in Debrecen with Cousin spatak went through the villages. We took
Gabor and his wife Ibu. Debrecen, about that road on our most recent visit so Julius
100 miles east of Budapest, is Hungary’s could find the house of a distant relative
second city, with train service to Budapest. with whom he stayed one summer so that
It has a university with a Medical College, she could fatten him up on her good cook-
where Gabor was a professor and Director ing. Until then, he was just skin and bones.
of the Institute of Microbiology. Ibu prac- We found the house, little changed during
ticed psychiatry in the hospital clinic. the more than 50 years since he saw it last.
On every visit, we made the journey Usually we took the new, fast road
to Sarospatak. Julius, Gabor and their broth- the Russians built and went more directly
ers were all born in that eastern Hungarian across the fields. Julius was always alert for
town, and Julius lived there until he was 19. his first sighting of the Sarospatak vine-
Sometimes Gabor and Ibu came with us; at yards. Julius’ mother and Gabor’s mother
other times, Julius and I went alone. We were sisters, and they inherited the vine-
drove northeast toward the border with yards from their father, Moricz Schwarcs. It
Ukraine. After we crossed the Bodrog River was a festive time, the grape harvest, but
we passed through Tokay, circling the per- vineyards meant more than that. They said
fect shape of Tokay Mountain, which rises we own land here, we belong.
like a little Mount Fuji above the plains. On “Why didn’t you keep the vine-
the southwestern slopes of this extinct cin- yards?” I asked.
der cone, they grow the sweet grapes for “Gabor and I signed them over to
Tokay wine. the People’s Republic after the war. He was
idealistic and I didn’t care. I was going to
join my father in America.”
From the Russian road, we crossed
the railroad tracks and entered the main
street of the town. Sarospatak has many at-
tractions: a modern hotel; the old Protestant
Collegium; Rakoczi Castle, now partly re-
stored; the Soviet-era built House of Cul-
ture. The former synagogue stood high on
The village home of Julius’ father’s uncle, where
Julius spent one of his boyhood summers to be the main street. It was now a furniture store.
fattened up.

38
Sarospatak, continued

“How did it become a store?” I was pleased to meet a former student who is
wanted to know. now an American. You were here in 1944
“They sold it after the war.” and did not graduate? A Jew? Yes, that is
“Did they have the right to sell it?” interesting. We had some, I believe. No, we
Gabor and Ibu were with us. Everyone do not have a plaque for those who were
looked uncomfortable; no one knew how taken away that year. I don’t think that is
the transaction was done. something the school ought to do. Perhaps
On that same visit the four of us you should speak with them at the municipal
paid a call on a very old woman whom Ga- hall.
bor described as “perhaps the last Jew in The four of us always went to the
Sarospatak.” Who was she exactly? Again, Jewish cemetery. It is on the road out of
everyone looked uncomfortable. The town, past the new gymnasium. The ceme-
woman we visited lived in several rooms on tery is a tract of ground, perhaps 100 feet by
the ground floor of a typical town house 200 feet, enclosed by a brick and stucco
with its windows set high above the street wall. In order to open the locked gate we
and the entrance on the side. We sat in a
room full of dusty furniture, too much furni-
ture, crowded together so that we were
formed a tight circle in the remaining space,
sipping pink liqueur from tiny glasses and
hearing long recitals in Hungarian.
“What did she say?” I asked later.
“She is not happy; they cheat her;
she wants to leave.”
“Do they cheat her?” I was ready to
be indignant. Well, Gabor and the others
were not sure of the rights and wrongs of
her situation.
On a later visit Julius and I walked
about at the traditional Protestant school,
the one Julius attended. Repairs had been
made; a new building was going up. We
viewed the many plaques for sports teams, Gabor and Julius in Sarospatak. standing by the
distinguished graduates, and valiant sol- road from the nearest of the former family vine-
yards, circa 1994.
diers. At the office the Assistant Director

39
Sarospatak, continued

need to get the key from the man who keeps In Memory of
it. The ground is hummocky and over- An Unforgettable Wife and son Imre
grown. Hungary in midsummer is warm and Beloved Mother and Brother
dry and this place smells of the dry grass. Who Perished During the Deportation
The stones were hard to read as we searched In Auschwitz
for family members. Stumbling about we Placed by Hugo Gluck and His Son Julius
found a tall, rather narrow stone which
identified the grave of Moricz Schwarcz, Ibu picked Queen Ann’s lace and
Julius’ grandfather, who was born in Saro- wild sunflowers along the road. When she
spatak, lived there all his life, owned vine- placed them on the graves, the flowers dis-
yards, and died in 1933. A newer stone appeared into the long grass. Julius and I
marked the place where Gabor’s parents are followed the Jewish custom and left a peb-
buried. They committed suicide in 1944 af- ble on each headstone to say we were here,
ter the others were taken away from Saro- we remember.
spatak. On the back of that stone is an addi-
tional inscription. Translated from the Hun-
garian, it reads:

Gabor clearing weeds around his parents grave in Sarospatak. The stone also
has a memorial inscription for Julia Schwarcz and Imre Gluck, Julius’s mother
and brother, circa 1994.

40
 Family Names and Relationships
Name Relationship to Place of Date of Date of
Julius Birth* Birth Death
Hugo Gluck Father Rystov, Slo- 1894 1964 Became American citi-
vakia zen, died in Vineland,
New Jersey
Herman Gluck Paternal 1866 Early Died in Slovakia
Grandfather 1930s
Jetti Juliska Paternal 1872 1944-5 Died in Holocaust
Gluck Grandmother
(Horowitz)
Bela Gluck Uncle c. 1906 1944-5 Died in Holocaust
(father’s
brother)
Laci Gluck Uncle c. 1904 c. 1904 c. 2000 Survived Holocaust, died
(father’s in Naratovice, Czech
brother) Republic
Elza (Gluck) Aunt (father’s c. 1893 1957 Left Europe before war,
Roth sister) died in Queens
Ignac Roth Uncle 1954 Left Europe before war,
(Naci) (married to died in Queens
Elza)
Ilus (Gluck) Aunt (father’s c. 1900 1944-5 Died in Holocaust
Wertheimer sister)
Aranka Aunt (father’s c. 1895 1944-5 Died in Holocaust
(Gluck) Fried- sister)
man
Imre Fried- Cousin (son of c. 2000 Survived Holocaust, died
man, Arnka) in Nazareth, Israel
later Uri Gilad
Agi Cousin Survived Holocaust,
Wertheimer, (daughter of lives in Haifa, Israel
later Arieli Ilus) (2007)
Bandi Cousin (son of 1944-5 Died in Holocaust
Ilus)
Tomi Gluck Cousin (son of 1944-5 Died in Holocaust
Bela)
Juliska Gluck Mother Sarospatak, 1898 1944-5 Died in Holocaust
(Schwarcz) Hungary
Moricz Maternal Sarospatak, 1860 1933 Landowner and business-
Schwarcz Grandfather Hungary man, died in Sarospatak
Bertha Maternal Eperjes, 1864 1937 Died in Sarospatak
Schwarcz Grandmother Slovakia
(Klammer)

41
Family Names and Relationships, continued

Name Relationship to Place of Date of Date of

Julius Birth* Birth Death
Imre Gluck Brother Sarospatak, 1929 1945 Died in Holocaust
Hungary

Frida Szabo Aunt Sarospatak, c. 1898 1944 Committed suicide in

(Schwarcz) (mother’s sis- Hungary Sarospatak during Holo-
ter) caust
Gyula Szabo Uncle 1944 Physician in Sarospatak;
(married to committed suicide in
Frida Sarospatak during Holo-
caust
Sandor Szabo Cousin (son of Sarospatak, 1923 1944-5 Died in Holocaust
Frida) Hungary
Gabor Szabo Cousin (son of Sarospatak, 1927 Survived Holocaust; be-
Frida) Hungary came physician and pro-
fessor of medicine; died
in Debrecen, Hungary
Stepmother c. 1900 c. 1994 Married Hugo Gluck af-
Jolan Gluck ter the war. Died in Me-
(Klein) dia, Pennsylvania; buried
near Vineland, New Jer-
sey
Variant spellings are found for Schwarcz (Schvarcz, Schwartz) and Horowitz (Horovitz).

42
Family Names and Relationships, continued

Family Tree of the Gluck, Schvarcz and Horovitz Families. Variant spellings are found for
Schvarcz (Schwarcz, Schwartz) and Horovitz (Horowitz).

43
 Maps

Eastern Europe. Hungary is a small, land-

locked country in eastern Europe. Before
the treaty which ended World War I, it was
the larger Kingdom of Hungary within the
Austro-Hungarian Empire which also in-
cluded today’s Austria, the Czech Republic
and Slovakia.

Hungary Today. The principal city is Budapest. Hungary’s second city is Debrecen, di-
rectly east from Budapest, near the border with Romania. The Szabo family lives in Debre-
cen. Sarospatak is in the northeast, very near the border with Slovakia.

44
Maps, continued

Important Locations in Poland. The Auschwitz

Concentration Camp was at Oswiecim, near Krakow
and just above the border with Slovakia. Ksiaz Castle,
where Julius worked, is near Wroclaw, which was
then called Breslau. This area is also known as Silesia.

Vineland, New Jersey. Vine-

land is west of Atlantic City,
in the southern, agricultural
part of the state.

45