Agnes M. (née Katz) Vertes was born in Budapest, Hungary in September 1940. Her father's family managed an export company and was wealthy. Her grandfather had a stroke and though he was lucid, he could not communicate. Vertes' grandmother ran the business until her father came of age to manage affairs. Vertes' father decided to go into the business even though his mother wanted him to be a doctor. Aroud 1921, Hungary imposed the first anti-Jewish laws in Europe. The pronouncements were referred to as Numerus Clausus and limited the numbers of Jews that could attend university. Vertes' uncle had to go to Czechoslovakia to get his chemical engineering degree. Because her father wanted a degree in economics, and it was not desired by most non-Jews, he managed to be enrolled in university. Vertes' maternal grandparents were very poor. They originated from Nyírbátor but later moved to Budapest. Vertes visited that location with a relative recently. They found a listing in the town books for her maternal grandfather. His name was Herman Gluck and was listed as a grain merchant. Vertes' mother's maiden name was Irene Gluck. Life went well for the Glucks until the partner in the business did some illegal things. They lost the business as a result. The family moved to Budapest afterward. The Glucks were poor with little money. Vertes' mother had little chance of getting married as a result. The Glucks were very religious people. Grandfather Gluck became a kosher food inspector. He also managed a wine cellar in Budapest. He loved to sample the wine, sometimes to excess. Vertes' mother had three brothers, but she was the only girl. Only a brother was younger than her. Her father's brother did become a chemical engineer. His sister married a doctor. They had one child named Peter. Her mother's oldest brother became a cantor. He married and had five children. Vertes was too young to know those children. Another uncle married a girl whose wealthy family had vineyards on their land. Vertes knew the two daughters by that marriage largely because they were close to Vertes in age. They are still alive.

Agnes Vertes had a two year old cousin murdered during the Holocaust. The little girl's mother and Vertes' grandmother were also killed. Vertes' affluent paternal grandparents sought refuge on the Buda side of Budapest. Budapest is divided by the Danube River. The Buda side is hilly and the Pest side is flatland. Vertes' family, like most Jews, lived on the Pest side. They fled their home when the Holocaust came to Hungary toward the end of the war [Annotator's Note: Jewish deportations were not instituted until May 1944 after the Germans occupied Hungary]. The Allies had landed in France before the worst times in Hungary [Annotator's Note: Allied landings in Normandy, France commenced on 6 June 1944 - D-Day]. A large portion of the Katz family was already in Buda before Vertes and her family moved there [Annotator's Note: Katz was Vertes' maiden name.]. Vertes' mother was very upset when she heard that her destitute mother was taken into the ghetto. With the help of Vertes' paternal grandmother, her maternal grandmother was brought out of the ghetto and assumed a new identity on the Pest side. Vertes' cousin Peter wanted to go visit his grandmother in Pest. Her father had gone into hiding with a friend named Regő from university days. Uncle Regő saved not only her father during the Holocaust, but he also facilitated the rescue of Vertes' mother. He took no money for his efforts though many people would have required funds. Uncle Regő was a true friend [Annotator's Note: Vertes uses the affectionate title of Uncle for the friend who saved her mother and father]. Cousin Peter went to visit his grandmother in Pest around Christmas. Concurrently, the Germans were retreating from the Russians. As they departed Pest, they blew up the bridges. The family that was on the Pest side could no longer travel back to Buda. Vertes does not usually tell the story that evolved from this point to school children when she addresses them. There was a rabid Nazi, Catholic priest. He and a group of other Nazis found out about Vertes' family and other Jews hiding in a location in Pest. That priest first robbed the Jews and then shot all of them. That included Vertes' cousin and grandmothers. Their bodies were all burned. The priest's name was Kun [Annotator's Note: Father András Kun was convicted and executed for war crimes after the war]. After the war, Vertes' father used dental records to identity relatives who been killed in the incident. It was difficult in the Holocaust to plan for all the contingencies. The wealthy Katz family had gotten Vertes' maternal grandmother out of the ghetto only to have both of them executed later in the war. Survival during the Holocaust was a matter of serendipity.

Agnes Vertes grew up as a spoiled little girl. She had everything she wanted. She had a nanny who may have been French. The family had a cook, a maid and a housekeeper. For her mother, it was a much better life than she had before her marriage. Her mother attended just a few grades in school before she was placed in a salon where beautiful clothing was offered. She was to be trained as a seamstress. She delivered clothing to Zsa Zsa Gabor [Annotator's Note: a postwar Hungarian media personality] who was close to her age. The work in the salon yielded a much better life for Vertes' mother. Vertes and her family lived in a scenic area of Budapest. Her nanny would often take her for walks along the beautiful avenues. The view was comparable to the Champs Elysees in Paris. Today the area may even be regarded as more scenic. Vertes remembers the magnificent chocolate store owned by the Stigletts [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling]. Her father kept an account at the store and Vertes was able to go into the store and order anything she wanted. It was a nice time for her. Vertes had a big doll that she was photographed with. The doll was as big as she was. She remembers few other toys. When she recently returned to Budapest, she was to join family in a restaurant. When she looked at the address on the building, it was the same address as her home before the Holocaust. The building was rehabilitated and the gates were closed so she could not inspect the location. Vertes' sister was born on 9 December 1942. Her name was Suzanna. Shortly afterward, Vertes contracted scarlet fever. She was put in the contagious ward of the Jewish Hospital. She was given new clothes for the stay. Her mother had to talk to her through the window when she came to visit her. Vertes was the darling of the doctors and nurses as she made her way around the ward. She talked to everyone. She observed everything. In the process, she caught chicken pox. She got pock marks from the disease. As a teenager, she cried about the marks often. She returned home with the scabs from the chicken pox. She was taken to grandmother Gluck, her maternal grandmother. She played with her dolls and acted as a doctor or nurse. Vertes' paternal great-grandmother lived in Szeged. That was the same hometown of Elie Wiesel [Annotator's Note: the famed Holocaust survivor and author of Night depicting his experiences in Auschwitz]. When Vertes' mother brought her two daughters to Szeged to visit her mother, she brought the nanny for the children. The people in Szeged thought her mother was trying to show off. While there, a dog was very attentive to Vertes' sister in her baby carriage. When the nanny went inside and the carriage began to roll, the dog barked so much that people ran to rescue the infant. Otherwise, the child may have been injured rolling all the way down the hill. Air raids began after they returned home. There were beds in the shelter, but Vertes' father decided to move his family to where the vineyards were located in Kiskunlacháza. Her aunt was there. It was 1944. The family's transportable valuables were brought along by her mother and left with the aunt's family, the Swartz family. They buried the valuables, but her mother did not know where.

Agnes Vertes learned that the Germans occupied Hungary on 19 March 1944. By early April, a law was enacted forcing every Jew over the age of six to wear a yellow star of a particular size and yellow color. At that time, her father came to visit the family on a train [Annotator's Note: Vertes, her mother and sister had previously relocated from their home in Budapest to an aunt's home in Kiskunlacháza.]. Being a Jew, he took a chance of being shot for just riding the train. He told his wife that he was going to bring his family back to Budapest. In the little town like Kiskunlacháza, everyone knew who the Jews were. Budapest had a million people with a quarter of them being Jews. It would be easier to hide in the big city. When the family traveled through the railroad station, it was total pandemonium. There were animals running around. Children were out of control. Peasants were sitting on the ground. The scene was unbelievable. The family had tickets, but they were not allowed on the train because of their yellow stars. The parents picked up their daughters and positioned them over the yellow stars. They were then allowed on the train. During the trip, the stars were exposed and other passengers denounced the Jews. The people were horrible. Even the Hungarian soldiers wanted to throw the family off the train. The young daughters were not quite two and four at the time. They were small youngsters to be thrown off the train. Different soldiers came from another car. They may have been Serbs. They chastised the Hungarian soldiers about their cruelty to the Jews. The Hungarians called the other soldiers Jew lovers and a fight broke out. Men were rolling of the floor. Vertes' father said they should leave because no matter who won the fight, the Jews would always lose in the end. They went to the last car of the train so they could jump off before they reached the rail station. The train always slowed down before reaching the station. Any Jew picked up at the main Budapest station was never heard from again. Vertes' father jumped first then her mother threw young Vertes to her father and then the younger daughter to him. She jumped off afterward. No public transportation was available for Jews but Vertes does not remember exactly how they reached their home. Upon arrival home, things had changed. The nanny and maid were gone and the Jewish cook left to return to her child in her village. The family of four was without help. They were not permitted to have non-Jewish employees. This was the case in businesses, too.

Agnes Vertes returned home and learned that she would become a Protestant girl [Annotator’s Note: Vertes, her mother and sister had previously relocated from their home in Budapest to the assumed safety of an aunt’s home in Kiskunlacháza. Her father had brought them home to Budapest in April 1944. It was shortly after the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944.]. Vertes was told by her parents that she should not tell anyone her real name because she might be killed. She did not really understand what all that meant but believed that being killed must be a bad thing. She learned her assumed name was to become Agnes Kovacs. Kovacs was a common Hungarian surname much like Smith in English. In fact, both names mean the same thing. She had to learn the prayers and songs that a little four year old Protestant girl would know. One day, a woman came and took Suzanna, her younger sister, away. Little Vertes did not know what was happening nor did she ask any questions. She did not know whether her sister was coming back or not. About two weeks later, Vertes had her hair washed with petroleum like that used in camping lanterns. Peasant girls used that to rid themselves of lice in the hair. She even had to smell like a girl with her new identity. Her father gathered false papers for Vertes and her sister. The forms were from City Hall so they looked official. Shortly thereafter, the same lady who had taken Vertes’ sister came for her. She told Vertes that she did not want her to cry or say anything. She told her mother not to follow them so the neighbors did not report them to the authorities. While they were going to the tram stop, Vertes looked over the lady’s shoulder and saw her mother following them and crying. Little Vertes did not do anything until she was on the tram. After it pulled away and her mother disappeared, she let her emotions go and began crying. It was the first time for her to be away from her parents. She did not know this woman. She did not know where she was going. The fear of the unknown in a child can be terrifying. No one thought too much of her crying because children often get upset on trams or trains. When they arrived at the woman’s home, her sister was so glad to see her. It was a one room house with a packed dirt floor. There was no running water or bathroom. She was horrified of the outhouse. The holes were cut larger than she was. She was fearful of falling in. There was a well outside to obtain water. Her father’s friend would bring supplies every week including extra food. The man definitely was not a Nazi. During the course of a bombing raid, the home was destroyed. The inhabitants had taken refuge in a bomb shelter beforehand. With the destruction of the home, the lady got word to Vertes’ parents that she could no longer take care of the girls. She had been paid to watch over the two even though it was risky to do so. Vertes’ father’s friend was a colonel. He could readily pass through guard posts. He was asked to retrieve the girls. The lady would not release the two girls because she had promised the parents that she would never let them go unless it was to return them directly to their parents. Vertes viewed her as a Righteous Gentile. The lady accompanied the colonel and the girls in a vehicle. In route, they were stopped by Hungarian Arrow Cross Nazis. They were ordered onto the sidewalk. No one was allowed to be in the street. While they were standing on the sidewalk, a procession of Jews of all ages and genders was marched past them. The citizens on the sidewalk did not feel sorry for the Jews. Instead, they cursed them and threw objects at them. Vertes knew at that point what it meant to be a Jew. That was why she could not tell anyone who she was. It was a terrible scene. Vertes had nightmares about it but survived them. The girls could not stay with their mother. She had false papers that did not indicate that she was a mother. The colonel and Vertes’ mother went every day to attempt to place the girls in a children’s home. The homes were all full and not able to accept more youngsters. There were not only Jewish children but also non-Jewish orphaned children who had lost their parents in the war. Many of the Jewish children had no fathers because they had been taken away as slave laborers through the years since 1941. Jewish women could only go outside of their home to shop at designated times. Even so, many were taken off the streets by dragnets and made to go to Austria. Upon arriving there, they likely were sent to camps. Most did not survive. During one occasion when a children’s home was being sought, the group was riding on a tram. An air raid began. The group sought shelter in the lobby of a building. They did not go to the basement to seek safety because it was the family’s old neighborhood. Vertes’ mother was concerned that an old neighbor might recognize them. When the bombs came, it was unforgettable. The noise and the pressure of the explosions were unbelievable. A building across the street was hit and demolished. Furniture and a baby grand piano were suspended from an open wall. The tram had been destroyed. The passengers who had not left the tram were all killed. The Jews suffered a double jeopardy during these times. They were persecuted plus ran the risk of being killed by the bombs during the air raids.

Agnes Vertes and her sister were placed in a children's home in Buda [Annotator's Note: Budapest is divided by the Danube River with Buda being the hilly side and Pest being the flatland side]. There were 100 children there, but no one knew they were Jewish. They had what appeared to be valid papers plus the youngsters did not look Jewish. Even the adult caretakers did not realize the children were Jewish. Frequently, the SS or the Hungarian Nazis would come to look for Jewish children. The process involved showing the papers on each child and often ended with drinks being offered to the inspectors. During one inspection, two vile members of the Hungarian Arrow Cross [Annotator's Note: the Hungarian Nazi Party] insisted on seeing everyone's papers. It terrified all concerned with the children who knew what that meant. Vertes personally did not know what it meant. Vertes' adorably petite two year old sister had just learned to speak. She ran over to the particularly nasty Nazi and started pulling on his pants. She asked him if she could try on his hat. His heart melted. He picked her up and threw her into the air and asked his mate if anyone other than an Aryan child be as cute as the little girl. She was 100 percent Jewish but they did not know it. The little two year old managed to save 100 Jewish children.

Agnes Vertes was in Budapest during the house to house fighting between the Germans and Russians. The fighting was vicious. The Germans did not want to give up the city. There was an ebb and flow of Russian progress as parts of the city were gained then lost. The Germans had their equipment on top of the house where Vertes was living [Annotator’s Note: this was a children’s home surreptitiously holding Jewish youngsters.]. The adults tried to protect the children by stacking furniture and heavy objects against the windows. They had the children hide under mattresses on the first floor. No one was hurt as a result, but the house caught fire. The Germans came down and insisted that no one leave until they were fed. There was no food to feed them. The situation was becoming urgent. Some flour was discovered. Water had always been available during the war. A woman told the Germans that if they freed the youngsters, she would make them pancakes. The weather was quite cold. Bodies were frozen into the ice in the streets. That probably prevented disease and epidemic. As Vertes made her way through the streets, she fell over a dead woman. She was paralyzed with panic. The dead woman had her eyes open. Vertes was less than five years old. She was pulled off the woman. The group made their way to a barn where they slept warmly under the hay. The large group was subdivided into smaller groups with ten children in each group. People would more likely take them in as a small group. The younger children took turns sitting on a sled on the way to the home of a fantastic man who was a Righteous Gentile. He has a tree at the Yad Vashem. His name was the Reverend Sztehlo [Annotator’s Note: Yad Vashem is The World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem. Reverend Sztehlo is Pastor Gabor Sztehlo of Budapest.]. He was an exception person who saved close to 1,000 Jewish boys. Because of circumcision, the Jewish boys were more difficult to save than girls. That did not deter Reverend Sztehlo. The girls in Vertes’ group were taken to the Reverend’s house. It was a white day with the snowy storm. The snowflakes made it seem that you were looking through a curtain. It must have been mid-January [Annotator’s Note: 1945] and no one but the dead were on the road. All of a sudden, an apparition made an appearance. It turned out to be a person. Vertes was wearing an outfit that all matched. The apparition started running toward her and as she got closer, Vertes identified the person to be her mother. Her mother picked up both her daughters and made their way to the Reverend Sztehlo’s house. The Pest side of Budapest was liberated by the Russians. They were free except the Russians wanted them to work for them [Annotator’s Note: Vertes speaks Russian to indicate their insistence on getting aid from the liberated Jews.]. Her mother talked to a Russian with a dingy. She promised a Swiss watch to him if he would transport her across the river. The Russians loved watches even though they did not know how to operate them. The Danube never freezes; however, this winter it had big blocks of ice. Two Russians transported Vertes’ mother in a boat toward Buda. One soldier fell overboard and drowned. The other Russian deposited Vertes’ mother on the sizable island in the middle of the river and left. She made her way from the island to the Buda side of the city by hopping across the river on the huge blocks of ice. By coincidence, she found her daughters. The Reverend Sztehlo had only asparagus to feed the hungry refugees. It was horrible. For many years, Vertes hated asparagus. There was no room for them to stay so they had to leave the next day. Before leaving, Vertes spent the night talking with her mother about her experiences. She could not sleep. She had missed her mother so much. The little girl told her mother that she had dreamed that her grandmother was on the floor with blood around her head. No one was helping her. Her mother told her not to be silly. She thought the grandmother was safe. That turned out to be the day that her grandmother had been murdered [Annotator’s Note: that grandmother had been executed along with Vertes’ other grandmother and niece by a rabid Nazi priest named Father András Kun associated with the Arrow Cross. Kun was executed after the war.]. They left the next morning. For some reason, her mother left her girls for a period of time. She left her daughters with an adult and eight other children. That would eventually lead into the worst time for little Vertes.

Over a two week period, Agnes Vertes experienced the worst time when it was very cold and she had to live on the street [Annotator's Note: this is during the siege of Budapest in early 1945. Her mother had mysteriously left Vertes and her sister after being reunited with them.]. There was no food and snow was all they had to eat. They washed in the snow. They had no lice at the time. They stayed in bombed out houses that offered a bit of cover for them. Snow was everything because there was no food. They found an overcrowded children's home in Buda. It was filthy. Everyone had some type of lice. Soon Vertes and her sister contracted lice. They had to have their heads shaved as a result. Everyone was starving. Every Sunday there was a religious service. Vertes looked forward to it because afterward they received some white cherries. She loved the cherries and still does to this day. Her sister Suzanna got sick and Vertes became frantic about being left alone. Soon Vertes contracted the same sickness which was TB [Annotator's Note: tuberculosis]. She then broke out in puss filled sores over her entire body. It was very painful. She does not know how she managed to survive. Buda was liberated but Vertes was too sick to notice. With no bridges left, families could not be reunited. In April [Annotator's Note: 1945], a bridge was built by the Russians. The girls' mother crossed and attempted to locate her daughters. She was sent to various children homes and personal homes. She journeyed with the colonel [Annotator's Note: a family friend] and looked for her daughters either using the surname of Kovacs or Katz. [Annotator's Note: The first is a common Hungarian name assumed by the two girls to disguise their Jewishness. The latter name was their actual family name which was distinctively more Jewish.]. The two searchers found the girls and then had to cross the single available bridge. The bridge was guarded by two Russian soldiers. The Russians had a reputation of being very cruel, but they loved children. The two young girls were just skin and bones. The soldiers felt so sorry for them that they gave each one of them a loaf of bread. Vertes ate slowly but her sister ate it quickly and got sick from the food. Vertes' mother spent time combing lice out of her daughter's hair. This was while Vertes was still sick with TB. A doctor recommended that she be taken to a gas factory because it was thought that the gas would be good for her recovery. He also said that she should be taken to a high place where the air would be much better. Consequently, she was taken to a Catholic school called Forest School high up in the mountains. The nuns were the teachers. Children were not allowed to go to school in Hungary until they were six years old. She attended the school without pressure from her parents to do well. One day, a nun was giving a lesson on the death of Jesus Christ and the Jewish responsibility in the event. That upset Vertes because she thought that the persecution of the Jews was going to start again. She talked to her parents about it and the school allowed her and a Jewish boy to pass on attending the catechism classes. Nevertheless, Vertes could not deal with the idea that someone might be coming to get her again. When her parents returned to see her, Vertes said she had to leave the school. She could not be comfortable there.

Agnes Vertes returned to her apartment in Budapest with her family. The Nazis who had lived there made a mess of the place so they decided to move in with her grandparents—the Katz [Annotator’s Note: her paternal grandparents]. They had a home large enough to accommodate all of them. Even her Aunt Elsa and Cousin Peter lived there with them. The aunt was the younger sister of Vertes’ father. Elsa’s husband, Dr. Joseph Weinberger, remained missing until recently when Vertes learned that he had been in Auschwitz but had been transferred to Dachau where he died on 7 November [Annotator’s Note: 1944] according to the German government. Vertes opines that no one just died in those camps. There are no details of what happened to her uncle. Vertes would like to research the records at Bad Arolsen to discover more information on his death. She might be able to clarify information for the doctor’s grandson in Budapest. The families all lived together under the Katz roof. Her father started a small business since the family business had been taken away by the Nazis [Annotator’s Note: the family had a successful export business prior to the war.]. Soon the Communists took over the government and shortly afterward, nationalized the businesses. There was no way to make a living in this classless society of the socialists. There were really five classes. The factory workers were the privileged. There were peasants with no land or very little. There were the little people like the shoemakers. The Intelligentsia was anyone with at least a high school degree. Her father with his university degree was doubly bad. Finally, there were the people with big businesses. The latter were considered the enemy of the people. Vertes’ family fell into that group. It resulted in her father not being able to get a job because he was considered an enemy of the people. If a person did not work, they went to jail. Vertes’ father went to the central Jewish Community of Budapest and pled his case. He was the only supporter of the family. He simply could not go to jail. He would take any kind of job with or without pay. He was given a job which took him out of the city to collect funds from Jews to pay the central agency. Being classified as an enemy meant that after her compulsory eighth grade education, Vertes could not attend school any further. She was fortunate that Budapest was the only Hungarian city with a Jewish high school. She attended and graduated that wonderful school. The teachers were former university instructors who could not get a job in other schools. Vertes had experienced anti-Semitism in school prior to going to the Jewish high school. Students and teachers both expressed biased feelings toward her and other Jews. In 1950, the enemies of the people were transported to places without rudimentary public services. Many of those relocated were Jewish people. They had past business associations or were members of the Intelligentsia. The apartments that were vacated by those who were relocated were then given to the good Communists who came from peasant stock. One girl in the fourth or fifth grade befriended Vertes, but when she discovered that Vertes was a Jew, she had nothing more to do with her. Vertes never missed her but there were things that revealed the prejudice.

In 1948, Agnes Vertes witnessed the iron hand or perhaps an iron fist Communist takeover [Annotator’s Note: of Hungary]. Her brother was born in May of that year. Her father was continuing to do his job but was very saddened by it [Annotator’s Note: his job was to collect funds for the central Jewish Community of Budapest from Jews outside of the city.]. He saw so many families that meager means to support themselves. They needed food and medicine. Vertes’ father had an Israeli diplomat friend named Elan [Annotator’s Note: spelling not certain]. Vertes cannot remember the friend’s surname. Vertes was about 12 years of age at the time. She was taken by her father to visit his friend at the consulate. Her father told his Israeli friend of the plight of those people outside Budapest. Soon food and medicine became available to help them. Thereafter, one night there was a knock on the door. It was the secret police. They turned the house upside down. The police were not sophisticated enough to do a proper search. One of the men went to her father’s coat and seemingly pulled out a book stating that her father was a Nazi. Her father responded that he could never be a Nazi. He was Jewish and was persecuted and nearly died during the war. The man did not care. They took Vertes’ father while she slept. Her mother feared she would be taken too. The men took note of the size of the apartment and soon other people moved in with the family and rooms were taken over and repurposed. Facilities were shared. The newcomers were Jewish and Communists; however, they were not the wild Communists. The secret police knew that part of the apartment was off-limits because of the Communists living there, but they were not certain which part. Meanwhile, Vertes and her family had extra items in the pantry like flour, sugar and goose fat. They never knew when they could get those type things because there were always shortages. If those items had been discovered, Vertes’ mother would have been taken as a person involved in the black-market. They also never found the gold and the dollars that the family had hidden during the Holocaust. Vertes was warned by her mother that the house was being watched. She was told to take some valuables to her mother’s friend, Mrs. Gluck. She hid the items on her body. When she left the gate, she noticed that she was being followed by the secret service. As she proceeded along, she decided to take an alternate route to lose her pursuers. She successfully did so and only saw the men on her way back to her home. She did that a few times. The family did not know where her father was. Vertes went to various prisons and cried but the little girl with the braids made no impact on anyone she talked to about her father. Her mother had taken some simple job so no one found out that the family friend, Elan, was providing for them. That was how they lived. That was the way Communism worked. On Jewish holidays, the family would get new clothes. They were warned to travel the servant entrance so that they were not reported by envious neighbors. It was really weird. Stalin [Annotator’s Note: Soviet Russian Premier Joseph Stalin] died in 1953. There was a general amnesty in Hungary. Her father was dumped in front of the house by the secret police. He was so badly tortured mentally and physically that his recovery took about two years. He would walk along the street assuming that everyone was a spy. Someone had given his name to the authorities before his incarceration. His Zionist position was unacceptable to the Communists. In school, the children had to be Pioneers. You wore a blue kerchief unless you were esteemed and given a red kerchief. She felt miserable having to march in parades shouting “long live Stalin” while her father was away. During his absence, the family had little hope for him. After he returned, he returned to his previous work. Vertes attended the Jewish high school which separated males and females. She was a star there after the return of her father. She had a good time in that period. She was a beautiful girl and very popular with the guys. The girls did not like that except for one very good friend who was also beautiful. There were four guys she went out with at once. They did everything together and were good friends. The boys watched out for her. One of them is still in Hungary with Parkinson. One died of a heart attack. One had complications with diabetes and died. One is alive in California.

Agnes Vertes had just turned 16 when the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 broke out. Her first trip out of Hungary had been to Czechoslovakia in the summer of 1956. Her mother had a cousin who was married to a doctor there. Vertes spent several weeks there. It was great for her. She rode a train all night with secret service men onboard with her. They liked her because she was a good looking girl. They wanted her to join them but she would not. She arrived at Prague and met her aunt. It was interesting because she had seen no other city but Budapest. She attended a Karlsbad film festival. Her aunt had many friends. She met a young man through her aunt. The two attended the festival together. They dressed in their best clothes and went inside and saw an American film called Marty. She returned to school after going back home. On 23 October, she was fascinated with the outbreak of the revolution. She was visiting her good friend and told her that something was happening. She had been addressed as Miss and not Comrade on the street. The city had wide roads that circled it. They were jammed. The trams were full of people. Trucks were full of yelling people. The sidewalks were full. People were out looking at everything going on. The crowd cheered when they saw a Hungarian flag with the Communist symbol cut out. Vertes returned to her home on Stalin Street. It has subsequently been changed to its Hungarian name. There was talk of Stalin's statue being taken down. A huge crowd had gathered where an enormous statue of Stalin was located. The metal statue was difficult to bring down. Eventually, it was brought down and everyone was excited. Vertes told her sister that they had to return home. Her mother was angry when they got home. Her father was not home because he was traveling. That night, there were shots. Soon after tanks entered the city and churned up the streets. Molotov cocktails were thrown at them. The radio station was going to be taken over. Vertes convinced one of her male friends to go with her to the station. When the shooting started, they returned home. Afterward, she went to get bread at the bakery. When a tank passed people hid. When they left, they got back in line and got the bread. She felt like she was a crazy person. It was difficult for her father to return home by train. Vertes learned that some people got across the border [Annotator's Note: into Austria and freedom].

Agnes Vertes found that the [Annotator's Note: Hungarian] borders were very tightly sealed except for the few. People were allowed in much easier than out of the country. It was the policy to prevent citizens from seeing what existed outside the country. They were told that the United States was imperialist. History books were completely rewritten to focus attention on the positives of the Soviet Union. Vertes' father had returned [Annotator's Note: he had been outside Budapest on business during the start of the revolution in October 1956 and had difficulty returning to the city by train during that period]. Vertes told her parents that she had no future in Hungary. It was no longer her country. Although she could not take her ill brother, she decided to take Suzanna [Annotator's Note: her younger sister] with her when she left. Vertes thought that her parents would be allowed to leave on their own so that the country would not have to pay them their pension. Both parents were in their 40s.After debating the topic all night, Vertes' parents decided to help her and Suzanna. Her father would accompany his daughters on a train bound for a small city near Austria. When they were aboard the train, they noticed that everyone had the same destination in mind. Everyone wanted to leave. Her father cautioned the girls not to tell anyone where they wanted to go. They never knew the intentions of fellow riders. They traveled to a city named Sopron. They stayed within the small Jewish community there. Her father paid a peasant to escort them across the border. There were about 40 people in the group. En route, the group was accosted by three Russian tanks. The officer in charge was like a typical member of the ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps in the United States prepares students for acceptance into the military]. He presented himself very well, but he wanted to know where the group was headed. No one other than Vertes could understand him. She could speak Russian but knew that as a Jew she did not want to stand out. She never knew who was looking to hit her. After he continued to scream and yell, she finally acknowledged that she could speak Russian. When he called Vertes to him on the tank, she brought her sister along with her. He told her that she must be his translator while he questioned the gathered group and then translate their responses for him. Trucks were brought up and the people were instructed to board them. When Vertes was about to board, the officer told her that she would not be going. Vertes was frantic. She was 16 years old and a virgin. Her sister was only 14. She was concerned with what would happen to them next. After the trucks departed, the officer told Vertes to return to her parents. If he ever saw her again, he would put in her internal passport that she was a criminal. It would follow her all of her life. The Russians followed the girls back to the city to make sure that they returned home and did not try to return to the border. Vertes could not have found the border at the time anyway. Vertes attempted another escape with several Jewish high school girls. They were all attractive girls. They traveled by horse and buggy. It was not an upscale thing. They were singing as they headed to the border. Hungarian soldiers caught up with them. The girls tried to coax the young soldiers into letting them go. They refused and the girls returned to Budapest. At that point, the Katz [Annotator's Note: Vertes' maiden name] girls gained the reputation of always getting caught. No one wanted to join them. The girls linked up with an older male student at the high school and his brother. The student's brother had just been released from jail after being accused of being a Zionist. They had likewise been caught before so no one wanted to accompany them. Vertes told her father not to pay the peasant guide until after he received a note from her in Hebrew that they were safely across the border. The peasants in Hungary could not understand Hebrew. It was a horrendous trip. The guide told them that they would not get caught. It was his territory. He had put the mines down and knew exactly where to safely go. The travelers had to follow him precisely. It was like a horror film. The long walk was in the dark through puddles and mud with branches tearing at them. At 16 years old, she thought that she had to get through the journey without being caught. As the morning started she observed a green, grassy clearing in the distance. She felt that she had left the place of horror. The guide told them that they were in Austria. They were in disbelief until a soldier ran toward them. He carried a machine gun and Vertes feared what would happen next. He spoke to them in German saying, Austrian customs. Everyone was so happy that the former prisoner bent down and kissed the earth. Vertes wrote a note to her father to pay the guide. After the guide left, the soldier brought the immigrants to a camp that may have been Eisenstadt. They registered at the camp. The former Zionist prisoner spoke fluent German, English, and Hebrew. The social worker who was interviewing them asked the young Zionist to stay and be his interpreter. The young man replied that he had to be on his way to meet his relatives in Vienna. The social worker told the immigrant that he would take him to Vienna in his Volkswagen bus. When the boy, Shomi [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling] translated into Hungarian, Vertes insisted that she and her sister go along to Vienna. She jokingly said she would kill him if he did not [Annotator's Note: Vertes laughs]. He said that they could come along but had to make their own way in Vienna. They could not follow him to his relatives. The girls agreed because staying in that camp had a bad connotation. Vertes did not want to stay there.

Agnes Vertes reached Vienna after midnight [Annotator's Note: she had just left a refugee camp at the Austrian border after fleeing Hungary following the October 1956 Hungarian Revolution]. She was let off of the bus in the center of the city. She found the scene incredible. There were so many lights. People were so well dressed. She did not have time to think about where she was going to go. She was 16 years old and very impressionable. All of a sudden, she heard her name being called out. It was a guy who had attended school with her back home. He asked what she was doing in Vienna. Vertes told him that she was doing the same thing that he was doing. Her friend had another young man with him that Vertes did not know. Vertes' friend cautioned her that she needed to get off the street. The police might pick her up since it was past midnight. He offered for her and her sister to come along with him and stay where they were situated. When Vertes found out he was staying at a camp on the outskirts of the city, she flatly refused. She had her fill of camps. She was reassured that it was better than jail plus they would stay with her to protect her. They even provided the girls with their coats as they slept. The next morning, the girls went to the police station and obtained their gray cards which allowed them to utilize all public transportation. The girls were told by their young benefactors that there was a kosher restaurant downtown which provided free food in the basement for refugees. They only had to wash their own dishes in return. The girls received a satisfactory meal there. Near the restaurant, she met a shady fellow who turned out to be a distant relative. Although he lived in Vienna, he may have realized Vertes was related because his brother had previously lived in Hungary. He offered the girls a place to stay. It would be with him. After drunken men broke into that place, Vertes and her sister vacated the location. Back at the restaurant, she ran into one of her father's friends. The friend facilitated the girls finding a new home with people he knew. While Vertes was passing through the restaurant to the basement, she was offered lunch by a good looking young man. While seated at lunch, she observed all the people talking between themselves. The young man was from Columbia seeking a wife. He informed Vertes that they were in the midst of the black-market. There was an active money exchange going on. Vertes returned the next day with the 400 dollars she had and joined the action. That was how she supported herself and her sister. She kept her 400 dollars. When Vertes heard that the Hungarian border was going to be sealed tight, she became frightened. She went to her shady relative and asked for help for her parents. She was told that the drunken men had a sure way to bring people across the border. Vertes wanted her parents brought across into Austria. After a bit of haggling, the cost was stated to be 400 dollars in advance. Vertes disagreed with paying in advance but agreed to a mutually known intermediary, Mr. Mandell [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling] holding her money. She left the money with the intermediary with the stipulation that it would be released when she saw her parents in Austria. They were reunited in the basement of the restaurant. Her brother was still very ill and had to be left behind. Vertes' father had brought a lot of English pounds. He brought them to the bank, but discovered the notes were counterfeit. It was a supposed fortune, but the ersatz bills were all shredded in front of him. Vertes' father seemingly had acquaintances everywhere. The parents were taken in by a young couple in Vienna. The girls stayed in the home they had previously found. The young woman who took in her parents requested that Vertes meet a very nice and rich young man. Vertes hesitated but then agreed. She had a special outfit made in a salon in Budapest. She dressed and went to the restaurant. The man turned out to be the man from Columbia that she had previously had lunch with. Both of them pretended they had never met. The family sought a place to move into together so as not to impose on others. They were turned down several times because they were refugees. Then they went to a very nice castle in Schönbrunn. The hotel there gave them a place to stay. The Jewish organization would pay for a hotel but not that expensive. They were sent to another hotel. It was not a high class place, but they stayed there until they were able to come to America. Her brother was in a contagious ward and contracted meningitis. He would not be released until he was better. He would eventually die a horrible death at 21 years of age in America. Working through the American embassy, the family was accepted for transit to America because her father's brother was already in California. That uncle had lost his two year old daughter [Annotator's Note: she was shot by the Nazis during the Holocaust]. There were several other relatives living in America. They were also Holocaust survivors. Vertes and her family flew TWA [Annotator's Note: Trans World Airlines]. Before departing Austria, Vertes and her sister went into an airport restaurant and ordered tea. It was the first time they had tea with milk. Normally, they only added lemon to the tea in Hungary. Milk was added to coffee. As she boarded the airplane and walked up the exterior stairway to the entrance, Vertes looked back and thought that she did not give a damn if she ever saw that place again.

Agnes Vertes was going to the country she where wanted to live, but there were problems on the way. Lightning hit the airplane, but they were able to make it to Canada. They made stops in Ireland and Newfoundland beforehand. In Newfoundland, they stopped at an American airbase. People had to wear insulated shoes because it was so cold. The ladies there were very nice and provided a good meal with ice water. Vertes thought the ice water in that climate was crazy. They offered second hand clothes, but Vertes was too spoiled to accept that. The family was taken to New Jersey and Camp Kilmer. At that location, families were given privacy by having sheets between them in the barracks [Annotator's Note: Vertes laughs]. The new arrivals were tested mentally and physically for any diseases. It was the first time that Vertes received a bra which she had never seen before. They were not typically worn in Europe. The family stayed there for two weeks or so. Vertes' uncle from the Bronx came to Camp Kilmer. She does not know how he made it to Camp Kilmer since he had no car. He had been taken at a young age for slave labor back in Hungary so he had little education and training. He was working in a factory. Vertes' aunt had a bit more education. She had been taken to Auschwitz in 1944 after receiving her degree. She had found work in the United States as a bookkeeper for a jewelry firm owned by someone she knew in the DP [Annotator's Note: displaced person] camp. Her uncle managed to reach them and they all boarded a school bus for the ride back to the Bronx. On the way, they observed some rundown areas. Vertes was concerned about what she was seeing. They made a stop at Grand Central Station and then turned into Park Avenue and Vertes' impression of the United States improved significantly. The five new arrivals joined her uncle and aunt with their son, Steve, in a one bedroom, one bath apartment. Her relatives were so wonderful to take in Vertes and her family. Her cousin later moved to Israel and married a Greek girl there. While in the Bronx, family members sought work. The children were left in the apartment. Her aunt was the only one of the group who could speak English. She took Vertes to register in William Howard Taft High School. Vertes spoke no English so when she took an IQ test, she turned out to be a moron. The principal, Mrs. Levinson [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling], was a wonderful lady who encouraged Vertes. The principal took her to all the classes where the teachers wrote down questions. Vertes could read English but not speak it. The questions posed to her were all satisfactorily answered by Vertes. Vertes wanted to take math but more importantly English. She learned her new language in six weeks, well enough to make herself understood. She worked every summer afterward to obtain needed money. Her parents got their own apartment and they made due with the space available. Her brother was very bright. He learned English and Hebrew. He also became a chess champion. Vertes did not encounter any extent of anti-Semitism in her high school because it had a large Jewish population. The neighborhood had mixed ethnicity so people accepted one another. She was not asked about her Holocaust experiences. Even when she learned English, it was as if people did not appreciate her difficulty in Europe. They were more concerned with their problems with the rationing that took place in the States. Vertes decided to let it go and not push discussions of the Holocaust or Communism. When she transplanted from New York, no one even knew she was a survivor. She had no one to guide her. Her relatives had little education or money. It seemed that no one cared about her past. She did very well on the entry examinations for college. She met a Jewish guy from Hungary. He was going to attend Hunter College because it was only 12 dollars per semester. He knew the admission person who could help her. She could have picked any prestigious college, but that was all that she knew. Additionally, her parents would not allow her to move from home. She entered college with the goal of becoming a doctor. She began taking chemistry. A prerequisite in chemistry was knowledge of German because of the technical literature. She was invited to a dinner by the Dean of Foreign Students. Vertes did not think of herself as a foreign student because she had no intention of returning to Hungary. She felt she was an American after being in the country for about a year and a half. She did not want to go, but it was in the Roosevelt House which had been donated to the college. She accepted the invitation to attend anyway. She met her husband there.

Agnes Vertes met two men at a party. They spoke Hungarian so she told them they could sit next to her. She found her future husband to be a very nice and talkative individual. He requested her phone number and she offered it to him. He told her that he was a student and did not have a car. Another man was waiting for Vertes on Park Avenue with a car, but she did not like him. She did like Michael so she left with him. They took the subway home. They were chatting on the way and everything was wonderful when Michael suddenly announced that they had reached his stop. He got off the subway and left Vertes flabbergasted. She had always been accompanied home by gentlemen. She had never been left by herself like that before. Upon arrival home, she told her mother that if that guy called for her, she would never be at home. He was persistent, and they went out and eventually were married. He was also a Holocaust survivor. His father was murdered, but his mother and grandmother survived. He was an only child. He was eight years old during the Holocaust. The Jews had been forced to move out of their house into a yellow star home with multiple families. The next step was to force them into the ghetto. His father's cousin worked in an annex of the Swiss consulate. It was really run by Jewish people attempting to aid those of their faith. It was called the Glass House because that was the most noticeable characteristic of the building. Certificates were granted for lodging in a Swiss House which allowed the individual to move to Switzerland after the war. While in the long application line, the cousin, Mandy, came out and Vertes' mother-in-law yelled out at him. He moved them through the line and they received their certificate. There was no room in the Swiss Houses for the family. The Swiss bought and leased houses near the Danube, but they were all full. One person even slept on a gas stove because it was so crowded. The only house they could enter was the one protected by the Papal Nuncio. He was a wonderful man in his 70s. He did not care what position the Pope assumed, he was doing what he felt was right. He did everything he could for the Jews. They were allowed to enter his buildings with the papers from the Swiss. They stayed there until two weeks prior to liberation by the Russians. The last two weeks they were housed in the ghetto. When Vertes visited her homeland, she saw the gates of the ghetto where her in-laws had been freed by the Russians. A Russian soldier that freed them and tore their yellow stars off was crying. He was likely a Jew.

Agnes Vertes went to Russia by herself. She majored in Russian in Hunter College. She went to Russia because her husband did not take her with him when he went there for business. He was concerned that they might be jailed as refugees from a former Communist bloc country. It was decided that she would stay with the children. She still wanted to go because she knew the language and had studied Russian history. She found the Russians to be very anti-Semitic. The Protocols of the Elders were created by the Russian secret police during the time of the czars. With unrest at that time amongst the peasants in the country, the Jews might be a sacrificial distraction. Had the Russians not taken over Hungary, Vertes' father might not have been imprisoned [Annotator's Note: he was incarcerated under the pretense of him being a Nazi even though he was Jewish]. While in Moscow, she felt terrible because the edict incarcerating her father emanated from there. Knowing Russian history, she knew that Stalin was no better than Hitler [Annotator's Note: Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin and German Dictator Adolf Hitler, respectively]. Stalin did not use gas chambers to kill but simply shot victims or sent people to the gulag where life was virtually unlivable. Young people must learn about history in order to prevent a reoccurrence of bad events of the past. There have been genocides since the Holocaust, but none were as thorough and global. If a person was a Tutsi, there was genocide [Annotator's Note: the Rwandan Genocide of 1994 claimed the lives of up to a million Tutsi]. There was a possibility of escape though. In contrast, no one wanted the Jews from Europe. Only one place in Middle America would accept them. The Canadians and Americans refused to accept the refugees. No one is building gas chambers with mass eradication as a goal. Mass killings are usually for political reasons. Vertes strongly opposes that. The Jews had been mostly loyal and yet they were murdered. Things that happened in Cambodia should not be allowed to occur again [Annotator's Note: mass killings of up to three million Cambodians occurred under the Pol Pot regime during the 1970s]. How can a human take a life without cause? Vertes tells students that they are the future. It is imperative that they listen to their conscience and stand up and speak if they see a wrong. If her father's friend did not help Vertes' family, they would not have survived [Annotator's Note: the friend was a non-Jewish Hungarian military officer who aided the family repeatedly]. It is always worth it to save another life.