Lila Denes - May 19, 1989
Anti-Semitism
Do you remember the Arrow Cross Party? Anything about the Arrow Cross Party? Or...
You mean the Hungarian Nazi Party?
The Hungary Fascist Party, yeah.
Yes.
You said that sometimes there would be Jewish businesses would be marked with, with what? With swastikas? Or with, uh...
Yes, swastikas and all kinds of nasty remarks, you know.
So, how did your family react when that happened?
Nothing, when you live in a city, 18,000 people, and there is about 150, 200 Jews, what can you do?
Did the police ever do anything?
No, those were the Gendars.
The Gendars. Yeah.
You know, very...
They're anti-Semitic?
Anti-Semitic. They were even bad with the Gentile people. Came to something.
But in your household um, if something happened um, would there be discussions within the family about...
About what?
Well, were you ever, were you ever, did people ever um, did your friends, say at school, did they ever call you names? Uh, did you ever have any anti-Semitic experiences?
No, I really didn't. Um, it was a girls school, you know, so it uh, was a little bit better than...
Maybe your brothers did?
Probably, yes. Sometimes they did, yes. The nuns were okay. Some of them sometimes made some anti-Semitic remarks like, some--I remember that was some movie--I don't know what--and one of the nuns said, "Well, this is a Jewish movie. Jewish people makes it and it's not nice and not good and you shouldn't go."
Was it an American movie?
Yes. I tell you there are some movies right now that people shouldn't see.
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