Lila Denes - May 19, 1989
Leaving Budapest
Do you remember their names? In, in Buda? The other side of the river?
Buda. The other side, yes. We went over...
Do you remember their names?
Yes, his name was Geza Nagy. Nagy. Hungarian you say, "Nadj" but here they say, "Nagy." So, his wife was Maria. So, we went over and we stayed 'til night. And at night we wanted to go home, see what's going to be. So, as we get to our house, the um, superintendent--she was a very, very nice woman, she helped us a lot and everybody--she was at the entrance and when she saw us, she said, "Oh, please, go back wherever you went because the Nazis took the whole house. I mean, the Jews, they took everybody this afternoon."
The day you left?
Pardon.
The same day that you had left?
The same day after we left. They took all the Jews from the house. She said, "I don't know where. Some places there, they um, uh, they had some places where they took the Jews," and she said, "I think you should go back." So, we went back and we stayed there almost a week. Then we had to leave because somebody recognized us in the house. Somebody told that Maria that, "You know, these people you hiding and um, you will have problem and, you know, you shouldn't do that," and--so, of course, she could have problem if they find out, so we had to leave.
Were you paying these people?
Yes, they didn't ask, but I, what I had money, I took it with me and I, I paid her.
How did you know them from before?
He worked for my husband in our facto...in our clerk shop. He worked for us and um, he liked, he liked us.
And you were staying right in their apartment?
Right in their apartment and then, we had to leave. So, we left but we didn't know where to go.
© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn