When the Danube Ran Red

Title Page, Copyright Page

When the Danube R an Red Religion, Theology, and the Holocaust Other titles in Religion, Theology, and the Holocaust Absence/Presence: Critical Essays on the Artistic Memory of the Holocaust Stephen C. Feinstein, ed. Emil L. Fackenheim: A Jewish Philosopher’s Response to the Holocaust David Patterson Fiorello’s Sister: Gemma La Guardia Gluck’s Story Gemma La Guardia Gluck; Rochelle G. Saidel, ed. Four Letters to the Witnesses of My Childhood Helena Ganor Harry Haft: Survivor of Auschwitz, Challenger of Rocky Marciano Alan Scott Haft Life in the Ghettos During the Holocaust Eric J. Sterling, ed. Murder Without Hatred: Estonians and the Holocaust Anton Weiss-Wendt Nitzotz: The Spark of Resistance in Kovno Ghetto and Dachau-Kaufering Concentration Camp Laura Weinrib, ed.; Estee Shafir Weinrib, trans. The Warriors: My Life as a Jewish Soviet Partisan Harold Zissman Who Will Say Kaddish? A Search for Jewish Identity in Contemporary Poland Larry N. Mayer; Gary Gelb, photographer When the Danube Ran Red • Zsuzsanna Ozsváth With a foreword by David Patterson Syracuse University Press Publication of this book is made possible through the generous support of both the Leah and Paul Lewis Chair in Holocaust Studies and the School of Arts and Humanities at the University of Texas at Dallas. Copyright © 2010 Syracuse University Press Syracuse, New York 13244-5290 All Rights Reserved First Edition 2010 10 11 12 13 14 15 6 5 4 3 2 1 All photographs are courtesy of the author. ∞ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992. For a listing of books published and distributed by Syracuse University Press, visit our Web site at SyracuseUniversityPress.syr.edu. ISBN: 978-0-8156-0980-3 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ozsváth, Zsuzsanna, 1934– When the Danube ran red / Zsuzsanna Ozsváth ; with a foreword by David Patterson. — 1st ed. p. cm. — (Religion, theology, and the Holocaust) ISBN 978-0-8156-0980-3 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Ozsváth, Zsuzsanna, 1934– —Childhood and youth. 2. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945)—Hungary—Personal narratives. 3. Jewish children in the Holocaust— Hungary—Budapest—Biography. 4. Jews—Hungary—Budapest—Biography. 5. Jewish ghettos—Hungary—Budapest—History—20th century. 6. Holocaust survivors—Biography. 7. Fajó, Erzsébet, d. 1995. 8. Righteous Gentiles in the Holocaust—Hungary—Budapest— Biography. 9. Budapest (Hungary)—Biography. I. Title. DS135.H93O97 2010 940.53’18092—dc22 [B] 2010017944 Manufactured in the United States of America In memory of Erzsébet Fajó, who saved our lives Zsuzsanna Ozsváth holds the Leah and Paul Lewis Chair in Holocaust Studies and is Professor of Literature and the History of Ideas in the School of Arts and Humanities at the University of Texas at Dallas. Ozsváth’s research comprises two areas: the literature of the Holocaust and poetry translation. She has cotranslated (with Fred Turner) Foamy Sky: The Poetry of Miklós Radnóti and The Iron-Blue Vault: The Poetry of Attila József, and she is the author of In the Footsteps of Orpheus: The Life and Times of Miklós Radnóti, in addition to a large number of articles, translations , and cotranslations in a wide variety of journals. Her newest essays are “Foreseeing Destruction in the Work of Miklós Radnóti”; “From Country to Country: My Search for Home” in The Writer Uprooted: Contemporary Jewish Exile Literature; and “Trauma and Distortion: Holocaust Fiction and the Ban on Jewish Memory” in The Holocaust in Hungary: Sixty Years After. ...