When the Danube Ran Red

14 Ghettoization

89 14 Ghet toiz ation When the requirements for the registration of apartments and buildings where Jews lived had been issued back in the beginning of April, I overheard my father whispering to one of our neighbors that this process might be followed by our concentration and evacuation. Some time passed, however, before anything happened in Budapest . One day, I remember, it was morning, shortly after my father left; I started to practice the Bach d-minor fugue from the first volume of the Wohltemperiertes Klavier, with Erzsi sitting next to me, listening. Suddenly I heard the familiar ringing of the doorbell and my father’s voice, talking to my mother. He had obviously interrupted his routine of daily excursions, returning to discuss with us what had suddenly shocked him. He held a newspaper in his hand. Entering into what was still our library, an island as yet untouched by the destruction threatening us, he started to read aloud the section in question, in a strangely husky voice. My mother stood in the doorway. Later, she leaned against the wall. He read to us a decree that provided for the relocation and concentration of the Jews in Budapest into yellow-star houses, a decree that was issued that morning and had to be carried out right away. I stopped practicing. I understood that what I had always been frightened of had arrived; the world had taken a violent turn. It was heartbreaking to see both of my parents: my mother’s face was pale, my father’s desperate; he had great difficulty in formulating his words. “This ordinance,” he said slowly, “is evidence of the impending mass eviction, which,” he added, repeating what he had already mentioned When the Danube R an Red 90 some time ago, “might mean nothing less than the first step toward our deportation. We need to find a place to hide!” He fought against tears. I saw his lips forming words but his eyes reflected naked fear. Behind him, I saw Hanna’s marketplace, with row upon row of the dead. It took me years before I could put together the words he whispered, citing a well-known Vörösmarty poem: “Humans are dragon-teeth, the strain / Of Man’s the dragon-toothed, the race of Cain: / All hope is vain! All hope is vain!” Erzsi sat next to me. Hugging my parents, she said over and over that no matter what happened, she would follow us wherever we were taken. Only later did I understand that the article my father brought home gave an account of what had been an ancient, long-forgotten practice that was revitalized in Hungary in the summer of 1944: ghettoization. Indeed, the concept and practice of this measure went back to the Middle Ages. Resurrected in the spring of 1944, it was enacted all over Hungary, as it had been practiced earlier all over occupied Europe. Ghettoization helped the authorities gather and concentrate the Jews, preparing them for expulsion and mass murder. Indeed, it was from the ghetto of Tornalja that Lulu had written her last letter, and it was from the ghetto of Békéscsaba that the Tevans had fled to Budapest. Now the nightmare would take form in the capital. I was told that buildings would be designatedinBudapestforthispurpose ,witheachbeingindividuallydeclared a “yellow-star house,” and with each displaying a huge, canary-yellow Star of David. This star was to be juxtaposed against a black background and fastened to the façade of the entrance of every single “ghetto house.” Iván noted that the description of the process of turning buildings into “ghetto houses” gave a detailed explanation of the law, which declared that the selection of the “Jewish buildings” depended on the percentage of Jews living there. My father, who had already read the article, told me that most apartment houses with more than 50 percent Jews would be defined as yellow-star houses, and that these houses would then be inhabited only by Jews. Buildings that had less than 50 percent Jews as Ghettoization 91 tenants were declared “Christian houses.” If the Jews living in “Christian houses” had a place to move to, they were allowed to do so; if they did not, the Jewish Council assigned them a room in an apartment of one of the designated houses, one room to each family. ...