April 4, 2010

There are two anniversaries today. Not because today is Easter Sunday but because today is April 4.

One of the anniversaries is that 42 years ago today in 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis. I remember when the news came on. At that time nobody was really aware of the magnitude of this.

One wonders what would have happened if he were alive today. The changes would have happened anyway because that is what called progress. But he gave his life for what he believed in.

And, interestingly this year it falls on Easter Sunday at which time a similar anniversary is being celebrated worldwide.

Another but lesser known anniversary today is the end of Nazi occupation of Hungary in 1945. With that the war there was over even though it took longer for the rest of Europe.

In April 1945 the Soviet army took Berlin, and a few months later, in June 1945, British and American (and shortly afterwards also French) troops took possession of their countries' sectors of Berlin.

And with that World War II was over.

But back to Hungary. Buda and Pest are two halves of the capital divided by the Danube and connected with several bridges. Buda is on the hilly west side while Pest is on the flat east side.

The Germans in their withdrawals blew up all the Danube bridges. My family and I lived on the Pest side where the ghetto was located.

On January 18, 1945 Pest was liberated by the advancing Soviet army. I remember when morning came and we realized that we did not hear shooting, no artillery, no bombardment.

Some brave souls ventured out from the air raid shelter we were in and went out to the street.

Our building was just inside of the ghetto walls and at one of the few gates to the outside world that was always guarded by armed Hungarian Nazis.

These brave people came back and told us that the guards were gone, the gate was open and there was no shooting anywhere.

That was when we all realized that we were survivors!

Anyway, it took another month and a half to get the Germans out of Hungary thus April 4 became the official Liberation Day.

From 1950 until 1989 it was a national holiday celebrated with parades and political speeches that glorified the Red Army and the Soviet Union.

As a kid I liked these holidays. No school, holiday atmosphere in the city and if the weather was nice a lots of interesting things to do.

After 1989 this celebration was stopped because by that time the Soviet Union ceased to exist and the political system also changed in Hungary. They realized that they did not have to be grateful to the Soviets any longer for everything.

I agree with this. But I do think they should be grateful for ending the war since Hungary as always, was on the wrong side fighting. Maybe the Hungarians are sorry the war was lost. Maybe they wish the Germans had won.

One never knows the real truth about these things. They are buried deep in rhetoric and double talk.

I do know that I am happy that I survived and I really don't care who liberated me from the ghetto as long as I was liberated.

Just a short remembrance.

On our way home from the ghetto on January 18 we saw a line of Russian soldiers standing across the road with knives in their hands. Naturally we all got very frightened.

When we approached them they smiled and with their knives they cut the yellow Star of David we all had to wear off our coats saying we didn't need these any longer.

This was the last nice thing they ever done but still this is what I remember.