Dedication

The CD contains the documents of the Jewish Elementary School of Óbuda between 1920 and 1944. The memories of the contemporaries, class photos and family photos as well as the official documents of the Jewish elementary school show how this strong, intact world had been destroyed in a very short period of time by the Nazi terror.

The documents speak for themselves in this unrepeatable process of remembering and working through memories, which was initiated by Eszter Gombocz in 2002. This process reached its climax in 2008, when 21 students of the Jewish elementary school reunited in Budapest. They met again after 64 years, they had to part 64 years ago as a consequence of the German invasion of Budapest in 1944. In the past 64 years the participants of the reunion had scattered around the world and did not know anything about each other.

Some of the contemporaries’ selected stories are also available in English.

We hope that the readers and users of this CD will find courage to remember. If only this work could contribute to the goal that one of the darkest chapters in the history of humankind will never be forgotten.

January, 2010                           

Gabriele Gauler
Director of the Geothe Institute of Budapest