Horváth László szerk.: Mátrai Tanulmányok (Gyöngyös, 1999)

From the point of view of the deportations, Gyöngyös was situated in the Northern Hungary (so-called 3rd) Zone. While the inhabitants of the Eger and Bagólyuk ghettos were transported to Kerecsend and there handed over to the German High Command, the Hatvan and Gyöngyös ghettos were handed over at their own place. During a discussion, held in the Hungarian Royal Ministry for Domestic Affairs on 25 May in the presence of Adolf Eichmann, it was decided that the confined inhabitants of the 3rd Anti-Jewish Zone should be deported to Auschwitz via Kassa until 16 June. First, all men fit to work were selected and transported for labour service from Gyöngyös on 1 June (later this group had the highest survival rate), most of whom were taken to Kiskunlacháza via Hatvan, with the task of building an airport there. The remaining inhabitants of the ghetto were driven to the railway station around noon on 8 June - Corpus Christi -, followed by the great compassion of the Gyöngyös citizens. The executive commander feared than an outbreak could result so Vasút street and the neighbouring areas were closed during the entrainment. Even the selection of this specific day for the deportation reflected possible fears of the Christian population's resistance; the emptying of the ghetto was timed when most of the town's population would be taking part in a religious procession. The wagons only went to Hatvan this time. The Jews there waited for their final transportation for 2-3 days, lying on the ground, mostly in the area of the brick factory. The greatest part of the Gyöngyös Jews arrived at the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps at the evening of 12 June, after a three-day journey through Kassa. By this time the Nazis ordered everybody unselected to the gas chambers. This book takes up the responsibility of compiling the (comparatively accurate) üst of the Gyöngyös Holocaust victims for the first time in the town's history. Based on the author's research work, it can be hypothetised that approximately 500-550 Gyöngyös Israelites survived the Years of Disaster, nearly one quarter of their original number. Their story, however, does not end with the end of World War II; a new period of the Gyöngyös Jewish community has started. The turning point was not only marked by the ending of open terror and direct danger to life, but also by a radical drop of population. These Israelites had to start from scratch, and until 1948 they had more than one ways to go. On the basis of the Gyöngyös research we could detect 4 survival strategies employed by the remainder of the Jewish community. Three out of the four meant leaving the town. This was in accordance wifJi the impossible economic and moral hardships of local regeneration, to be seen in many instances. Beside tragic memories, post-war economic and demographic hopelessness also contributed to the significant exodus. Most of the departing groups chose to move to the capital. Approximately 150 Gyöngyös Jews went to Budapest, a city giving more hopeful prospects in the fields of economic, social and banking life. The second group is made up of those who returned to Israel. This way was mostly taken by the younger generation, since they were the main target of the Hungarian Zionist Union. In Gyöngyös, orphans and those without families were