Not a Real Enemy: The True Story of a Hungarian Jewish Man’s Fight for Freedom – Now Available!
One of the most unknown chapters of the Holocaust was the story of how nearly half a million Jewish residents of Győr, Hungary, were deported and killed at Auschwitz. My grandparents, Joseph and Kamilla Wolf, were among those half million who perished. In Not a Real Enemy: The True Story of a Hungarian Jewish Man’s Fight for Freedom I tell the true story of my grandparents and my father, Ervin Wolf.
During Kristallnacht in 1938, thousands of German and Austrian Jewish men were arrested. A sign of things to come in Ukraine?Hungarians celebrate atop an captured Soviet tank, probably a T-54Ervin Wolf, MDA disabled Soviet T34-85 Tanks during the Hungarian RevolutionHungarian revolutionaries tear down statue of Josef StalinIn memorandum: Happy 89th bday mom (Judit Wolf), pictured here with Ervin and mom’s best friend from Hungary Maya (left, Marianna Sarolta (Charlotte) Monath)-early days in the USA! To freedom and RIPHappy heavenly 100th birthday to the main character Ervin! Born May 27, 1922. My present is the book about your life, due in October, right after my 60th birthday, to share with the world-This picture, mid 1960’s, is dad, though Jewish, helping decorate the neighbor’s Christmas tree-he loved people of all races! He had many friends who were Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, and ChintuTwo Hungarian soldiers in the WWII era-judging by their demeanor, one would venture to guess that it was before the German invasion. A snowy cabin at a forced labor camp, or Munkaszolgalat, drafted in 1939-1940 for Jewish men of military age considered unworthy of bearing arms to save the Hungarian nation. Ervin’s quarters were likely worse, as they slept on the dirt floor of a peasant’s barn. These rail cars, many dilapidated, rusty, and poorly fitting, were used by the workers at forced labor camps. Manually pushed to move items from point A to point B, sometimes the work was assigned mindlessly, with no real purpose. At the break of dawn, the faster men would race to the “better” trolleys for an “easier” day! There were 147 trains of Jews from Hungary, most sent to Auschwitz, and 80% were killed on arrival. Of the 825,000 Jews living in Hungary, nearly 440,000 were put on the trains. About 255,000 Hungarian Jews are believed to have survived, most liberated from the concentration camps, others from the labor camps and Jewish “ghettoes”. Others starved or were killed in Hungary (over half a million died between 1941 and 1945).
