Stuffed rabbit made for a young Hungarian Jewish camp inmate

Éva Erszébet Kiss was born on January 12, 1941, in Pecs, Hungary, to Istvan and Lilian Brichta Kiss. Istvan was born in 1914 in Szeged to Leopold and Jeanetta Mauthner Kiss. Lilian was born on July 2, 1920, in Pecs to Alois, born in 1889, and Elisabeth Benko Brichta. Elisabeth was born in 1896 in Pecs to Josef and Maria Foldmar Benko and had three siblings: Ilona, born 1892, Margaret, born 1900, and Imre, born 1902. Elisabeth died in 1928 in Budapest. Alois traveled frequently for business so Lilian was raised by her maternal grandparents, Josef and Maria Benko in Pecs, their native town, where Josef was born in 1867 and Maria in 1871. Josef was a vintner and a prominent member of the Jewish community. In 1938, Lilian married Istvan Kiss. They moved to his hometown of Szeged shortly after their marriage where Istvan owned a factory that produced wooden window blinds. In 1938, Istvan’s father died in Szeged. Hungary was controlled by a fascist regime, allied to Nazi Germany. From 1939, Jewish men were forced into the Hungarian labor service. In 1940, it was put under army command, and that year, Istvan was conscripted into a forced labor battalion. Lilian’s uncle Imre was also conscripted into the labor service. Her father Alois passed away that year. After Istvan was taken, Lilian returned to Pecs where she had Éva in January 1941. Mother and baby then moved back to Szeged, where Lilian ran Istvan’s business. In March 1944, Germany invaded Hungary, partly to end Hungary’s attempts to surrender to the Allies. In April, Éva and Lilian were forced into the Szeged ghetto. Lilian’s grandparents, Josef and Maria, and her aunt, Margaret, were deported from Szeged. On July 2, Éva and Lilian were deported to Strasshof labor/concentration camp near Vienna, Austria. In March or April 1945, they were transferred to Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp in German occupied Czechoslovakia, where Lilian worked in a factory. There was had very little food and water in the ghetto and disease was widespread. Lilian and Éva slept in a room with earth floors, thin gray blankets, and many other women. One day, Éva was examined by a doctor and behaved so hysterically, kicking and screaming, that they left her alone. Lilian usually punished Éva for bad behavior, but this time, was pleased with her. In April 1945, there was a typhus epidemic in the camp. Many guards left and they were able to walk out with a group of women. Lilian and Éva were accompanied by a man who passed as Lilian's husband. They walked for many days in the cold. At one point, they encountered a convoy of Soviet soldiers. One of them showed Éva an armful of watches and told her she could have one. Lilian then told Éva not to move until she returned, and went off with the soldiers. Lilian and Éva stayed the night under a Soviet truck, which left while they slept. They walked and hitched rides until Lilian found a train station, which was overcrowded with displaced persons. Éva was separated from her mother and almost trampled, but a stranger put her in an overhead luggage rack until Lilian found her. They returned to Budapest, then Pecs, looking for missing relatives. Most of their extended family members had not survived the war. In approximately 1944, Istvan was killed by a Hungarian Nazi for his coat on the Soviet front. On July 7, 1944, Lilian’s maternal grandparents, Josef and Maria, were killed in Auschwitz. Lilian’s aunt, Margaret, and Istvan’s mother, Jeanetta, were also killed in Auschwitz. Lilian’s uncle Imre returned, having survived his service in the Hungarian labor battalion. The Hungarian Nazi leading his unit was his former barber from Pecs and looked out for him. Lilian’s aunt, Ilona, also survived. Lilian and Éva returned to Szeged. In November 1947, Lilian married George Herman, who was originally from Budapest, but employed in Szeged. George (October 1909-December 1985) had been held in a Soviet prison camp in Siberia during the war. George’s brother was an American citizen, and helped George and Lilian get US visas in November 1948. They were not allowed to bring Éva because she was not related to George by blood. On January 24, 1949, Lilian and George sailed to the US on the Queen Mary. Éva was placed at a boarding school in Switzerland until they could arrange for her emigration. On April 8, 1949, eight year old Éva flew from Zurich to New York. George picked her up at the airport and took her to the Statue of Liberty, to make her first day in the US memorable. The family quickly assimilated to life in the US. George and Lilian did not talk about their wartime experiences. Éva was not allowed to speak Hungarian and her name was changed to Eva Elisabeth Herman. George and Lilian had a son in the US. Eva later married and became Eva VonAncken and had children. Lilian, age 84, died on August 6, 2004.

The stuffed rabbit was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2013 by Eva VonAncken.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Eva VonAncken

Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.