Janos and Marta Beer papers

János Beér was born in Budapest, Hungary, on February 27, 1923. His parents were Budapest natives as well. János Beér joined the Hungarian Army at an early age. After learning about the availability of a position with Raoul Wallenberg in the Swedish legation from his friend Tom Verés, János deserted from the army. In October 1941, János marred Maci. The two lived in a rented room during part of World War II, but János eventually moved to the Swedish embassy while working for Raoul Wallenberg. János worked most extensively with Raoul Wallenberg in November and December of 1944. Raoul Wallenberg was a very wealthy Swedish diplomat who had studied architecture in the United States. He was assigned as a first secretary of the Swedish legation in Budapest in July 1944. He made it his mission to protect Hungarian Jews from being deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. His work with the U.S. War Refugee Board and the World Jewish Congress protected tens of thousands of Jews. In July 1944, Wallenberg began distributing Swedish protective papers to Jews in Budapest which sheltered them from deportation. He built up an “international ghetto” consisting of hospitals, soup kitchens, and safe houses for the Jews and their families that held these passports. Building this organization was a monumental task. Wallenberg also pulled Jews out of death marches, and he and his aide, including János Beér, searched far and wide for passport holding Jews that were being led to their deaths. In February 1945, when the Soviet Army liberated Budapest, over 100,000 Jews remained in the city. This was due, for the most part, because Wallenberg and his staff’s tireless efforts. Wallenberg disappeared mysteriously in January 1945 on his way to meet Soviet officials. It is presumed that he either died or was murdered in a Soviet prison. János Beér survived the war and immigrated with his wife to the United States. He currently resides in Winchester, MA, and is Professor Emeritus of Chemical and Fuel Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum collection, gift of János and Marta Beér

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

János and Marta Beér donated the János and Marta Beér papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2005.