Adler family papers

Rezsö Adler (1874-1939) and Borsca Cziklai (sometimes referred to as Borbala or Boriska; later Barbara; 1885-1975), both of Szeged, Hungary, married in 1904. Borsca was the daughter János and Rosa Cziklai. She had four siblings, Ilona (1876-1980), Margit (1878-1945) Màtyàs (1889-1946), and Rozsa (1891-1977). Borsca and Rezsö had two sons, Denis (born Dénes, nicknamed Dini; 1914-2011) and János (nicknamed Jancsi, briefly changed his last name to Arato, later John; 1905-1994), as well as two other children who died young, Béla and Magda. Rezsö worked in the grain industry. He also served in the Hungarian army during World War I, and was wounded in 1916. He died in 1939 from angina. Denis studied medicine, graduating with a Ph.D. in 1938. He worked in Makó, and Budapest, Hungary after graduation. After his father’s death in April 1939, and with the increasing difficulty of Jews to practice medicine in Hungary, he began to look for ways to emigrate. He found a position in Paris, France with Dr. Francois Moutier, and moved there in May 1939. Through assistance with his family, he was able to secure an American visa despite the difficulties of living in German-occupied Paris after 1940. He left Paris in April 1941 with the assistance of a guide who led him out of the city, and took a train to Marseille. From there, he boarded the S.S. Winnipeg to sail to New York via Martinique. The ship was diverted to Port of Spain, Trinidad, where the passengers were taken off the boat. Denis was detained by the British Navy and accused of being a spy due to his fluency with German. He was released after two weeks and sailed to the United States on the S.S. Arcadia. He continued to practice medicine as a radiologist, first in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1943, and then in New York, 1944-1945. He married Patricia Valentine (1921-) in 1943, and they moved to Los Angeles, California in 1945. He continued to practice as a radiologist, and also taught radiology and the University of Southern California. They had three children, Steven (1947-), Thomas (1949-), and Barbara (1951-). Denis and Patricia divorced in 1965, and he married Sylvia Betron (1918-2000) in 1969. János attended the Vienna University of Economics and Business in Austria (then known as Hochschule für Welthandel), graduating in 1927. He then moved back to Szeged and began working for the Agraria Merchandising Corporation, a grain business founded by his father. He married Eva Timár in 1937. In 1942, János was conscripted into the Hungarian Labor Service, and sent to a military camp in Kunszentmiklos, and was assigned to Battalion 254. In October 1942, he stepped on a Russian landmine and sustained serious injuries to his leg. He was sent to the field hospital in Alexajewka-Nikolajewka. In January 1943, the Germans and Hungarians fled the hospital due to the advancing Red Army. The Russians took control of the hospital, and János was sent to a prison camp (sometimes referred to as Prison Camp 188) in Tambov, Russia. The Russians assigned him to deliver political lectures to German prisoners-of-war on topics related to the Soviet Union. He remained at the camp until the end of the war. Upon returning to Szeged, he learned that Eva, her mother Berta Neumann, and his mother Borsca all survived the war and had returned to the city. János and Eva immigrated to the United States in 1948, first travelling out of Hungary to London, and then taking the S.S. Queen Elizabeth to New York. They settled in Los Angeles where János worked for the Capital Brush Company, eventually becoming vice-president. Berta Neumann (née Hoffer; 1886-1980) was born in Szeged to Marcus Hoffer (1859-1934) and Maria Gelberger (1870-1942). She had four siblings, Rhoda (later Rhoda Lakond; 1899-1983), Adrianne (1913-), Stephanis, and Léopold (d. 1976). She was married to Dezsö Timár (1882-) and they had two daughters, Lisa (later Lisa Foldes; 1912-1986) and Eva (later Eva Adler; 1913-2007). She and Dezsö divorced, and she later married Gyula Neumann (later Julius; 1879-1945), a wealthy wine and liquor merchant. They had one daughter, Zsuzsa (later Susan Foldes). Gyula traveled to New York in 1939 for the World’s Fair, during which World War II began. He remained in New York and Cincinnati for the duration of the war, dying of a heart attack in 1945. Zsuzsa survived the war in Budapest by hiding. She was married to Paul Foldes (1914-2001), who was sent to a camp but also survived. They planned to immigrate to the United States after the war, but only Zsuzsa was able to get a visa. She moved to Cincinnati where her sister Lisa lived, but died after getting hit by a truck. Paul, who was in Cuba at the time of her death trying to secure a visa, was granted permission to come to her funeral. While in the United States, he married her sister Lisa in order to remain in the country. Lisa Timár was a trained pianist who studied at the Royal Hungarian Franz Liszt Conservatory of Music. She also studied dietetics at the University of Szeged. In 1937 she immigrated to New York, and later settled in Cincinnati. She worked as a food service manager for the Shillito’s department store. Eva attended St. Ursula Convent School in Glasenbach, Austria. After graduation from the finishing school, and a brief time working at the opera house in Budapest, Eva apprenticed with a furrier workshop in Szeged. She then worked at a knitting factory from 1936-1940. She married János Adler in 1937. In March 1944, the Germans occupied Hungary, and the Jews in Szeged were sent to the ghetto. In June 1944, Borsca, her sister Margit, Eva, and her mother Berta were sent to the Strasshof labor camp in Vienna, Austria where they performed forced-labor in a brick factory. In October 1944, they were sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, and in May 1945 they were transported to Theresienstadt, which was soon liberated by the Russians. Borsca and her sister Margit both contracted typhus. Margit perished but Borsca survived. After the war, Borsca, Eva, and Berta all went back Szeged. Borsca and Berta immigrated to the United States in 1946. Borsca settled in Los Angles, and Berta settled first in Cincinnati, and later in Los Angeles.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Barbara Adler

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Barbara Adler

The Adler family papers were donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by Barbara Adler in 2016.