From Poland to Hungary in Yad Vashem Studies, Volume XXIV

From Poland to Hungary: Rescue Attempts 1943-1944

This study relates the activities of two Jewish organizations — the Orthodox-led Slovakian Working Group and the Zionist-led Hungarian Va’adat ha-Ezra ve-ha-Hatzalah — which, in cooperation with one another, managed to arrange the escape of Jews from Poland through Slovakia into Hungary from 1942 until March 1944. The rescuers were driven by the awareness that the situation of the Jews in Poland was worse than their own, and by the hope that from Hungary it would be easier for the refugees to reach Palestine. The mechanisms of the rescue activities are described as well as the measures to safeguard the refugees in Hungary from the authorities. Many refugees shared the fate of Hungarian Jewry when the Nazis occupied the country in March 1944.