BREUER Laszlo
 |
Occupation |
Communist, Free Legal
Aid |
| Father |
Ferenc
BREUER |
| Mother |
Amalia GRUNBAUM |
| Born |
Újfehértó,
January 7, 1906[4] |
| Missing |
Reported missing from forced labor unit
108/31
(army work detail) on 17 January 1943 in Ilinka*, Krasno, Ukraine (Russian Front)[1] |
Agi on Uncle Laszlo
|
|
Agi's Story
|
Around the same time we went to Subotica (Yugoslavia) to stay at a
spa. I was bitten on the upper thigh by
a dog and my Uncle Laszlo rushed me to the doctor sitting me upon his bicycle
handles. Even after I was properly
administered to I was still inconsolable. In an attempt to bribe me Uncle
Laszlo
bought me a sweet drink. Ha! Then he tried another avenue
of opportunity; entertainment. He said,
“Hoppa!”
and let go of his glass, recapturing it in the same moment. To show Uncle that I was a good sport, I
said,
“Hoppa!”
and let go of my glass. It
crashed to the floor spilling pink liquid all over the place. The usual big fuss followed--it was not my
fault that Uncle Laszlo was not too tightly wrapped. Imagine teaching a child to behave foolishly! |
| I
had one more Uncle, Laszlo, who suffered from asthma and living in a dusty
little village like Újfehértó rendered him an invalid. He lived at home with my Grandparents and I have never known him to work.
His opportunities were limited but his six siblings managed to eke out a
livelihood. Poor Laszlo evoked his
father’s wrath by the simple fact of his aimless existence yet at the same
time, my Grandmother tried to protect her weak son. Laszlo was a loving and gentle man, always ready to spend time with his
nieces but he also enjoyed hanging out with his pinko friends shooting the
breeze about politics and handing out free legal advice to the peasants. Never mind that he was not a lawyer.
|
| My brother, George, made some inquiries and was
informed that our father, Miklos, and his brother, Laszlo, died on the same day
in the same vicinity of the Ukraine. It
was comforting to believe that by some miracle the brothers had found each other
on the final day of their lives. Laszlo
was thirty-seven and Miklos almost forty years old.
|
Kato-neni on her brother
Laci
|
|
Kato BREUER
|
Laci
was a very good boy. He was a communist. He was a friend
of the gentleman who was your great-grand father Ferenc's friend
who got Miklos
a job. He wasn't a communist, but he was on the left. Laci didn't
have a diploma, but he was like a lawyer. He helped people. He took
care of poor people. If they had to go to court, he'd go with them.
He was in love with a cousin, a girl who married someone else. I'm not sure
why he never got married. I never lived with him. I lived in Budapest for the last 20
years and he lived in Újfehértó with my parents. I heard a story, [that
since] he
was a communist, the people said he went to Russia. They killed him
there. He was a kind man who wanted to help everybody. A sick
man. He had asthma. He was very sick when I was home. He
coughed at night.. He didn't want to wake up people so he walked outside,
he didn't want to bother anyone. He just wanted to help people.[2] |
| He was a big communist. Working with the
chief of the communist party. He was in the underground. He didn't
have a big education, but he was like a lawyer. But he had a brain.
He represented poor people who didn't have a lawyer. He was not a simple
man. He helped the poor people. I don't think he was a happy
man. He never went out with girls.
He was always reading. He was sick. He had asthma.
When they took him away. He wrote letters,
that the air was clear. She [mother] was so sorry he was so sick. He was a very nice man. He was good to the
poor. He went to another city and helped them.[3] |
* "Most of the Jewish "munkaszolgalat" (forced
labor battalions) were with the Hungarian [2nd] Army at the near the Russian
front which in January 1943 was at the turn of the river Don, south of the city
of Voronyezs. That is where the major counterattack and breakthrough by
the Russians annihilated the Hungarians. My guess would be that Loello
[where Miklos disappeared] was [also] near that battlefield. Documents at
Yad Vashem mentioned that both Laci and Miklos disappeared in January
1943." G. Sarlo
* "I have located the most probable village of I'linka.
It is situated southwest of Ostrogozhsk and east of Novyi Oskol, several
kilometers northwest of the town of Alekseevka. Hungarian and German
forces were encircled in this region on 17-18 January by the 40th Army's 305th
and 340th Rifle Divisions advancing from the north and northeast and the 3rd
Tank Army's 15th Rifle Corps (Voronezh Front) advancing from the southeast.
The coordinates of I'linka are 50 degrees, 31 minutes east and 38 degrees,
36 minutes north. See the "Shtetl
Seeker" listing for a map." D. Glantz (1/19/06)
Sources:
[1] Yadvashem, Forced Labor Document on Miklos & Laszlo Breuer. The
location is hard to read but is probably Ilinka, Krasna, Ukraine at the Russian
Front. (It was mistranscribed as Bilinka, near
Lwow, Poland in the YadVashem.org database).
[2] Taped telephone interview of Kato done by Paul on April 12, 1998
[3] October 10, 1992, Kato BREUER Interview by Agi & Peter Linhardt,
Videotape
[4] Niregyhaza Archives, Post-1895 Civil Registration.
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