Budapest Building Managers and the Holocaust in Hungary by Istvan Pal Adam

Author:Istvan Pal Adam
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

In this sense the case of György Papp, who was mentioned earlier as the concierge of Szent István park 10, is particularly interesting. The abusive and terroristic language he used with his tenants had been approved by the post-war People’s Court. But this was also the building that received its Yellow Star designation—partly at least—thanks to the personal familiarity of the building manager’s wife and the city mayor, who both came from the same town in eastern Hungary. 104 Nevertheless, what makes Mr Papp important here is that besides being the concierge of Szent István park 10, which became a “Swiss house”, he held a part-time job at the Budapest Food Inspection Agency. The head of this agency even sent a declaration to the People’s Court, which stated that Papp worked there as an aide from October 1935 until May 1945, and he had never observed from him any kind of activity related to the extreme right Nyilas movement. 105 However, Papp, as the building manager, was accused by the tenants of not letting in Christian friends bringing food for those imprisoned to the ghetto house during 1944. 106 At the same time, he was accused of profiting from the starving tenants by selling them food, but the People’s Court in its sentence rejected this accusation, stating that Papp sold the food at a standard price even in the days of Budapest’s siege. 107 What the sentence does not mention, however, is that the building manager could pick this food up for free at the Food Inspection Agency, therefore he was able to earn a fortune without asking for higher prices, and become even respected by some because of his friendly sales policy.

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