April 4

In the Soviet ruled years in Hungary, April 4 was a national holiday. According to history, April 4, 1945, was when the last German troops were kicked out of Hungary by the Soviets and the war was over in that area. Always huge celebrations, military parades marked this day. No school, no work. And people liked it, I guess.

When the regime changed in 1989 and it included kicking out the Russians, April 4 was no longer observed. The fact that their kicking out the Germans was not looked at gratefully any longer because with that move they stayed on for many years and also there was always that not so quiet antisemitic feeling prevailing in Hungary.

Anyway, the regime changed, and April 4 became a regular day just like the other six. Except!

I mentioned it earlier that my family and I were in the Budapest ghetto. This place was enclosed with wooden walls all around the area. The few entry/exit placers were guarded by armed Hungarian nazis. One day in middle January we woke to an eerie quiet. Some brave souls went out to look around and came back saying that the guards are gone, the gates were left open.

So, we slowly and very carefully went out to look around to see what was happening. Suddenly out of nowhere a Russian military track showed up fully loaded with bread and the soldiers began to hand those out to us, poor souls. At this time we haven't eaten for a few days so you can imagine how well the breads were received.

Shortly after that episode we decided to leave the ghetto and go home to our own apartment. As we were leaving, we met with a line of soldiers (Russian) standing across the road with knives in their hands. Naturally we got scared not knowing what to expect. What they did was surprising and well received. They cut off the yellow star of David we all had on our clothings. 

These are the two things that stayed in my memory of those days. It is my opinion that if the Red Army didn't come when it did, we would have been all killed. As far as I am concerned April 4 is my liberation day.