Dezső Kanizsai (27 January 1886 – 27 November 1981)Dates and places: Biographical entry for Kanizsai Dezső '' (in Hungarian) sourced to the Hungarian Biographical Encyclopedia, 2004. was a Hungarian
audiologist
Audiology (from Latin , "to hear"; and from Greek , ''-logia'') is a branch of science that studies hearing, balance, and related disorders. Audiologists treat those with hearing loss and proactively prevent related damage. By employing vario ...
Cífer
Cífer is a municipality (village) in the Trnava District, Slovakia. It has a population of 3,941.
Archaeological finds from the Neolithic, Bronze Age, Roman Period, and early Slavic period have been made in the village. The first written mentio ...
interwar period
In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...
he developed and publicized his own teaching program. His school on Mexico Square became a social club for the deaf Jews of Budapest.
After the German military occupation of Hungary in March 1944, Kaniszai managed to keep his class together until the end of the war. "Nearly all the survivors mong the deaf Hungarian Jewshad attended the Jewish school for deaf children on Mexico Square."Ryan, p. 194. After the war Kaniszai returned to academic and teaching duties and authored the definitive Hungarian-language textbooks on education for the deaf.
World War II
The Jewish community of Budapest before the
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
was estimated at 200,000. Despite popular
antisemitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
the community was relatively safe and well-integrated politically and with the national economy. The Jewish School for the Deaf on Mexico Square was maintained by the community and managed by Dr. Kanizsai. On the eve of the German occupation it provided shelter and training to forty-five deaf and twelve blind children.Ryan, p. 172. It was a safe haven and a meeting point for the deaf Jews of Budapest, regardless of their age.Ryan, p. 195.
Memoirist Izrael Deutsch (Harry Dunai), who was admitted to the school in 1939 at the age of five, described Kaniszai of that period: "A tall man with a hefty, well-developed body and a few red streaks running through his pure white hair. He lived at school along with the children. He was Jewish as were most counselors and teachers."Dunai, pp. 10-11. "He was easy to spot with his tall large frame, hazel eyes, red-streaked white hair and very fair skin. He always wore the same three-piece suit with a white striped shirt and a necktie... he could speak, read and write English and German and held a doctorate degree." According to Deutsch, Kaniszai was a strict, and at times a ruthless disciplinarian who "regularly nd publiclyspanked children when they defied him". Other teachers followed suit, beating and humiliating the children.Dunai, p. 39. Eventually, at the end of the war, Deutsch was so fed up with "Dr. Kanizsai treating me like his slave" and "using me as his workhorse" that he fled from the school. According to Deutsch, "he anizsaiwas a selfish man, always fulfilling his own needs whenever he could."
On 19 March 1944 the German troops occupied Hungary. With them came
Final Solution
The Final Solution (german: die Endlösung, ) or the Final Solution to the Jewish Question (german: Endlösung der Judenfrage, ) was a Nazi plan for the genocide of individuals they defined as Jews during World War II. The "Final Solution to th ...
, this was only a stopover before shipment to camps in the Hungarian countryside and ultimately to
extermination camp
Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...
s.
Kanizsai objected but could not prevent the closure of his own school. He faced a difficult choice: either keep the children together in Budapest, or let them go to their parents.Dunai, p. xiii. Kanizsai chose to disperse the elder classes, but keep together the junior pupils. The first decision was a mistake, because the Jews dispersed in the countryside were soon collected and sent to the camps. Kanizsai, however, succeeded in keeping together his class of disabled children until the end of the war.Ryan, p. 175. He and his wife followed the class during its first forced relocation, from the School for the Deaf to the Orphanage. Kaniszai worried that the blind, in particular, would not get along with other children,Ryan, p. 178. but this turned out to be the least of his problems. At the end of the spring of 1944, the old Orphanage building on Queen Wilma Street was destroyed by an Allied air raid. One of the deaf survivors of the raid, Leo Wachlenberg, could not hear a guard's order to stop and was then shot.Ryan, p. 182. Some others, like Deutsch, found refuge with surviving relatives, while others kept together until the end of the war. In the ten months between March 1944 and January 1945 the Germans and Hungarian
Arrow Cross
A cross whose arms end in arrowheads is called a "cross barby" or "cross barbée" in the traditional terminology of heraldry. In Christian use, the ends of this cross resemble the barbs of fish hooks, or fish spears. This alludes to the Ichth ...
nationalists murdered more than half a million Jews,Dunai, p. xi. but the close-knit community of deaf teenagers persisted. Shortly before the
Siege of Budapest
The Siege of Budapest or Battle of Budapest was the 50-day-long encirclement by Soviet Union, Soviet and Kingdom of Romania, Romanian forces of the Hungarian capital (political), capital of Budapest, near the end of World War II. Part of the b ...
they were forcibly relocated into the Budapest Ghetto, but were spared from further repressions.
Before the end of the war, the former building of the School for the Deaf was taken over by
Raoul Wallenberg
Raoul Gustaf Wallenberg (4 August 1912 – disappeared 17 January 1945)He is presumed to have died in 1947, although the circumstances of his death are not clear and this date has been disputed. Some reports claim he was alive years later. 31 J ...
's mission of the
International Red Cross
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC; french: Comité international de la Croix-Rouge) is a humanitarian organization which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is also a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signato ...
and once again became the shelter for the Jews of Budapest. After the war Kanizsai returned to his profession and brought the surviving students back to his class with the support of the Red Cross and the
Joint Distribution Committee
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, also known as Joint or JDC, is a Jewish relief organization based in New York City. Since 1914 the organisation has supported Jewish people living in Israel and throughout the world. The organization i ...
.In 1945 the Swedish Red Cross took over the former Jewish School for the Deaf on Mexico Square. - Ryan, p. 178. However, in 1947 he objected against the emigration of his students to Palestine. He initially agreed with the Joint and the local Zionists, but then refused to give his consent to emigration.Ryan, p. 183.
Kanizsai died in Budabest in 1981.