:''See also

Károly Szabó (Ambassador to the United States) Károly Szabó (5 July 1928 – 25 July 1995) was a Hungarian diplomat, who served as Hungarian Ambassador to the United States between 1971 and 1975. Prior to that, he was also Ambassador to Tanzania from 1967 to 1969, also accredited to Somali ...

'' Károly Szabó (November 17, 1916 – October 28, 1964) was an employee of the Swedish Embassy in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

from 1944 to 1945 when he rescued Hungarian Jews during 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 ...

. He was a supporter of

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 ...

and had a significant role in making contact with the representatives of the Hungarian police and other state officials. He was arrested without legal proceedings in 1953 in Budapest, in a

secret trial A secret trial is a trial that is not open to the public or generally reported in the news, especially any in-trial proceedings. Generally, no official record of the case or the judge's verdict is made available. Often there is no indictment. ...

. He was honored as

Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( he, חֲסִידֵי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם, ; "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to sav ...

on November 12, 2012.

Friendship with Pál Szalai 1929

In the Hungarian

Boy Scout A Scout (in some countries a Boy Scout, Girl Scout, or Pathfinder) is a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement. Because of the large age and development span, many Scouting associations have split ...

s in 1929 he (13 years old) became friends with

Pál Szalai Pál Szalai (September 3, 1915 – January 16, 1994) also spelled Pál Szalay and later anglicized as Paul Sterling was a high-ranking Hungarian police officer and reinstated member of the Arrow Cross Party after 1944. In 1945, together with ...

. This friendship continued in the critical months of 1944–1945 while Pál Szalai, high-ranking member of the police force, supported Raoul Wallenberg.

Budapest 1944–1945

Between 1944 and 1945 Károly Szabó was one of the typewriter mechanics of the Swedish Embassy. Dr.

Otto Fleischmann Otto Fleischmann (January 24, 1896 in Mór, Hungary; January 8, 1963 in New York City) was a Hungarian-born Freudian psychoanalyst. Vienna Otto Fleischmann, although originally a juris doctor, studied philosophy with Moritz Schlick at the Univer ...

, a

Doctor of Medicine Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin language, Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a profes ...

and psychologist, employee of the Swedish Embassy, motivated Károly Szabó to play an active role in the rescue actions of Raoul Wallenberg. Pál Szalai supported his friend with important personal documents, signed by the German command in the

Battle of Budapest The Siege of Budapest or Battle of Budapest was the 50-day-long encirclement by Soviet and Romanian forces of the Hungarian capital of Budapest, near the end of World War II. Part of the broader Budapest Offensive, the siege began when Budap ...

. Karoly Szabó's intuitive purchase decision for a leather coat was another key factor. Black leather

trench coat A trench coat or trenchcoat is a variety of coat made of waterproof heavy-duty fabric, originally developed for British Army officers before the First World War, and becoming popular while used in the trenches. Originally made from gabardine, ...

, was a means of inspiring fear and respect, and the subsequent

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

image of the black-clad, trench-coated

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

officer has entered popular culture. In Budapest's Jewish community he was known as "the mysterious man in the leather coat". Károly Szabó attracted exceptional attention on December 24, 1944 as Hungarian

Arrow Cross Party The Arrow Cross Party ( hu, Nyilaskeresztes Párt – Hungarista Mozgalom, , abbreviated NYKP) was a far-right Hungarian ultranationalist party led by Ferenc Szálasi, which formed a government in Hungary they named the Government of National ...

members occupied the Embassy building on Gyopár street. He rescued 36 kidnapped employees from the Budapest ghetto. This action attracted Raoul Wallenberg's interest. He agreed to meet Szabó's influential friend, Pál Szalai, a high-ranking member of the police force. The meeting took place in the night of December 26. This meeting was preparation to save the Budapest ghetto in January 1945. Pál Szalai was honored as

Righteous among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( he, חֲסִידֵי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם, ; "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to sav ...

04.7.2009. The last meeting between Wallenberg and Szalai, together with Dr. Ottó Fleischmann and Károly Szabó, was on the evening of January 12, 1945 at the Gyopár street Swedish Embassy at Wallenberg's "last supper" invitation. The next day — on January 13 — Wallenberg contacted the Russians to secure food and supplies for the people under his protection. He was detained by the

Soviet forces The Soviet Armed Forces, the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union and as the Red Army (, Вооружённые Силы Советского Союза), were the armed forces of the Russian SFSR (1917–1922), the Soviet Union (1922–1991), and th ...

on January 17, 1945.

Prevented crime in January 1945

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Lars Ernster Lars Ernster ( hu, Ernster László; 4 May 1920 – 4 November 1998) was a professor of biochemistry, and a member of the Board of the Nobel Foundation. Biography Lars Ernster was born in Hungary and came to Sweden in 1946. He played a promine ...

and

Jacob Steiner Jacob Steiner (Steiner Erik, Budapest) is a professor at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a researcher of the physiology of the senses. Academia He received his Ph.D. from University of Basel in 1964. He became a lecturer in 1965, a senio ...

lived in the office of the Swedish Embassy in Budapest, Üllői Street 2-4. In the night of January 8, 1945 all inhabitants were dragged away to near the Danube banks by an

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 ...

party execution brigade. At midnight, 20 policemen with drawn bayonets broke into the Arrow Cross (

Nyilas The Arrow Cross Party ( hu, Nyilaskeresztes Párt – Hungarista Mozgalom, , abbreviated NYKP) was a far-right Hungarian nationalism, Hungarian ultranationalist party led by Ferenc Szálasi, which formed a government in Kingdom of Hungary (1920- ...

) house and rescued everyone. Ernster and Steiner were among the rescued. Ernster fled to

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, where later he was member of the Board of

Nobel Foundation The Nobel Foundation ( sv, Nobelstiftelsen) is a private institution founded on 29 June 1900 to manage the finances and administration of the Nobel Prizes. The foundation is based on the last will of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. It ...

(1977–88), and Steiner fled to

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, where he is now a professor at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

. Information from

after he has read this page: on December 25, 1944, Steiner's father was shot dead by

militiamen, falling into the Danube as a result. His father had been an officer in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and spent 4 years as a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. Dr. Erwin K. Korányi a psychiatrist in Ottawa, wrote about the night of January 8, 1945 in his "Chronicle of a Life" "in our group, I saw Lajos Stoeckler" and "The police holding their guns at the

cutthroats. One of the high-ranking police officers was Paul Szálai, with whom Raoul Wallenberg used to deal. Another police officer in his leather coat was Károly Szabo."

1947–1964

* At the invitation from the

Wallenberg family The Wallenberg family is a prominent Swedish family, Europe's most powerful business dynasty. Wallenbergs are noted as bankers, industrialists, politicians, bureaucrats, diplomats and military. The Wallenberg sphere's holdings employ about 600 ...

Károly Szabó visited

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

in summer 1947. He was one of the last three persons who had seen Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest. * In the autumn of 1947 he visited the rescued family Jakobovics in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

. His visit made headlines in Dutch newspapers :nl:Het Vrije Volk. * In the summer of 1963 and 1964 he visited at invitation the rescued Kalber and Löw in Basel and Jakobovics in London.

Show trial preparations 1953 in Hungary

The idea that the "murderers of Wallenberg" were Budapest Zionists was primarily supported by Hungarian Communist leader

Ernő Gerő Ernő Gerő (; born Ernő Singer; 8 July 1898 – 12 March 1980) was a Hungarian Communist leader in the period after World War II and briefly in 1956 the most powerful man in Hungary as the second secretary of its ruling communist party. Ear ...

, which is shown by a note sent by him to First Secretary

Mátyás Rákosi Mátyás Rákosi (; born Mátyás Rosenfeld; 9 March 1892
– 5 February 1971) was a Hungarian

. In 1953 preparations for a show trial started in Budapest to prove that Wallenberg had never been in the Soviet Union, nobody had dragged off Wallenberg in 1945, least of all the Soviet Army. Three leaders of the Jewish community of Budapest – Dr. László Benedek, Lajos Stöckler, Miksa Domonkos, and two additional eyewitnesses – Pál Szalai and Károly Szabó – were arrested, accused and tortured. Everything was ready for a trial designed to prove that Wallenberg had been the victim of

cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Food and drink * Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo" History * Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953 Hotels and resorts * Cosmopoli ...

Zionists. Image:Karoly-Szabo-April-8-1953.jpg, Károly Szabó arrested without legal proceedings on April 8, 1953 (inventory in prison) Image:TAG Heuer Karoly Szabo.jpg,

TAG Heuer TAG Heuer S.A. ( ) is a Swiss luxury watchmaker that designs, manufactures and markets watches and fashion accessories, as well as eyewear and mobile phones manufactured under license by other companies and carrying the TAG Heuer brand name. Th ...

sports watch (on prison inventory) Image:Slide Rule-Karoly Szabo.jpg,

Slide rule The slide rule is a mechanical analog computer which is used primarily for multiplication and division, and for functions such as exponents, roots, logarithms, and trigonometry. It is not typically designed for addition or subtraction, which is ...

(on prison inventory) Image:Karoly-Szabo-October-6-1953x.jpg, After six months, Károly Szabó was released on October 6. 1953 (Highest Prosecutor) On April 8, 1953 Károly Szabó was captured on the street, arrested without legal proceedings, and sent to prison. His family did not hear from him for six months. A secret trial was held and no official record of the case or the judge's verdict was made available. After six months of interrogation, the defendants were driven to despair and exhaustion. The show trial was initiated in Moscow, following

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

's anti-Zionist campaign. After Stalin's death and

Lavrentiy Beria Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (; rus, Лавре́нтий Па́влович Бе́рия, Lavréntiy Pávlovich Bériya, p=ˈbʲerʲiə; ka, ლავრენტი ბერია, tr, ; – 23 December 1953) was a Georgian Bolshevik ...

's execution, the preparations for the trial ended and the arrested persons were released. Miksa Domonkos died shortly after the tortures in hospital (Book: Mária Ember, ''They Wanted to Blame Us'', 1992).

Timeline

*1916 Born on November 17, 1916 in Budapest. *1932–1940 Works for the Remington US typewriter company in Budapest *1940–1945 Works for Brunsviga German calculators company in Budapest (Gelpke, Nádor tér) and mechanic for bureau equipment on the Swedish Embassy Budapest 1944–1945 *1945–1949 owner of the "Universal" bureau equipment company with Plachy and Wagner representatives for Brunsviga (German), Precisa (Swiss), Odhner (Swedish) calculating machines in Hungary. *1950 His business was "nationalized" (expropriated without compensation) *1953 Arrested and secret

show trial A show trial is a public trial in which the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt or innocence of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal the presentation of both the accusation and the verdict to the public so th ...

preparations *1955–1964 Independent technician for office equipment *1963-1964 In the summer of 1963 and 1964 he visited at invitation the rescued Klaber and Löw in Basel and Jakobovics in London. *1964 Death by

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

October 28, 1964 in Budapest.

Posthumous honors

On August 4, 2010, the birthday of

the International Mensch Foundation, the Carl Lutz Foundation, the Budapest Holocaust Memorial Institute and the 1944-2004 Foundation issued a Karoly Szabo memorial certificate. After introduction by Prof. Dr. Szabolcs Szita speech Aliza Bin-Noun Israel Ambassador, Dr. John Hóvári Ambassador Deputy Secretary of State, Prof. Dr. Schweitzer Joseph retired National Rabbi.https://www.google.com/hostednews/epa/article/ALeqM5hcKEBcRm_n06m_SrVqy_oSLzShNA MTI Hungarian News Agency

References

Books, newspaper

* Dreams and Tears: Chronicle of a Life, Erwin K. Koranyi, General Store Publishing House, 2006, (pages 89 – 90) *''A Man for All Connections'', The Wallenberg-Szalai connection, Andrew Handler, Praeger/Greenwood, 30 January 1996; Handler focuses on explaining the Hungarian political context which made rescue possible.... Less well known is the fact that Wallenberg's mission was supported by various representatives of the Hungarian state apparatus *József Szekeres: ''Saving the Ghettos of Budapest in January 1945, Pál Szalai "the Hungarian Schindler"'' , Budapest 1997, Publisher: Budapest Archives *''The mystery man with the leather coat''. Faklya - Budapest, December 29, 1946 - February 9, 1947, interviews with Károly Szabó (Hungarian)

External links

"On the evening of January 8, 1945 .... led to the banks of the Danube to be shot into the river" "Shortly after liberation, on 26 February 1945, Stöckler wrote a letter thanking Károly Szabó for rushing with Szalai Pal to save the group that was condemned to death."
Wallenberg 1953''Budapest Times''Szabó Károly 8/4/2010 in Magyar Televízió (or Hungarian Television) is a Hungarian national public service television company. Videó
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070227140333/http://www.hungarianquarterly.com/no143/p129.html Wallenberg: More Twists to the Tale, Mária Ember, They Wanted to Blame Us br>Interview with István Domonkos, son of Miksa Domonkos who died after the show trial preparations (Hungarian)
"We have to emphasize the deeds of Károly Szabó, Pál Szalai, Dr István Parádi, who were risking their life everyday" Gábor Forgács. The exhibition was opened by Dr.

Gábor Demszky Gábor Demszky (born 4 August 1952) is a Hungarian politician, lawyer and sociologist by qualification. Demszky was the Mayor of Budapest from 1990 to 2010. He was a founding member of the Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ) between 1988 and 201 ...

Mayor of Budapest The Mayor of Budapest ( hu, Budapest főpolgármestere) is the head of the General Assembly in Budapest, Hungary, elected directly for 5-year term since 2014 (previously municipal elections were held quadrennially). Until 1994 the mayor was elect ...

with a message of the President of the Republic of Hungary

László Sólyom László Sólyom ( hu, Sólyom László, ; born 3 January 1942) is a Hungarian political figure, lawyer, and librarian who was President of Hungary from 2005 until 2010. Previously he was Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court of Hungary f ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Szabo, Karoly Jewish Hungarian history History of Budapest 1916 births 1964 deaths Raoul Wallenberg Hungarian Righteous Among the Nations