:''See also Károly Szabó (Ambassador to the United States)'' Károly Szabó (November 17, 1916 – October 28, 1964) was an employee of the Swedish Embassy in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

from 1944 to 1945 when he rescued Hungarian Jews during the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

. 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. In ...

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. S ...

. He was honored as

Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( ) is a title used by Yad Vashem to describe people who, for various reasons, made an effort to assist victims, mostly Jews, who were being persecuted and exterminated by Nazi Germany, Fascist Romania, Fascist Italy, ...

on November 12, 2012.

Friendship with Pál Szalai 1929

In the Hungarian

Boy Scout A Scout, Boy Scout, Girl Scout or, in some countries, a Pathfinder is a participant in the Scout Movement, usually aged 10–18 years, who engage in learning scoutcraft and outdoor and other special interest activities. Some Scout organizatio ...

s in 1929 he (13 years old) became friends with Pál Szalai. 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, a

Doctor of Medicine A Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated MD, from the Latin language, Latin ) is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the ''MD'' denotes a professional degree of ph ...

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 Budapes ...

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

trench coat A trench coat is a variety of coat made of Waterproof fabric, waterproof heavy-duty fabric, originally developed for British Army officers before the First World War, and becoming popular while used in the Trench warfare, trenches, hence the nam ...

, 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 (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, 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 F ...

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 (, , 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 Unity. They were in power from 15 October 1944 to ...

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 ( ) is a title used by Yad Vashem to describe people who, for various reasons, made an effort to assist victims, mostly Jews, who were being persecuted and exterminated by Nazi Germany, Fascist Romania, Fascist Italy, ...

April 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 on January 17, 1945.

Prevented crime in January 1945

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Lars Ernster and Jacob Steiner 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 party execution brigade. At midnight, 20 policemen with drawn bayonets broke into the Arrow Cross ( Nyilas) house and rescued everyone. Ernster and Steiner were among the rescued. Ernster fled to

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, where later he was member of the Board of

Nobel Foundation The Nobel Foundation () 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 also holds Nobel Sym ...

(1977–88), and Steiner fled to

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, where he is now a professor at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

. Information from Jacob Steiner after he has read this page: on December 25, 1944, Steiner's father was shot dead by Arrow Cross militiamen, falling into the Danube as a result. His father had been an officer in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and spent 4 years as a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person 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 war for a ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. 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 Arrow Cross 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 of bankers, industrialists, politicians, bureaucrats and diplomats, present in most large Swedish industrial groups, including EQT AB, Ericsson, Electrolux, ABB, SAS Group, SKF, Atlas Copco, ...

Károly Szabó visited

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

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 ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

. 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 leader of its ruling communist party. Early career G ...

, 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 communism, communist politician who was the ''de facto'' leader of Hungary from 1947 to 1956. He served first as General Secretary of the 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 and former officials of the Central Jewish Council – 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: Internationalism * World citizen, one who eschews traditional geopolitical divisions derived from national citizenship * Cosmopolitanism, the idea that all of humanity belongs to a single moral community * Cosmopolitan ...

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

Slide rule A slide rule is a hand-operated mechanical calculator consisting of slidable rulers for conducting mathematical operations such as multiplication, division, exponents, roots, logarithms, and trigonometry. It is one of the simplest analog ...

(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 Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

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

Lavrentiy Beria Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria ka, ლავრენტი პავლეს ძე ბერია} ''Lavrenti Pavles dze Beria'' ( – 23 December 1953) was a Soviet politician and one of the longest-serving and most influential of Joseph ...

'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 guilt (law), guilt or innocence of the defendant has already been determined. The purpose of holding a show trial is to present both accusation and verdict to the public, serving as an example and a d ...

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 Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

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.
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
* *[https://web.archive.org/web/20071023214416/http://www.szombat.org/2006/0602apamatelhurcoltak.htm Interview with István Domonkos, son of Miksa Domonkos who died after the show trial preparations (Hungarian)]
Wallenberg Seminar in Budapest, March 1-2nd 2007
"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, Mayor of Budapest with a message of the President of the Republic of Hungary

László Sólyom László Sólyom (, ; 3 January 1942 – 8 October 2023) was a Hungarian politician, lawyer, and librarian who was President of Hungary from 2005 until 2010. Previously he was the first president of the Constitutional Court of Hungary from 199 ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Szabo, Karoly Jewish Hungarian history Budapest in World War II 1916 births 1964 deaths Raoul Wallenberg Hungarian Righteous Among the Nations