Cultural Studies paper by Fuchs, Márta
Hungarian Holocaust Legacy: A Daughter's Tribute to Her Father's Christian Rescuer
Type of Abstract (select):Abstract (max. 250 words):
Marta Fuchs was born in Hungary after the war to parents who survived the Holocaust. While her mother Ilona with two sisters lived through Auschwitz, Marta’s father Morton (Miksa) endured five years of forced labor battalions attached to the Hungarian Army in Russia. He survived as the only member of his family due to the courageous intervention of his last Commanding Officer, Zoltán Kubinyi, a devout Seventh Day Adventist who saved him and 100 other Hungarian Jewish men under his command. Unfortunately, Zoltán Kubinyi was taken as a POW by the liberating Russians, died a year later in a labor camp from typhus, was buried in an unmarked grave, and left behind a young wife and infant son.
This presentation will focus on the aftermath, the research and multigenerational impact of this extraordinary story of rescue and the recently published book, Legacy of Rescue: A Daughter's Tribute. Through Morton and Marta’s efforts, Zoltán Kubinyi was posthumously given the designation Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem in 1990. In a televised ceremony in Budapest in 1994, his son received the Certificate of Honor and medallion on behalf of his father.
The story of rescue came full circle in Summer 2011 when Marta and her brother took their children (all in their '20s) back to Hungary to meet the rescuer's family. The rescuer’s son, now in his late '60s, of course never knew his father. With his wife and granddaughters – two teenage girls who are the great granddaughters of the rescuer Zoltán Kubinyi -- Marta's family discussed the heroic actions of this man of compassion and courage none of them knew but who has made an indelible impact on all their lives.
Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Marta Fuchs was born in Budapest and lived with her family in Tokaj until they escaped to the U.S. in the wake of the ’56 Hungarian Revolution. She holds a BA in Linguistics and an MA in Library Science, both from UC Berkeley, and an MA in Clinical Psychology from JFK University in Orinda, CA. Marta is a professional librarian and Director of Library Services at Drew School in San Francisco, CA. She is also a licensed Marriage & Family Therapist in private practice in Albany, CA. With her brother Henry Fuchs she wrote the multigenerational extended family memoir, "Fragments of a Family: Remembering Hungary, the Holocaust, and Emigration to a New World" c1997). Her new book is "Legacy of Rescue: A Daughter’s Tribute" (c2011).