Remembering Resistance

A Jewish Memoir from Nazi-Occupied Budapest, 1944-45

Asa Eger, Kinga Frojimovics, Éva Kovács

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Year: 2026
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781805398158
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

The existence and achievements of Jewish "self-rescuers" within Nazi-occupied Hungary remains, in spite of their significance, historically underexplored. In this illuminating chronicle of the life and work of a Jewish couple, László and Eugenia Szamosi, Remembering Resistance seeks to address this lacunae, offering a unique insight into a family's personal history of resistance under the Nazi regime. Combining oral testimony from fellow survivors, with a previously-unpublished translation of László's memoir, this book foregrounds the remarkable work of the Szamosis and their network, in rescuing Jews from the Death Marches and reuniting displaced families. Through doing so, this book offers a powerful framework for mediating how we remember Jewish experiences of the Holocaust.

Table of contents

• Remembering Resistance
• Contents
• Illustrations and Documents
• Editor’s Note
• Preface: The Life and Legacy of My Grandparents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction — Shared Experiences, Divided Memories: Diplomats and Jewish Rescuers in Budapest, 1944–1945
• Part I — The Hungary Years, 1942–1949
• Chapter 1 — Budapest, 1944–1945: A Memoir by László Szamosi
• Chapter 2 — Documents during the War, 1942–1945
• Chapter 3 — The Safe Houses of Budapest Where the Szamosis Lived
• Chapter 4 — Documents after the War, 1945–1949
• Chapter 5 — Houses after the War, 1944–1949
• Part II — The Komoly Years, 1950s to 1980s
• Chapter 6 — Komoly Memorial Lecture at Bet Hahalutzot, Haifa (1952): Federation of Hungarian Jews, 17 January
• Chapter 7 — The Yad Vashem Correspondence, Part One (1958)
• Chapter 8 — Komoly Memorial Lecture at Beitenu, Haifa (1975)
• Part III — The Wallenberg Years, 1981–1986
• Chapter 9 — László Szamosi and John Bierman’s Righteous Gentile (1981, 1982)
• Chapter 10 — Szamosi as a Promoter for Wallenberg’s Rise to Fame (1981–1986)
• Chapter 11 — Organizing the First World Congress on Hungarian Jews (1982–1984)
• Chapter 12 — Forty Years After . . . László Szamosi’s Speech in Beer Sheva (1984)
• Chapter 13 — Honoring László Szamosi upon His Death (1986)
• Part IV — The Perlasca Years, Part One: 1986–1992
• Chapter 14 — The Yad Vashem Correspondence, Part Two (1989–1990)
• Chapter 15 — The World-Famous “Perlasca Circus” by Eugenia Szamosi
• Chapter 16 — The Oral History of Eugenia Szamosi, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Correspondence, Part One (1990)
• Chapter 17 — Bözsi’s Last Battle: Fighting Back with the Media
• Part V — The Perlasca Years, Part Two: 1998–2023
• Chapter 18 — The Temple Emanu-El Panel (1998)
• Chapter 19 — The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Correspondence, Part Two (2013–2015) and Arcadi Espada’s L’autentica impostura (2013–2021)
• Epilogue
• Appendix 1 — List of Jews Rescued with Szamosi’s Involvement
• Appendix 2 — Szamosi Family Tree
• Index