Oral History Interview with Eva Bentley

Eva Bentley (née Wahrman), born in Budapest, Hungary, describes her Jewish family with a 500-year history in Hungary; antisemitic incidents with a teacher and her fellow students at public school; the stressful experience of attending an elite, experimental Jewish Gymnasium; the hardships of living under the Horthy regime, the Szalasi and Arrow Cross persecutions; the abuses during the Russian occupation; how after the German occupation in 1944 Eva and her family had to move into a “yellow star” house; her stepfather being deported to a labor camp; her experiences during an SS massacre, when she was shot and her mother was bayoneted; surviving in a primitive Jewish hospital facility; a number of instances of aid by non-Jews given by clergy and Hungarian police, who saved her and her family; how a Christian uncle saved her aunt and 29 other Jews in hiding; liberation by the Russians; getting married; and immigrating with her husband to the United States in 1956.

Date: 03/18/1985 to 04/02/1985
Interviewer: Josey G. Fisher
Interviewee: Eva Bentley
Language: English
Subject: Antisemitism--Hungary.
Holocaust survivors.
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives.
Jewish families--Hungary.
Jews--Hungary--Budapest.
Jews--Persecutions--Hungary.
Massacre survivors.
Massacres--Hungary.
World War, 1939-1945--Atrocities--Hungary.
Women--Personal narratives.
Budapest (Hungary)
Hungary--History--1918-1945.
United States--Emigration and immigration.
Bentley, Eva.
Nyilaskeresztes Párt.
Location: Budapest, Hungary
USA
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