Frank Szasz was born in 1925 in Budapest, Hungary. He was 19 years old in 1944 when he was forced into the Hungarian labor battalions. After eight months of hard labor, Frank escaped with the help of the Jewish underground. He was then able to use his skills as an artist to forge rubber stamps to create false identity papers for other Jews in hiding. He continued this work, hiding in the open as a non-Jew in Budapest, until he was liberated by the Soviets in January 1945. Frank was captured by Soviet troops, along with thousands of others, and sent to forced labor inside the Soviet Union. In 1951 he returned to Budapest, resuming his career as an artist. He and his family immigrated to the United States in 1956 during the Hungarian Revolution.
Of Blessed Memory
1925 – 1995
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Testimonies may be used for individual research with proper citation. All other uses require written permission from MCHE. The above video testimony is edited from a full-length testimony that may be viewed onsite at the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education or at the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University