by Phyllis Kasper
Tales told to Phyllis by Pandi’s mother
Pandi’s father’s original name was Platz and the paternal grandparents lived in Italy. On one of our trips we searched a little village cemetery looking for the Platz family and didn’t find it.
Pandi’s parents split when he was about four, but he had visitation with his father. His father was germ phobic and made him wear white gloves in public. When the Germans got to Budapest, they ordered all Jews to wear the Star of David and his father immediately did so.
He also went to the phone company to have their “Jewish” phone disconnected.
Pandi’s mother, Magda, went to the phone company and showed them family baptism papers to prove they were Catholic, not Jewish. She got the phone back. George’s father and his uncle Miklos (Mickie) were put on a train to a labor camp.
On the way, a man and his two sons decided to take their chances against the lone rifleman on the roof of their car and jump out the window. They said they would rather die trying to escape than go like cattle to certain death.
Pandi’s father said he’d jump after Mickie, but he didn’t and went to the labor camp. He survived the war and was liberated from the camp, but died of exhaustion and malnutrition walking the many miles home. He never got home, nor did his body. Pandi had a hard time accepting his death.
Meanwhile, Mickie got back to Budapest and Magda hid him, along with a Jewish girlfriend of hers, in her apartment. Late one night, two Gestapo came to the door because someone had informed on Magda.
The two women were in their nighties, George was asleep on the couch and Mickie was in the bathroom. The bathroom had a bookcase built into the door, so the men didn’t realize there was a room.
One of them ordered George and the women to get up and come with
them.
When he spoke to George, the other said, “What little boy? I don’t see any little boy.”
The reply was that “we have orders to take everyone in this apartment.”
The other made a fist and said, “I don’t see any little boy and you don’t either.”
So they left George. George spoke on the phone to a Gestopo who had befriended them. There was a language barrier, but the man helped. He supplied some food to George and Mickie and took George for a walk past the nearby private home where Magda and her friend were imprisoned so she could see he was OK.
When they took Magda and her friend, Magda realized she could possibly survive because the Russians were getting closer. They broadcast to the Germans that they were coming and would kill ten Germans for every Hungarian the Germans killed.
But she had always had very cold feet, and was afraid her feet would freeze walking in the snow in her open-toed house slippers. Then she would get gangrene and die. So she mentally commanded her feet to warm up, and they did.
Magda and her friend were held in a nearby house under lock and key. It was very cold, so they begged their guard to be able get something to help them stay warm. He allowed them to go the hall closet and each grab one winter coat. The friend put her hand in one of the coat pockets and found a master key for the house. But they still had a guard in front of their door.
After a few days, all the guards went out. So the two women quietly went out and started walking away. Then they saw one of their guards walking towards them with an unknown officer. They knew he saw them and they expected to be shot or taken prisoner. But he engaged the officer’s attention away from them and made a small hand signal for them to keep walking. They were safe.
Magda found out that the person who had reported them lived in the next apartment, but wanted Magda’s apartment. This woman did Magda’s hair and babysat George. I asked Magda how she felt about that neighbor. She said that she forgave her because war brought out the best in some people and the worst in others.
The name “Pandi” came about because the Russians wanted everyone to have Hungarian names and Platz in more German/Austrian. Magda wanted a name she could call her own and not borrow another family’s name. So the just made up “Pandi” with the idea that it sounded Hungarian.
Pandi’s Family Jewish Background
His family’s Jewish heritage comes in part (according to legend) from a Hungarian chieftain who fell in love with a Jewish girl and wanted to marry her.
Her father said “no” unless he converted. Because he was the tribal leader, he couldn’t convert alone and still lead, so he converted his whole tribe. The Germans much later considered the descendants Jewish, but the Jews did not acknowledge him. So they were Jewish enough for the Germans to kill them, but not enough for the Jews to accept them. Go figure.
That’s why it took something like 30-years for Pandi to receive any cash reparations from the Germans. With the reparations, he was able to buy a cottage on Lake Balaton (sold several years ago).