The role of the Rev. Albert Bereczky (1893–1966) in the Anti-German Resistance and in the Rescue of People (1944–45)

Abstract

Albert Bereczky, the pastor of the Reformed Congregation on Pozsonyi Street (Budapest), joined the anti-German resistance after the German invasion of Hungary on 19 March 1944 and became one of its most committed activists. His friendship with Zoltán Tildy, President of the Smallholders Party, led Bereczky into the resistance movement, and he helped him to organize one of the main bodies of the movement, the Hungarian Front. Miklós Mester, State Secretary at the Ministry of Religion and Public Education, and Ottó Komoly, President of the Hungarian Zionist Federation, also became important associates. It is mainly in the light of the memoirs and diaries of the latter two that our study gives an insight into Bereczky’s multifaceted and varied activities, the main elements of which were liaising between different resistance groups and hiding those who had been persecuted on racial or political grounds. Bereczky also played a major role in the Reformed Church in Hungary’s outreach to Jews, for example, in organizing the ultimately unsuccessful public church protest against the deportations. Keywords: Albert Bereczky, Holocaust, German occupation of Hungary (1944–45), anti-German resistance movement, Zoltán Tildy, rescue of Jews80 évvel ezelőtt Bereczky