Jewish mementos in Györ-Moson-Sopron Comitatus

Balf

Martyr Memorial

This memorial is dedicated to the author and literary historian Antel Szerb who suffered martyrdom in 1945 together with György Sárközi, Gábor Halász and many other forced laborers. Unfortunately, the original memorial is only to be seen on photos now, human vandalism and stupidity are endless. A leftover without the copper plaques stands there in memento of the memorial. The inscriptions from the plaques can be found on the Balf website.

The first memorial for Antel Szerb was erected on the cemetery hill of Balf in 1968. More than two years ago the copper reliefs were stolen. Today the memorial too is in bad condition.

The central office for Holocaust documentation wants to give a dignified memento to the deceased in the area, among them such personalities of Hungarian literature as Antal Szerb, György Sárközi and Gábor Halász. The vision is to open a national literary-historical memorial site as there were over 200 people murdered here and in the surroundings during the very last hours of the Second World War. The sculptor László Kutas has been commissioned with the design of a new Antal Szerb memorial and with the restoration of the mass grave of the forced laborers. The national memorial site will, according to the planning, open in the year this book is published.

by Scholem Alejchem & Alexandra Vogt

2012.05.31