Aranka Steiner née Farkas

Aranka Farkas was born in 1902 in Budapest, Hungary. Her mother’s name was Fanny and her father was Michael. Aranka met Aladar Steiner at a Hungarian ball and they were married in Berlin in 1921. They had two children, Freddy was born in 1922 and Lilly was born in 1927.

 
The Nazis came to power in 1933. As things got worse for the Jews, Aladar would tell the children some details but Aranka was a very nervous person and it wasn’t discussed in front of her. Aranka’s parents fled to Cuba. They couldn’t get into the U.S. due to the immigration quota. Aranka, Aladar and the children went to see them off at the train station in Vienna.

In 1938, a Nazi soldier came to their apartment with a couple. The family was told that the couple was taking their apartment and they could only take enough clothes that they could carry. Aladar’s factory and his car was also confiscated. They fled to Hungary in 1938. They could immigrate to Hungary since Aranka and Aladar had Hungarian citizenship.

In Hungary, they soon began to experience antisemitism and their children would sometimes fight the kids that called them names. They lived on the 4th floor of an apartment above a beer factory and attended Shabbat services every Friday night and all the Jewish holidays at the Doheny synagogue. Aladar became a partner at a clothing factory from 1938-44. They later moved to an apartment on the outskirts of Budapest and Aladar’s partner (who was a Baron) helped him get papers saying he was a Gentile. He wanted to get papers for Aranka and the kids but Aranka was too scared of being discovered, so they started wearing the yellow star. By 1940, the number Jews in Hungary began to be decline. Jews were forced to enlist in special forced labor army units, including Freddy who was sent to Poland to dig ditches.

Aranka and Lilly had to move to a “Judenhaus”. During the relocation, Hungarians yelled antisemitic slogans at them. Two families lived in each apartment and they had to observe a 5pm curfew.

In 1944, Germany invaded Hungary and the ghettos and deportations began. Aladar’s true identity was discovered.  The Gestapo confiscated the factory and he became a forced laborer, but they told him to continue to manage the factory.

By January 1945, the fascist Hungarian government and the Arrow-Cross began searching for and killing any Jews they could find. Aladar moved his wife Aranka and his daughter Lilly to the factory where he worked. He had around 400 Jews working at the factory. There were no beds and they slept on the factory floor.

They made and repaired uniforms until Christmas 1944, when they were taken to the Budapest ghetto. The family lived in the Ghetto around the Dohány Street Synagogue for nine months, sleeping in the basement on wooden doors. They had very little to eat, living on bean soup and coffee. People were committing suicide. Aranka told Lilli she no longer had the will to live and Lilli told her that she had a dream that an old man told her they would survive. This gave Aranka the hope she needed to endure.

Aladar was able to become a ghetto policeman (Kapo) which allowed him to get a daily slice of bread and a caraway soup which he would share with Aranka and Lilly. He became a police officer because he was able to communicate well with the guards in German. The Nazis began deportation from the ghetto but it was liberated by the Russians on Jan. 17, 1945.

Right after the liberation they went to their apartment which was in very bad shape. They lived in Hungary for 9 years from 1938-1947. Aladar’s friend told him he saw Freddy and that he was dying. A few thousand Jews returned from slave labor. Freddy came back, having been nursed by a Russian soldier. Aladar got a horse and buggy and traded it for food in the country. It was winter and they burned furniture to keep warm and had to eat their horse.

HIAS (Hebrew Immigration Aid Society) helped Lilli and Freddy immigrate to the U.S. in 1947.

Aladar’s siblings were already living in the U.S. Aranka and Aladar were unable to leave Ellis Island and were then sent to Venezuela. They then went to Cuba until they were able to leave after 1 year in 1951.

Aranka and Aladar became U.S. citizens in 1956. They lived in NY and moved to Florida in 1970 for health reasons. Aranka died in Miami in 1984.