Brody-Pauncz family papers
Extent and Medium
5 folders
Biographical History
George Brody and Irma, née Pauncz, and their children were a well-to-do, assimilated Jewish Hungarian family who were living in Budapest when the Nazis began to transport the Hungarian Jewish population to death camps in 1944. They managed to survive the war and stay on in Hungary until shortly after the Russian invasion in 1956 when George and Irma successfully attained refugee status in Switzerland and Judit came to England. Livia, the other daughter died in 1947.
Regina (Riza) Weisz (1875-1963) married Zsigmond (Sigismund) Paunz (Paunc, Pauncz) who was I believe a grain merchant. They lived in Mohács. They had two daughters: Ilona (Ilonka) and Irma (1903-1985). The girls were well educated: went to Vienna to a "finishing school". Ilonka married a Slovakian Jew, divorced him (he was killed) then married another Jew a Slovakian (Hungarian, from Bratislava) and they survived the war in Iran. They came back to Slovakia and eventually to England where she had two children already. Irma married Georg (György) Bródy (1895-1976) in 1928 -she had a previous marriage about which nothing is known. Irma was a housewife but she had plenty of help. Georg was a chemical engineer, he studied in Karlsruhe. During the Nyilas regime the family lived in a Swedish protected house and Georg was the commandant of the building. He met Wallenberg several times. In 1957 they managed to go to Switzerland.
Acquisition
Donated January 1986
Donor: Mrs Judit Brody
Scope and Content
The papers in this collection document the lives of a Hungarian Jewish family which managed to survive the Holocaust thanks, in large part, to the efforts of the Swedish diplomat, Raoul Wallenberg. Of particular interest is material relating to Nazi persecution at 627/4 and 627/5. There is evidence of a relationship with Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved the lives of some 90,000 Jews in Hungary. George Brody was made a manager of one of the properties bought by the Swedish government in Budapest to give protection to Jewish citizens.
This collection also contains material on the lives of George and Irma's forbears. Included amongst which are papers relating to Samu and Ilona (George's parents) and to Sigismond Brody, (George's great uncle?), a famous Hungarian newspaper magnate who founded the Neues Pester Journal
System of Arrangement
The papers have been arranged chronologically into the following classes: 627/1 personal papers of Samu, Ilona and Sigismond Brody; 627/2 Personal papers of George Brody; 627/3 Personal papers of Irma Brody; 627/4 Material relating to the Nazi persecution; 627/5 Family correspondence
Conditions Governing Access
Open
People
- Brody, Sigismond
- Brody-Pauncz family
- Wallenberg, Raoul
Subjects
- Antisemitism
- Family documents [doc]
- Letters
Places
- Hungary
- Budapest