Kovary and Neuhaus families papers

Olivio Kovary (1890-1976) was born Olivio Kovari on November 4, 1890 in Baltimore, MD, where his parents Alexander and Josefine Berkovits Kovari had arrived earlier the same year. Olivio’s birth was not registered with the proper authorities in Baltimore and a birth certificate was not issued. When Olivio was one year old, his mother became very ill and the family returned to their hometown of Galanta in what was at that time the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Josefine died soon after her return to Europe and Alexander Kovari remarried. Olivio married Esther Fuchs (1897-1988), and the couple had two sons in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia: Ernö (Ernest, 1919-2013, b. April 2, 1919) and Tibor (Tom, 1920-1988, b. June 23, 1920). In 1920 Olivio, who always regarded himself an American citizen, wrote to the US Embassy in Budapest requesting an American passport and the recognition of his citizenship, but he was refused. In 1936 he received another negative response from the US Embassy, but he was encouraged to apply for an immigration visa. Olivio, Esther, Ernö, and Tibor registered in the American Consulate for immigration. The Kovary family considered themselves to be internationalists. Ernö and Tibor were recognized as being the first native speakers of Esperanto in the world. Esperanto is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto, the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887. The word esperanto means "one who hopes" in the language itself. Zamenhof's goal was to create an easy and flexible language that would serve as a universal second language to foster peace and international understanding. Esperanto has had continuous usage by a community estimated at between 100,000 and 2 million speakers for over a century, and approximately one thousand native speakers. The Kovarys were multilingual, speaking Esperanto and Hungarian (Olivio and Esther’s native tongue) at home and Slovak outside of the home. The boys attended German schools, took English and French classes, and learned Hebrew as part of their religious studies in a cheder. Already in 1934 Olivio pulled his sons out of school and started to teach them the fur trade in anticipation of the imminent immigration. As these plans did not pan out, Tibor attended a vocational school in Bratislava and graduated in 1937. Tibor and Ernö were excellent athletes and belonged to the Bar Kochba Jewish Sports Club. They were recognized as national gymnastics champions of Czechoslovakia. They were also among the first pupils of Imi Lichtenfeld, who created Krav Maga, at which the brothers excelled. They assisted Mr. Lichtenfeld in developing many of the skills that Lichtenfeld incorporated into the hand-to-hand combat system that is used by the Israeli Army. On September 2, 1939, the day after the German invasion of Poland, two local Nazi sympathizers (whom Tibor and Ernö believed to be members of the Hitler youth) harassed the two brothers in the street of Bratislava, inquiring whether they were Jewish. A fistfight began among the four, and excellent athletes Tibor and Ernö defeated their attackers. Slovakia under Jozef Tiso aligned itself with Nazi Germany, and Tibor and Ernö were arrested and accused of attacking innocent passersby. Their father was also arrested, and the Kovary store was looted. On December 12, 1939 the family fled Slovakia, crossing the Hungarian border illegally without proper documents. They stayed in Budapest illegally waiting for their US immigration visa, and on February 20, 1940 the family boarded the SS Conte di Savoia in Genoa and left for New York. In January 1943 Tom (who changed his name from Tibor) enlisted in the US Army, trained at Camp Ritchie, and served in the Army intelligence. His brother Ernest (who had changed his name from Ernö) also enlisted and was posted in the European theater. On June 6, 1944 Ernest was part of the American forces landing in Normandy. During their military service, the brothers corresponded constantly with each other and with their parents. They initially wrote their letters in Esperanto, but after D-Day they had to write in English to accommodate military censors. After the war Ernest served with the U.S. Department of Justice as a translator in preparation for the Nuremberg Trials. He tried to find members of the family, visited Bratislava, and was able to locate one first cousin, Herta Fuchs, who survived Auschwitz. Ernest later became a notary public and specialized in assisting Holocaust survivors in their attempts to gain restitution. Ernest Kovary lived with his parents for most of life and reunited with Alice “Lizzi” Reiss, a widowed childhood friend from Bratislava, in 1996. Alice died in 2009. Tom Kovary studied languages at Ohio State University and married Ingrid Neuhaus on July 30, 1950 in Columbus, OH. They had two daughters: Myra, b. 1952 and Vally b. 1955. The family moved to Ithaca, New York in 1953, where Tom began academic studies towards a Ph.D. in Linguistics at Cornell University. In 1959 he became a professor of Spanish and Linguistics at the State University of New York at Cortland, NY. He retired in 1985 and died three years later of cancer. Tom Kovary was devoted to Jewish traditions and observances. He was active in various Jewish organizations. Olivio Kovary died in May 1976 at age 85 in New York City. Esther Kovary died there as well, in July 1988 at the age of 91.

Ingrid Neuhaus (1921-2009) was born on August 2, 1921 in Hamburg, Germany as the oldest of three children of Julius Neuhaus and Marie Eisner Neuhaus. Julius was a prosperous merchant of leather goods and hides and Marie was in charge of the house and the children: Ingrid, Annelore (b. September 23, 1923), and Hans (b. July 20, 1925). The Neuhaus family were “progressive” Jews and joined a Reform synagogue in 1933. Julius had worked in Argentina, returned to Germany to serve during WWI, and had an import/export business that flourished until 1929, but then matters declined. In 1933 Julius’ business was confiscated by the Nazis, and the family had to move from their comfortable apartment when unable to pay the rent. Marie started selling housewares with the help of her children who distributed the goods by bicycle. Wealthy relatives sent a check every month to cover the rent. Julius was a decorated WWI veteran and could not accept the reality of Nazi policies towards the Jews. In 1935, anti-Semitic laws prohibit the family’s housekeeper and nanny, Agnes Netzband Roepcke, to continue working for the family. Agnes disobeyed the new rules and remained in touch with the family. Ingrid excelled in school and attended “Realschule” until Nazi laws forced her out in 1937. She transferred to a Jewish school of Home Economics, learned kosher cooking, and graduated in 1938. Ingrid became very active in the Jewish sports club “der Schild” and excelled at field hockey and at track and field in the 100 meter dash. Ingrid wanted to continue her education after graduation from the cooking school, but Nazi laws barred her from German schools. She worked for six months as a nanny for a Jewish family in Berlin and spent time with her maternal grandparents there. She returned to Hamburg in October 1938. In the late 1930s, Marie registered her family for immigration to the United States, but received a very high number. During Kristallnacht, November 9, 1938, Ingrid was sick in bed, her father pretended to be ill too, and the family was surprisingly not harassed by the Nazis. Marie was able to arrange for Annelore and Hans to leave Germany on a Kindertransport on January 27, 1939, but a paperwork problem delayed Ingrid until February 2. Ingrid got a job living with a Jewish family in London and taking care of their children. She tried desperately but unsuccessfully to arrange for immigration visas for her parents. During the London Blitz, Ingrid was evacuated to Oxford and found work as a seamstress. She tried to attend lectures at the university, but regulations governing enemy aliens made it impossible. Ingrid received letters from her parents via Switzerland until their deportation from Hamburg on November 8, 1941 to the Minsk ghetto in Belorussia. Their former housekeeper witnessed their deportation and later reported witnessing the train’s last car, loaded with the personal belongings of the passengers, being left behind at the station. Ingrid’s siblings Annelore (later Anne) and Hans (later Tony) attended college. In 1942 Ingrid got a job as a lab technician but this work strained her eyes and after a while she was forced to stop. For six months Ingrid was unemployed while she received medical treatments for her eyes, but an American soldier helped her survive by suppling her items that were hard to come by in wartime England. Ingrid then began secretarial school. After the war, Ingrid and Anne signed up with Civil Censorship Division of the US War Department. For almost two years Ingrid worked in Germany, and she visited her former nanny in Hamburg. In 1947 her immigration visa for the US finally came through. She was sponsored by the parents of her friend, Irma van der Porten, arrived in Oxford, Ohio, and then moved to Columbus in 1949. She worked as a clerk and sat in on classes at the Ohio State University. Ingrid met Tom Kovary at a Hillel dance at the university, and they married on July 30, 1950. Their older daughter Myra was born in 1952. A year later the family moved to Ithaca, NY, where their younger daughter Vally was born in 1955. In 1957 Ingrid became a Lecturer in German in the Division of Modern Language and Literature at Cornell University. She continued to take various university courses throughout her adult life. Without having ever received a bachelor’s degree, she applied, studied for, and received her Master of Arts degree in Education from Cornell University in 1967. Tom Kovary died on March 15, 1988. Ingrid continued to reside in Ithaca, NY close to her two daughters and her two grandchildren, Arly and Shoshana Kamholtz. She suffered a major stroke in April 2009 and died in September 2009.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Myra Kovary and Vally Kovary

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Vally Kovary

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Vally Kovary

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Myra Kovary and Vally Kovary.

Myra and Vally Kovary donated the Kovary and Neuhaus families papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2009, 2010, 2018, and 2019. Accessions cataloged as 2009.364.1, 2010.519.1, 2018.528.1, and 2019.199.1 have been incorporated into this collection.