My Mother's Home Town

My mother's family, my godfather, and my confirmation sponsor, were all from a small Hungarian town called Gyongyos in Heves(mountainous) County an hour north of Budapest at the feet of the Matra Mountains on the northern end of the Great Hungarian Plain. In 1944, there were 22,000 people living in Gyongyos, including about 2500 Jews, most of whom, like my mother's family, perished. A handful, including my mother, survived. This is their story.