Alexander (Sanji) Szedmáky
(1925-1945)
Sanji with his father Sándor photographed in Avenue des
Deux Gares, Paris circa 1934
My mother's younger brother was born in Paris, where his parents
were refugees following WWI. Alexandre Szedmáky was born at
the Port Royal Maternity Hospital, 123 Boulevard Port Royal, Arrondissment
14e, on December 8 1924. His father's occupation is given as "tourneur"
- lathe worker and they were living at 74 Rue Mazarine, Arrondissment 6e.
I am named for him. Alexandre is Sándor in Hungarian, Sanji in Dutch
and Alexander in English.
The family returned to Budapest in 1938, when life in the capital became
difficult for Hungarians, as their country had allied themselves with Hitler's
Germany.
Tragically he was only 20 years old when he died at a hospital in Romania
in 1945 from wounds inflicted by a bayonet whilst working as a forestry
slave labourer for the Russians. My grandparents were with him at the time
and his story has come down to me from my Dutch relatives.
Sanji had refused to fight in the Hungarian Armed Forces when he finished
his education in 1945, electing instead to work for the Red Cross. He been
picked up in a street sweep in Budapest after the Russian invasion and defeat
of the Germans, and marched away in front of his father. Sándor followed
and managed to hang on to the back of the train he was taken away on, all
the way to Debrecen! Once he had discovered where his son been taken taken,
he returned to Budapest to persuade his wife to accompany him to plead for
their son's release.
Meanwhile Sanji had arrived at a forest clearing project in Romania and
put to work with other young men who were assumed to be Hungarian soldiers
attempting to blend back into civilian life. Once the train crossed the
border and their destination was confirmed, he had thrown a scrap of paper
out of the window with his parents' address in Budapest on it, letting them
know where he was. A farmer found it and posted it to them, by coincidence
it arrived at about the same time as Sándor got home. On returning
to Debrecen, they decided to go across to Romania and, darting between trains
at the border, succeeded in going unnoticed.
Meanwhile, Sanji had made an escape attempt and, wounded, was taken to a
local hospital where he hung on to life, despite the fact that he was bleeding
heavily and had been ignored since he was brought in. Somehow they found
him and grandmother was cradling his head in her lap when he spoke his last
words.... "What will the nurses think of me, making all this mess!"
He died four minutes after they arrived.
The couple were allowed to take away his body, but could only afford to
get as far as Szeged before they had to make arrangements to bury him. Sándor
paid for the headstone by selling his gold watch, cuff-links and signet
rings. The Szedmáky signets were carefully removed beforehand and
are now in my possession.
His father later raised sufficient funds to have a second memorial raised
in Budapest. We have photographs of both, but have never been able to locate
either of them .....
Can you identify either of these sites?
Correspondence: glen@itl.net
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