July 19, 2024
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The second quarter of 2024 continued apace with a very exciting new development in our work - the renovation of the beautiful Greiner mausoleum. This is the first we have done but hope it is only the beginning. It is important to mention our policy of never using general donations for renovation of individual graves, rather, these come from family and friends.
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Regular work: we completed section 20 and also tackled 38, our fourth largest section which is densely overgrown. We expect to be finish it by the end of this month. These two sections are over 25,000 sq. meters in size (6 1/4 acres) with 8018 graves. Thanks to your support, our total work to date has now reached 23 hectares (over 56 acres) and almost 72,000 graves! Please see the updated map.
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We registered an Australian charity named Australian Friends of the Budapest Jewish Cemetery. Donations can now be made easily in AUD and be tax-deductible in certain circumstances. Please contact us for details.
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As Friends of the Cemetery, our mission is to raise the profile of this incredibly important place. At the macro level, it is the largest Jewish cemetery in the world and it tells the story of the enormous contribution of the Jewish people to make Budapest and Hungary punch well above its weight in the 19th and 20th century. On the micro level, for so many descendants outside of Hungary, graves often remain the last pieces of tangible evidence of one’s family presence here. All of our work is focused on stemming the destruction by neglect, mostly by removing the dense jungle but also through renovating individual graves. A mausoleum is no different, just on a larger scale and the Greiner family story is a powerful one that will be familiar to many. The entire front wall of our cemetery is lined with beautiful examples. Beyond the physical though are incredibly interesting stories, only very few of which are known to us personally. We would love to hear from anyone who has a family mausoleum or can connect us to those who do at office@budapestjewishcemetery.com
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Warm regards,
Michael and Marc
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Above is how we found the monument, then the renovated version today, with visiting stones having been left after who knows how long. Left is the original in 1909. The very thick tree growing through it was very difficult to remove as one cannot damage graves nearby. Rather, it had to be scaled by an alpine technologist and branches lowered bit by bit. The stump alone took 3 days to remove. The lack of road access meant that the large stones had to be lifted by a crane placed on the street side of the wall.
The Greiner Mausoleum - a story of happenstance
About seven months ago, we were contacted by a professor of Architectural and Art History at ELTE, formerly the University of Budapest, one of the country’s most prestigious. Tamas Csaki is a specialist in the works of Bela Lajta (Leitersdorfer), one of the greats of the Hungarian Art Noveau movement, most active between 1900-1920. Tamas is the one who found the long forgotten mass grave of the early Pest cemetery in Section 37. In putting together an exhibition on Lajta, he contacted Marc. During the conversation he mentioned some of his key works in our cemetery. He highlighted the Greiner mausoleum and remarked that the descendant was an important political figure in Australia. Until then, we knew nothing about it!
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To our Australian readers, The Hon. Nick Greiner needs no introduction; to others, he was the equivalent of a state governor of New South Wales, Australia’s most important state. Beyond that, he played a very important role in the Liberal Party as well as a prominent figure in the business world. We were able to arrange an introduction. Mr Greiner was raised Catholic and knew nothing about this grave either but after a presentation on his Jewish roots, kindly agreed to pay for its entire renovation as well as the regular grave of another great-grandmother. All of this happened because of one comment!
It is built from beautiful white marble with engraved motifs resembling nature while the memorial plaque is Swedish black granite. Mausoleums are atypical in a Jewish cemetery but there are many examples in the assimilated communities of larger cities such as Budapest, Vienna and Berlin. Even then, there were limits to accommodate Jewish law and custom. While Christian ones would have had angels carved in relief, to avoid engraving the human form, this one has different types of birds, all with their heads bent in mourning. The weeping willow, common to many Jewish tombstones of this era, is represented here but in a more Hungarian folkloric style. The structure was in a serious state of disrepair (pictured) with a very thick and large tree growing through the middle and it is unclear how much longer it would have stayed erect.
The family story is illustrative of the Jewish experience in Hungary. The Greiner family came from Turoczszentmarton, in the mountainous region of northern Slovakia. Jews were not allowed to own land so like many others in these forested regions, they were in the wood trading business. Emanuel (Mano) Greiner was born in 1825 to David Greiner. He married Tereza Holstein in 1858 and had three sons who survived into adulthood. Hugo, the middle son, became a lawyer but eventually joined the family business and his son, Nick (Sr), in turn, followed in his footsteps. With success and the spirit of the times, he moved the family to Budapest in the late 1880s where his business thrived. Both Mano and Tereza died in 1908 after which this beautiful mausoleum was built.
Hungary underwent difficult times after World War I including the loss of Greater Hungary at Trianon. The Greiner family also suffered the loss of their business and like many of the Jewish bourgeoisie, feared retribution for the short-lived socialist republic established under Bela Kun and blamed on the Jews in general. This period was known as the White Terror. At this time, Hugo Greiner and his brother Bela converted their families to Catholicism. Eventually, they re-established the business only to suffer again post 1940. The oldest brother, Sandor, died in 1942 and having remained Jewish was buried in this mausoleum. His wife and son, Ferenc, predeceased him and are also buried there. Hugo also died in 1942. Meanwhile, in 1944, Nick Sr was put into the forced labour battalions and sent to the Eastern Front.
In 1949, after a harrowing escape from Hungary, Nick Sr. and family slowly made their way to Australia, arriving in 1951 with his wife Clara and young son, Nick. He immediately established a new wood business in Sydney. Nick Jr went on to many great things. The Greiner family’s relationship with Hungary was complicated; they achieved success despite many limitations but eventually lost everything. They left and took their talents elsewhere; our takeaway is that while they suffered loss, it was also a big loss for Hungary.
The culmination of the renovation was a moving rededication ceremony that was held on 21st of June. Mr Greiner made a special trip to Budapest while in Europe and it was also attended by the president of the Budapest Jewish community, Tamas Mester, and Peter Kunos, the Executive Director of the Hungarian Jewish Communal roof body, Mazsihisz. Michael Perl opened the proceedings with some words of thanks and the significance of this story to us today. This was followed by a moving speech by Mr Greiner and in turn, a warm and appreciative acknowledgement from Mr Mester. Cantor Emanuel Zucker intoned the memorial prayer for those buried in the mausoleum as well as a song of memorial taken from the yizkor service.
Our regular work continues
Section 20 contains 2257 graves spread over 7925 sq meters. One of the oldest sections, it began at the end of 1896, it can be seen as a continuation of Section 14 which started in 1894. There are also many burials spanning 1898 - 1911.
Section 38 is our fourth biggest section with an enormous 17,166 sq meters or 4 1/4 acres, containing 5761 graves. Being one of the sections running to the back wall of the cemetery, it is a very dense jungle that has had to be removed. Most of the burials occurred between 1931 - 1934 making this still an oft-visited section. The combination of density as well as very hot weather (slower moving and fewer workers) has made the finish date of this section about 3 weeks later than we had anticipated. The good news is that we pay our team only on success and completion, so financially we are no worse off, it just hinders our completion targets for the year
Section 20 before and then completed
Here is our map showing achievement to date. The pink-shaded sections are the ones we have completed and visually, it is very pleasing. The enormous Section 38 is not quite finished but almost there. By number of sections (28 out of 51) we are now at 55% of our goal and with the completion of our next section, we will have reached 50% of our goal in area. It is a long slog but we can finally say we are getting somewhere!
