Brothers For Resistance And Rescue By David Gur

Charody JudithRitscher IlonaBorn in Kiskunhalas in 1927Member of “Hanoar Hatzioni”At the time of the German invasion she was living in Budapest with herfamily. She studied at a business school and trained in typing andstenography. She printed papers and documents and often workedaround the clock to meet the demand. On 26.6.1944 Judith was caughtwith her sister and taken to the Gestapo headquarters on Schwabs Hill.She was interrogated for two weeks. For some days she wasincarcerated with Hanna Szenes. Judith was transferred to Kistarcsa andeventually she and her sister were released with the help of theInternational Red Cross because they were minors. Judith worked in oneof the children’s houses established by her movement. For a while shestayed in a bunker and transferred weapons. Judith and her sister appliedto the post office in the capital and were hired. The uniform and authenticdocuments made it possible for Judith to walk around freely, work in theProtected Houses, children’s houses, ghetto and bunkers. She collectedwandering homeless Jewish children and took them to the children’shouses.Judith resides in Australia.Cohen Eliezer 'Eli'Kohn KarlBorn in Vienna in 1918Member of “Maccabi Hatzair”Eli’s family moved to Slovakia. With the worsening of the situation andthe increasing danger coming from the Germans, Eli set up anagricultural hahshara for the members of the movement next to theHungarian border. Upon the beginning of the deportations of Jews fromSlovakia, in three days he smuggled 28 members of the hahshara intoHungary by crossing the Vág River. In the same way another twentycomrades crossed the border with his help. Eli was a member of themovement’s leadership and was in charge of the refugees, members ofthe “Gordoniya movement” that arrived from Poland to Slovakia. Elihimself escaped to Hungary after the German invasion on 19.3.1944 andtook part in rescue operations. He left Hungary on the Relief and RescueCommittee train.Brothers for Resistance and Rescue 70