The Kohner Family

In June 2023, my sister, my 14 year old son, my mother and I are traveling to Budapest, Hungary to continue our research on my Hungarian side of the family.

My grandfather was named Vilmos Wilhelm Kohner, but pretty much everyone called him Willy Kohner. The Kohners were a very prominent Jewish aristocratic family who first made their money in pig farming, and then eventually moved in to banking. His third wife, Franciska Schmidt Kohner, was my great grandmother. Because Willy was still married to his second wife when my my great aunt and grandmother were born, he paid for another man's name to be put on both children's birth certificates.

In an extremely fortunate twist of fate, the act of putting another man's (who happened to be Catholic) on my grandmother and great aunt's birth certificates probably saved their lives. In 1938 around the time both women were in their late teens, Hungary had instated laws the prohibited Jews from certain professions, attending university, marrying non Jews, and eventually wearing yellow stars, ghettos, and concentration camps.

My father was born in in Budapest in late 1944, just as the Siege of Budapest was coming to a close and the Soviets were about to invade Budapest. My grandmother gave birth to him in the bottom of a bombed out hospital. There weren't any doctors or nurses, just a few women and their newborns who banded together to help each other.

By December 1944, their extended family was scattered all over the city of Budapest. Some were still hiding from the Arrow Cross Army (Hungary's version of the German Nazis), some were presumed dead, but all were just trying to survive and make it to the next day.

My grandmother identified as Catholic because that's how her mother was raised, but her father was Jewish. As a result, his large extended family was persecuted by the Nazis. And because they were part of Budapest's aristocracy, they were then persecuted by the Communists.

My father and grandmother were eventually able to escape Hungary in 1949. My great aunt stayed behind to take care of their mother, She escaped by walking across the Hungarian/Austrian border during the 1956 revolution. Eventually they all made it to the United States, but not without a lot of trauma and troubles along the way.

We are traveling to Budapest to try and unravel some of the mysteries of our family history. Follow along with us here as we research and plan for the trip!