Schiffer family in Hungary

Ernö (Ernest) Schiffer, born in Námesztó in 1893, studied medicine at university in Budapest. He enlisted in the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I and was in charge of a medical unit on the Russian Front. In the 1920s, he worked at the Jewish Hospital in Budapest and specialized in the new field of radiology, developing techniques for the X-ray apparatus, various shutters, and cooling devices, and diagnostic dyes and methods. He also found time to study the new field in Vienna, Zurich, and Stockholm. The severe exposure to X-rays he received during this period likely later resulted in his early death from leukemia. He met Erzsébet while interning at the Jewish Hospital in Budapest. They married in 1928 and had János (John) in 1930. The family lived in Budapest next to City Park (Városliget). Ernö bought a car (an Opel) and learned to drive in the mid-1930s. Their daughter Éva was born in 1933. By about 1941 the Nazi threat was becoming more serious in Hungary. Ernö had a patient who was a Unitarian minister who agreed to baptize the Schiffers into the Unitarian church. Initially, Ernö was partly protected from the changing laws against Jews because of his military service and that he treated many influential persons (including the regent) as patients; there was also a minor distinction between Jews who had recently settled in Hungary and those whose families had lived there a long time. After March 19, 1944 yellow stars had to be worn and the family moved into a designated Jewish apartment. Ernö was able to obtain protective passports for the family from the Swedish embassy (through the Wallenberg initiative). Ernö was taken in a labor brigade in summer 1944 to dig trenches for the defense of the city; many of his family members went into hiding. In October 1944, the Schiffers were briefly moved into a house under Swedish embassy protection, and then back to their apartment at Katona Jozsef utca 23/a where they had kept a hidden store of food. Ernö had been marching with the labor brigade towards Germany but simply walked away from them one day and crossed the Danube by foot back to Budapest where he reunited with his family. The Schiffers remained together in the apartment during the Russian siege of the city until they were liberated in January 1945. Excursions and leisure time for the Schiffer family, including the locations (in reverse order) of Hűvösvölgy (park-like suburb in Buda hills), Kevely Nyereg, Janoshegy (tallest mountain in Buda), Margit Island, the Tatra mountains, and Zabar (a village where a Berkes cousin had a farm). According to the label, shots include friends: the Berkes family, the Brody family, Laci Fodor, and Jancsi Straus, among others. (00:14) Cousin Andris Berkes rides horse in pasture in Zabar showing off his riding skills. (02:23) Family gathers outdoors at a table at a restaurant in Margit Island, posing and waving to camera. Dog. CUs, children, they speak directly to the camera. Children run and play. (03:34) Andris poses for the camera in a courtyard of home, mother Margit with sunglasses, and Andris on father Sanyi's shoulder. Elegantly dressed family members walk to the camera before a columned building. (04:53) The family group plays a game with a ball in a park outdoors. (05:11) Brief view of photographer with camera on tripod. (06:00) A younger Andris runs outside and is joined by a nurse-maid. The boy plays with the camera case in the park, picks flowers, kisses his parents, poses for camera, runs around, plays ball, possibly in Hűvösvölgy. (09:58) Excursion in grassy field, summertime. Girl picks flowers and runs around. Child rides a bicycle at a vacation residence (villa?). Couple rides horses. Man performs various acrobatic moves. (12:00) The family begins a performance, child with accordion. (12:15) EXTs, family in courtyard of home. Adults and children pose for the camera. (13:18) The family group hikes along a cobbled trail and stop at an outdoor restaurant in Buda: “Balázs Antal Restaurant Dreher Sörök Vendeglö”. Quick shots, they walk along a street, automobiles. HAS, tram 83. (14:10) Large toad. Dog jumps and plays. (14:27) CUs, newborn (possibly cousin Zsuzsi Schiffer) with grandparents.