This webpage presents an interactive map showing Jewish places in Bonyhád, which had a vibrant Jewish presence until the Holocaust in Hungary, which started in mid-April 1944.

Click to view brief historical notes.

Website was developed to be used with computers, large screens and may not work well on smart phones.

The website manages an interactive map, which shows that Jews lived near the two synagogues, Jewish schools etc. in order to be able to conduct a Jewish way of life.

Marker positions on the map are based on translation of addresses to latitude, longitude.
Accuracy is probably 10 - 20 meters, thus markers may be slightly mislocated.

Getting started

When the webpage is launched the top window shows part of Bonyhád's map and on it a default yellow marker marking the "current place".
Below it is another window providing Google StreetView.

The yellow marker may be moved which navigates to StreetView of the associated area.

If a location or a marker is right clicked StreetView of the location's vicinity is shown and the yellow marker is moved.

The website can be used to search for people by their names and/or addresses.

IMPORTANT: Current street names must be used in searches, not what was used in the 1940-s and earlier.
Near the end of this page is link to an Old Name to New Name translation table.

What were once facilities, residences and stores which were owned or inhabited by Jews right before the Holocaust in Hungary may be searched.
Locations found are marked with small colored circles.

Small markers are needed to reduce "business" of the map since often many data points need to be shown, sometimes close to 200.

If the markers prove to be too small then their size may be increased by Zoom (bottom of the screen at right) or simultaneously pressing with Windows Control (Ctrl) and +.

Some Jews lived in private houses with one family etc. per address, which is represented by a small marker.

It is not possible to have a marker for each family who lived in an apartment building.
Such locations are designated by a slightly larger marker.

If a marker is clicked or a mouse or other pointing device hovers over a location's marker and the "Explain" checbox is checked a small pop-up "Info Window" appears.
It shows the name, address and latitude,longitude for those who resided there - as shown below.

Placement of markers may be off by about 20 meters due to the way addresses are automatically translated to latitude, longitude on the map.

This may place a marker on the wrong side of a street, at a nearby house, etc.

Marker related information is from the application's database.

The locations marked on the map are mostly based on tables in the Hungarian edition of Mr. Leslie (László) Blau's book:
Bonyhád - Egy Elpusztított Zsidó Közösség (Bonyhád - A Destroyed Community)

The tables list what were Jewish places in Bonyhád in 1944.
The original material was prepared by the Bonyhád local authorities in context of Hungary's anti-Jewish laws, various cruel actions and deportation of Jews to Auschwitz.

Currently it is difficult to verify the information and to get clarifications from descendants of families who were in Bonyhád in 1944.
Consequently the map can only give a general indication of what were once Jewish places. Some errors are expected.
Few locations from the post-war period are also shown.

Suggested corrections and additions can be sent to lpfeffer@gmail.com.

There are standard Google Map controls on the map and StreetView windows.

Zoom in and out of the map is via the + or - sign at the map right center.

Switch between map and satellite view is with the controls on the bottom of the screen, where various options can be set.

Click on the StreetView and also the map top tight rectangular control switches either to full screen.

Pressing the rectangular control or ESC key returns to the original display format.

In some cases it may be useful to display the region via a satellite vs. map view
That removes the standard markers and labels which are on he map layer provided by Google.

To do this
(a) click Map vs. Satellite
(b) uncheck Labels

NOTE: Satellite view does NOT show street names.

Minimal shows only the markers, icons, labels without background and provides the most uncluttered view.
It shows no map or satellite image data and zoom control - just a white background and markers, icons.

All 3 view types can be zoomed via the ZOOM IN and OUT buttons at bottom

Views MAP, SATELLITE or MINIMAL can be set via options on bottom of the screen. Refresh must be pressed for the choice to take effect.

Satellite view

Minimal background view with the application's markers

The map needs to be refreshed by pressing the Refresh button after change of any option.

In many cases maps populated with markers can get very "busy" and it becomes difficult to make sense of many locations.
Zooming In separates markers which are too close.

People or locations may be searched for.
Markers are shown for those found and optionally highlighted.
Only those are shown whose name OR address fully or partially matches search criteria in the Search Terms field.

One or more comma separated strings of letters needs to be typed into the Search terms box after it is cleared of prior content.
Search is on a combined string of people's name and address.

If more than one search comma separated terms is entered then all matching locations are selected and marked on the map if any of the search terms match. For example Pollák, Hirschfeld, Eisner, Glattstein would select and mark matches for any of the terms.
This is called OR selection.

Any number of spaces may be entered before and after commas.

Hungarian "accent marks" on characters in search terms and data base entries are removed.
For example Rákóczi and Rakoczi would have the same effect.

Search is not case sensitive and does not care if characters are in lower, upper or mixed case.

Sufficient to enter only part of a name or an address.
For example the list bro, koh, sing would select locations of homes for families Brown, Kohn, Singer.

Search for locations in Rákóczi Ferenc and Perczel Mór can be specified as Rakoczi, Perczel or as Rako, Per.

After typing the search information it should end with a carriage return or the Refresh button needs to be pressed to do the search.
the locations whose name and/or address is matched or partly matched by any of the search terms are shown.

Search for a specific address such as say Rákóczi Ferenc u. 26 would need to be specified exactly as Rákóczi Ferenc u u. 26 or Rakoczi Ferenc u. 26.
All locations on a street would be marked if the search criterion is just Rakoczy or even Rako. No need to accent characters.

Asterisk "*" may be used as a wild card.
If it is the search term then all locations in the database are selected and marked on the map.

There is an option to only show the selected people or places, in which case the markers are blue.

Similarly to the above, places may be selected by place type.
Currently he following place types are processed: home, homes (multi-dwelling residences), cemetery, cheder, jewish, mikve, rabbi, sochet, synagogue, yeshiva.

For example, specifying home selects or highlights only residences.
(Stores are treated as homes for various reasons, thus search for 'home' shows residence and store locations.)
A search string may be "Hom, Syn"

Highlighting in red selected places
Highlight was checked

Showing only places for Hirschfeld, Pollák, Singer families
Search terms: Hirschfeld, Pollák, Singer. Checked Show only

Selected only building at Rákóczi Ferenc u. 10
Search terms: Rakoczi Ferenc u. 10. Checked Show only

If it is desired to show a family's residence at a specific street and house number then a short cut is available.

For example to search for the Pollák family at Perczel Mór u. 37 the search phrase could be Poll & Perc & 37 or even Poll & 37.
& means AND.

Poll & 37, Hirsch &Imre& 2 would select residence for the Pollák family at Perczel Mór u. 37 and the Hirschfeld family at Szent Imre u. 2.

Search is NOT case sensitive, thus it makes no difference if the search terms are typed in upper or lower case.
Hungarian "accent marks" on characters in search terms and data base entries are ignored.

The map must be refreshed with the Refresh button after any change to the search and highlight control fields.

The webpage is based on Google Map tools and some programming.

It is running on a server.

The data needed for the map would have been difficult to collect.
Tables in Leslie (László) Blau's book made this task much easier.

One difficulty was translating street names from nearly 80 year old records to current street names needed for GoogleMap.

Some Bonyhád streets were renamed soon after the 1945 Russian occupation and some were again renamed after end of Communism in Hungary in the late 1980s.

A street name translation table was developed for this.

The following people in Bonyhád helped with this task: Dr. Zoltán Szőts, Mr. György Steib and Mrs. József Müller.

Between May 12-15, 1944 the Jews in Bonyhád, Szekszárd, Bátaszék and surrounding viallages were forced into two ghettos in Bonyhád:

Some were cruelly tortured in order to steal their valuables.

On July 1, 1944 they were forced onto a transport of cattle wagons.
It was first routed south to the Lakits military barracks in the city of Pécs and then proceeded north.
The transport arrived in Auschwitz on July 9 - Yud Chet (18) Tamuz.

Most were murdered immediately on arrival.

Following is a Martyr List (Megilat Hasshmada) listing names of the Jews from Bonyhád murdered during the Holocaust.
The list is based on a table in Mr. János "Jancsi" (Zvi) Eisner's book A bonyhádi zsidók története  (History of the Jews of Bonyhád) (Tel Aviv 1965, in Hungarian), which was expanded in Mr. Leslie (lászló) Blau's Bonyhád – Egy elpusztított zsidó közösség (Bonyhád: a Destroyed Community) (Bonyhád, 2008, in Hungarian) and subsequent research in early 2010s.

Tragically, this was one of the last transports from Hungary.

After the large-scale and unprecedented Swiss grass roots protests, masses in Swiss churches and major Swiss press campaign with over 400 articles starting on June 24, 1944 protesting Europe's barbarism toward Jews, Hungary's ruler, Miklós Horthy, was forced by America, England and others to end the deportations and vicious murder.
Most transports stopped on July 7, 1944 - tragically too late for Bonyhád's Jews.

The critical events in Switzerland were triggered by George Mantello (Mandel), a Hungarian Jew from Romania.
He was First Secretary of the El Salvador embassy in Switzerland.

He publicized the tragic events in Auschwitz immediately after receiving the by now famous Auschwitz Report from Moshe Krausz in Budapest via a trusted Romanian diplomat friend, Floran Manilou, who traveled to Romania to check on Mantello's family and ignored instructions not to stop in Budapest on the way back to Switzerland.

Unfortunately Mantello got the report 2 months after Kasztner obtained it in April 1944 during a visit to Bratislava, Slovakia.

Mantello was the only one to publicize the report's findings.

There were other reasons for Horthy's decision to stop the transports and included

• realization after the great defeat of the German and its allied armies, including Hungary's, at Stalingrad ((July 17, 1942 – February 2, 1943) that Germany and its allies are likely to lose the war,
• advancement of Russian troops in Romania and getting near the Hungarian border,
• Roosevelt finally acting and setting up in January 1944 the War Refugee Board as a result of incessant rescue activism and pressure by the Hillel Kook (aka Peter Bergson) led "Bergson Group": the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe and later rescue activism and pressure on Roosevelt by a team at the US Treasury and Jewish Secretary of Treasury Henry Morgenthau,
• America and England bombing strategic locations in Budapest on July 2, 1944,
• >By July 1944, and in fact much earlier, it was clear that Germany and Hungary are about to be defeated by the allies.

Nazi Germany's ally, Hungary, was an active and cruel participant in the monumental tragedy of Hungarian Jews.

It presents itself as a victim of the Nazis vs. a co-perpetrator of the murder of most of its loyal Jewish citizens.

Comments to: Send email to lpfeffer@gmail.com

Updated June 2024