Review
The Holocaust and the Nazi era have been much written about. But you will find few with such a first-person feel, or so full of intriguing detail as the story Marta Fuchs tells here. Legacy of Rescue is about the experiences of her father, Morton (Miksa) Fuchs, and his family, as Jews in Nazi-era Hungary. Much of the story is first-person narrative, told by the people who survived these events. As the title indicates, however, a major focus of the book is how Miksa survived, with assistance from a surprising quarter the Hungarian (gentile) officer in charge of his forced labor battalion. Poignantly, Miksa Fuchs survived the war; his rescuer did not. The account of just how all this came about is a large part of what makes this book unique, and gripping reading. The example of heroism that the rescue demonstrates should stir us all, and especially provide a worthy model for young readers. Another distinctive aspect of the book is the chapters devoted to Marta s follow-up to her father s story: her trips to Hungary to add to her knowledge of these events, and especially to honor Miksa s rescuer. The account of her meeting with this Hungarian army officer s son is one of the most moving passages in her Tribute. It s not only the subject, but the style, that recommend Legacy of Rescue. It s full of detail, fascinating detail, and richly textured. Marta Fuchs has preserved her father s words as far as she feasibly could, translating them from Hungarian, with as little editing to smooth the narrative out as possible. This leaves the writing with a strong first-person flavor. At times it feels as if you can almost hear the old accents in the speech patterns of the protagonists! To add another book to this already large body of literature requires considerable justification. Marta Fuchs has met that requirement well. You may think you have read everything you ever wanted to hear about this era; but you will find this book will stir you to tears, and inspire you with courage. --ohn F. Duge, Ph.D., M.D. Retired Pastor, Central Seventh Day Adventist Church, San Francisco, CA
We are not often aware of the enormous difference a single person can make in the lives of generations to come. Marta Fuchs book, Legacy of Rescue: A Daughter s Tribute, which interweaves the author s voice with the voices of the generation before her and the generation after her, tells precisely that story in the context of her native Hungary in the years from the pre-Nazi era to the Communist era and into the present. Fuchs was born in 1950 to Jewish parents in Tokaj, Hungary. Before her birth her father, born in 1911, had been consigned to a labor camp where many of his cohort died. He, too, might have died had it not been for the compassion and generosity of one man, his Commanding Officer, a devout Seventh Day Adventist. Legacy of Rescue describes the events of Fuchs father s rescue by that man, Zoltan Kubinyi, culminating in the visit Fuchs made in 2011, with her brother and each of their two grown children (whose actual reflections are included in the book), to Kubinyi s family in Hungary. The pilgrimage made in this book is a pilgrimage into the author s past, narrated in order to preserve that past and allow it to inform the future. Passages in the voices of Fuchs parents and aunts describe the lively world of Jewish Tokaj before the disastrous occupations, as well as the effects of the Nazi period and then of the Communist period. Fuchs family fled to the United States after the events of 1956, but maintained contact with Tokaj as a loved and vibrant home within them; the four American-born grandchildren feel, as a result, a deep sense of rootedness in the small Hungarian town. This book is also the beautifully detailed story of the encounter of two men, Christian rescuer and Jewish survivor. Kubinyi, who was captured by the Russians and died of typhus in confinement , could not witness the results of his actions toward the Jews who were in his charge, but he is thanks to the Fuchs family s intervention memorialized as a Righteous Gentile at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. A deeply moving moment in the book is Marta Fuchs meeting with Kubinyi s son on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary Holocaust Commemoration in Tokaj when she spoke about his father. The elder Fuchs, Marta s father, who died in Pasadena in 2000, refused all his life to hate the Germans or the non-Jewish Hungarians, wanting instead to instill in those who knew him a compassion and perspective similar to the one that had been held by the man who saved his life. Granddaughter Sophie, in a beautiful passage toward the end of the book, writes of feeling the presence of the two men as she and her family sit in the Kubinyi home. How wonderful to think of them coming together to see the fruits of their lives labor, the richness and depth of their children and grandchildren. Sophie points out, of course, that none of her family there would have been present without the actions of Kubinyi. Her gratitude is testament to both her grandfather, whose influence on those he loved was immense, and to the man who saved his life at the cost of his own. Legacy of Rescue, though it centers on painful events, is finally a greatly uplifting book about the nobility to which human beings can rise in catastrophic moments. Both men, survivor and rescuer, stand as examples to us of the love we are capable of in the midst of horror and destruction. The book is written with deep authenticity and in exquisite prose. --Anita Barrows is a clinical psychologist and tenured professor at the Wright Institute, Berkeley. Four volumes of her poetry have been published, two of which have been granted national awards (from Riverstone Press and the Quarterly Review of Po
Like so many members of the Second Generation, Marta Fuchs grew up with a family fractured by the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century, its members scattered throughout the world. In her family of Hungarian Jews, the living members emigrated at different times: before and after the second world war; after the Hungarian Uprising of 1956. The dead lived on in stories and one of the most compelling was that of Zoltan Kubinyi. In this memoir, Marta Fuchs weaves his story and many others into her own search to document, commemorate and integrate the past and draw a portrait of a Righteous Christian in the Shoah. --Helen Epstein is the author of Children of the Holocaust: Conversations with Sons and Daughters of Survivors and the family and women's history Where She Came From: A Daughter's Search for her Mother's History.
About the Author
Marta Fuchs was born in Budapest and lived with her family in Tokaj until they escaped to the U.S. in the wake of the 56 Hungarian Revolution. She holds a BA in Linguistics and an MA in Library Science, both from UC Berkeley, and an MA in Clinical Psychology from JFK University in Orinda, CA. Marta is a professional librarian and Director of Library Services at Drew School, a college preparatory high school in San Francisco, CA. She is also a licensed Marriage & Family Therapist in private practice in Albany, CA. With her brother Henry Fuchs she wrote the multigenerational extended family memoir, Fragments of a Family: Remembering Hungary, the Holocaust, and Emigration to a New World c1997). For over two decades, Marta Fuchs has spoken about Zoltan Kubinyi in schools, temples, churches, and interfaith programs. She has also been featured in newspaper articles and television programs, and has presented at city-wide programs, conferences and Holocaust Commemorations in the US and Hungary.
