Tag #137980 - Interview #78465 (Egon Lovith)

The train was staying in Budapest for 15-16 hours. I told Margo we should find out who was still alive in her family and then we would come back and go to Kolozsvar and then she could decide where we would settle. Back then Margo and I hadn’t decided where we were going to live. As soon as we stepped off the train there came a small officer with soutache decoration and golden buttons on his black uniform. I was wearing SS trousers and Wehrmacht boots just like a Hungarian soldier during the war. The officer said to me, ‘You are under arrest because you are wearing clothes that are government property, you must follow me!’ Immediately about 14 people, with whom I had come on the train from Turkheim and from other German places, gathered around and I said to them, ‘Look at Miki Horthy’s soldier. He wants to arrest me because he says I’m wearing the property of the Hungarian government.’ For that the people started to get pissed off and looked at the little officer with such threatening eyes that he got scared. He jumped onto a tram and shouted from there, ‘All of you are under arrest!’ Then I said to Margo, ‘Well my dear, nothing has changed here in the mentality. I’m coming from a concentration camp and yet they still want to take me away. They are still thinking in terms of the numerus clausus. Let’s see who is alive in your family and go to Kolozsvar afterwards.