Frank Szasz

Of Blessed Memory 1925 – 1995

Frank Szasz was born in 1925 in Budapest, Hungary. He was 19 years old in 1944 when he was forced into the Hungarian labor battalions. After eight months of hard labor, Frank escaped with the help of the Jewish underground. He was then able to use his skills as an artist to forge rubber stamps to create false identity papers for other Jews in hiding. He continued this work, hiding in the open as a non-Jew in Budapest, until he was liberated by the Soviets in January 1945. Frank was captured by Soviet troops, along with thousands of others, and sent to forced labor inside the Soviet Union. In 1951 he returned to Budapest, resuming his career as an artist. He and his family immigrated to the United States in 1956 during the Hungarian Revolution.