Laura-Johana Stark was deported from Vienna to her death in Belarus on 31 August 1942. On the same day, Arpad Bogyansky was deported from Drancy to Auschwitz, where he was murdered. Eighteen months later, Arpad's wife, Selene Bogyansky-Kurz, whose son Friedrich was married to Laura's daughter, Anna, was caught and detained in Drancy. On 3 February 1944, Selene was deported to her death in Auschwitz. Laura and Selene's children and grandchildren survived under assumed identities in France.
The names Laura Stark, Arpad and Selene Bogyansky are documented in the Book of Names, three of the 4,800,000 names of Holocaust victims that have been collected by Yad Vashem and are commemorated in this monumental installation. This is their story.
Friedrich Kurz and Anna Stark got married in 1930 in Vienna. Their son Heinz-Henry was born in 1931. Friedrich, a socialist, owned a printing business in Vienna, where anti-government manifestos were produced. He escaped to Paris in 1934, for fear of being arrested. Anna and Heinz joined him a few months later, and he soon opened a printing business in Paris too.
Friedrich's mother Selene moved to France from Vienna in 1938. Friedrich wanted to bring his widowed mother-in-law Laura Stark to Paris too, but Laura refused to go, firmly believing that no harm could come to her in Austria. She was certain that elderly people would not be in danger. Friedrich and Anna's daughter Suzanne was born in Paris in 1939.
In 1940, Friedrich joined the French Foreign Legion, and was stationed in Sidi Bel Abbès in Algeria. After the German invasion of France, which began in May 1941, Anna fled to Southern France, and reached the village of Damazan in Lot-et-Garonne with her children. Henry recalls:
We arrived in Damazan. I don't know why we came specifically to this village. The house was small and dark. We lived in cramped conditions together with other people, and used a kerosene lantern for light. Every week, a man with a dog and a cage came to catch the rats. During the bombing, we ran to the shelter and looked out at the skies, which glowed red."
Friedrich was released from the Foreign Legion, and came to Damazan. In the summer of 1941, the family returned to Paris. Friedrich obtained forged papers for them, and they decided to leave Paris and go back to Vichy-controlled territory in Southern France. They divided up into smaller groups. Henry was in the first group with his father. "We rode by bicycle through the forest," relates Henry, "it was raining hard. Father took off my wet clothes and rubbed my body with paper to warm me up." Friedrich made the journey several more times until everyone was reunited in the village of Martizay in the Indre region. As well as Friedrich, Anna and their children, Selene, her second husband Arpad Bogyansky and other relatives were part of the group.
Arpad was caught and incarcerated in the Drancy concentration camp. On 25 August 1942, he wrote to Selene: "My love, don't worry. I will endure this. Be well, kisses to everyone, Bogy." That was the last sign of life from Arpad. On 31 August, he was deported from Drancy to Auschwitz and murdered. Selene remained in Martizay. Eighteen month later, she was caught and deported to Auschwitz.
In November 1942, the Germans occupied the Vichy regime's territory in Southern France, and the situation of the Kurz family became more precarious. Friedrich searched for a more secure living arrangement. They settled in the small village of Boncelin, in the suburbs of Aix-les-Bains, where they rented a ground-floor apartment. The landlady and her daughter lived on the floor above them. Henry recalls:
We had a small garden, and a stream nearby, with frogs and fish… In order to get to school, I had to walk 4 km until the train station, and then to travel on a slow train until I arrived at school. Father often travelled with me, and met many acquaintances on the way. We laughed, and used to travel the whole way on the stairs going up to the train, hanging onto the metal railing. In the summer, we rode there by bicycle.
Friedrich worked in the fields of the village doctor, and grew vegetables. The children went to school, and every Sunday they went to church. Friedrich trained the local youngsters in football, and Henry sang in the choir. One day, a group of German soldiers came to the field where Friedrich and his children were tending to the vegetables. "It was hot," relates Henry, "and father and I took off our shirts. One of the soldiers told us: 'One can see that you are Aryans, your skin is so white.' After the soldier left, Father said to me: 'It's a good thing our trousers didn't fall down.'" The Kurz family continued with their daily routine until liberation, even after Germans came to the area. They returned to Paris less than a week after liberation, and retrieved their printing business. Henry relates:
I am almost embarrassed by the fact that we were together, and that I had a pretty normal life for a boy my age. All the family together… Suzanne was sad. We had to tell her that she's not Catholic, but Jewish. She started to go to school, and I began high school at the Lycée Voltaire...
In 1952, Friedrich, Anna, Henry and Suzanne immigrated to Israel.
In 2014, documents and photographs of the Kurtz family, including Arpad Bogyanski's last postcard, were donated to the Yad Vashem Archives as part of the national project, "Gathering the Fragments". Some of them are displayed here.
