Des Lee (Lévi Dezsö)

Title: I had nothing to lose: A life of ups and downs
Author: Des Lee
Publisher: Makor Jewish Community Library
Place of publication: Caulfield South, VIC
Year of Publication: 2010
Location of Book: Lamm Jewish Library, Melbourne Holocaust Museum, Sydney Jewish Museum, State Library of Victoria and other public libraries
Cities/town/camps: Hungary: Vértes, Debrecen, Austria: Strasshof, Vienna, Grafenegg, Czechoslovakia: Theresienstadt; Australia: Melbourne

Note: those cities/towns/camps underlined are those which are most central to the narrative
Genre: Memoir
Key events/experiences: ghetto; concentration camp; child survivor; Hungarian Revolution; refugee

I had nothing to lose is the story of Des Lee, a concentration camp survivor and the only Jewish child from his beloved village, Vértes in Hungary, to have survived the Holocaust. Pages 1-24 chart the author’s pre-war life in Hungary with pages 25-38 recounting the increasing of antisemitic laws between 1941 to 1944. Pages 38-68 detail the establishment of the Debrecen ghetto, Lee’s internment in various concentration camps as a forced labourer and his eventual liberation from Theresienstadt. Part Two recounts Lee’s return to Hungary and his experiences under Communist rule (pages 68-91) as well as his time as a soldier in the Hungarian army (pages 92-104) and his life as a refugee in Vienna (pages 105-122). Part Three, pages 123-186, is dedicated to his life in Melbourne with pages 189-201 containing a selection of family recipes.

Des Lee (Lévi Dezsö) was born in the small Hungarian village of Vértes in August 1933. Des was the only surviving child of Ignacz and Ilona Levi, his two siblings having passed away in early infancy. His family were hard-working and influential landowners who also owned and ran the local butcher shop and tavern. They grew local produce on their farm, making their own wine which they sold at the tavern. With the onset of the war, antisemitic measures grew in intensity. In 1943, the Cheder where Des attended school was forcibly closed, as were the family businesses. All the young men in the village were conscripted into the army, where they were forced to perform hard labour or sent to the frontlines. Two of Des’ uncles were killed on the eastern front. Des’ father toiled in labour camps, though he was able to return home. The Csendör, the local Hungarian police, terrorised the local Jewish population and brutally enforced antisemitic measures, violently confiscating Jewish property and committing wanton assaults.

Hoping to escape the violence, in early 1944, Des and his parents moved to Debrecen. With the Nazi Occupation of Hungary in March, the authorities began rounding up the local Jewish population into ghettos. Des and his family were sent to the Debrecen ghetto. In the ghetto, Des was one of several young boys who crossed the ‘walls’ (though actually part of a fence), risking their lives to smuggle lifesaving food. In June 1944, when Des was just eleven-years-old, he and his family were sent to perform back-breaking hard labour at a brick factory close to Debrecen. Soon thereafter, deportations to Auschwitz began. Due to delays caused by wartime damage, the train carrying Des, his parents and his Uncle Jeno stalled for twenty days in the countryside before being diverted to the Strasshof forced labour camp in Austria. They were then deported to the Grafenegg estate where they worked as slave labourers on a farm. In late ’44, Des’ father was arrested by the Austrian police for possessing contraband, a newspaper, and was never heard from again. In early 1945, with the Soviet army rapidly approaching, Des was sent to Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia with his mother and Uncle Jeno. There, Des narrowly survived being included in a transport to Auschwitz when his Uncle Jeno hid him in a coal sack for 3 days in the kitchen basement of the Gestapo barracks where he worked. In May, Theresienstadt was liberated by the Soviet army.

After the war, Des returned to Vértes to learn that 180 members of his extended family had been murdered, including his father and grandfather. Des was the only Jewish child in the whole district to have survived. Though much of the family’s property and possessions had been looted or destroyed, they were able to reopen the butchery. In Communist Hungary, the family was subject to discrimination as both Jews and former landowners. To overcome strict communist regulations, Des and his uncles were forced to illegally sell and trade meat. Nonetheless, Des finished school and began work as a taxation officer before being drafted into the army in 1953, where he served until 1955. After his service ended he returned to his work as tax officer.

During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, anti-communist and antisemitic violence broke out across the country. As the district tax inspector, and thus a visible member of the communist government - and a Jew - Des was the target of antisemitic violence, narrowly escaping a mob attack. Fearing for his life, Des convinced his mother, his Uncle Feri, Jeno and other community members to flee Vértes, driving to Budapest to obtain assistance from the government. When they were denied help and ordered to stay, they made plans to flee Hungary, driving across the countryside during the cold of winter, in horse and cart, until they reached Austria. When they arrived, they were assisted by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee as well as the UNRRA, living as refugees in Vienna for four months and, later, a Salzburg transit camp. With the help of his Uncle Joska, who had already emigrated to Australia, Des, his mother and Feri left Austria for Genoa where they boarded the Fairsea to Australia, stopping briefly in Cape Town, before arriving in Melbourne in May 1957. The family struggled to adjust to life in their adoptive country but eventually found success in the hotel business. In 1965, Des met and married his wife Maya and the couple had two children, Jenny and Michael.

I had nothing to lose is a clear and comprehensive account of the author’s wartime experiences. The narrative is straightforward, charting the author’s life in chronological detail with accompanying historical documents and photographs. Des Lee’s memoir is brimming with love for the author’s family and Hungarian culture, particularly his hometown Vértes, culminating in a series of family recipes. It was written and published with the assistance of Adele Hulse of the Makor Jewish Community Library’s “Write Your Story” program.