"The honor bestowed by Pope Benedict XVI on Sister Sara Salkahazi for risking and eventually giving her life to save Jews in peril is an important statement by the church. It is unfortunate that there were not more individuals like Sister Sara, but her example must be held up to demonstrate how lives can be saved when good people take action to confront evil."- Abraham Foxman
Unit 1012 will
honor and always remember Sister Sára Salkaházi, every year
on December 27, as she was executed on that date in 1944. We do not remember
her only on her feast day but also on her beatification day on September 17,
2006. We will remember and honor her for saving the lives of approximately 100
Jews during World War II and she rightfully deserves to be recognized by the
State of Israel as Righteous among the Nations.
Her story
should be an inspiration for us to support victims’ rights and defend the use
of the death penalty by speaking out against evil and saving lives. We will
post information about her from Wikipedia and other links.
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Sister Sara Salkahazi, beatified for
sheltering Jews during the holocaust. Caught and shot on December 27, 1944 by
the Fascist Arrow Cross Party members.
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Born
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May 11,
1899
Kassa, Austria-Hungary (now Košice, Slovakia) |
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Died
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December
27, 1944 (aged 45)
Budapest, Hungary |
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Honored in
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Catholic
Church
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Beatified
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September
17, 2006, Budapest
by Cardinal Archbishop Péter Erdő
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Blessed Sára Salkaházi, S.S.S.
(Kassa, May 11, 1899 - Budapest, December 27, 1944), born as Sára Schalkház,
was a Hungarian Roman Catholic religious sister who saved the lives of
approximately one hundred Jews during World War II. Denounced and summarily
executed by the Pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party, Salkaházi was beatified in 2006.
Early life
Salkaházi was born in Kassa (now
Kosice, Slovakiaon) May 11, 1899, to Leopold and Klotild Salkahazin, owners of
the Hotel Salkahaz in Kassa. The family was of German origin. Her father died
when she was two years old. Her brother described her as "a tomboy with a
strong will and a mind of her own." She earned an elementary school
teacher's degree, and later worked as a bookbinder's apprentice, and in a
millinery shop. She became a journalist and edited the official paper of the
National Christian Socialist Party of Czechoslovakia. At this time, she was far
from devout, and at times, even flirted with atheism. Before becoming a
religious sister, she was once engaged to be married, but she soon broke off
the engagement.
Religious life
The Sisters of Social Service, founded in by Margit
Slachta in 1912 were at first reluctant to accept the chain-smoking woman
journalist. She joined the congregation in 1929, and took her first vows on
Pentecost 1930. Her first assignment was at the Catholic Charities Office in
Kosice, where she supervised charity works, managed a religious bookstore, and
published a periodical entitled Catholic Women. At the request of the
Catholic Bishop's Conference of Slovakia she organized all the various Catholic
women's groups into a national Catholic Women's Association, and established
the National Girls' Movement. As national director of the Catholic Working
Girls' Movement, Sister Sára built the first Hungarian college for working
women, near Lake Balaton. To protest the rising Nazi ideology Sister Sára
changed her last name to the more Hungarian-sounding "Salkaházi". In
Budapest, she opened Homes for working girls and organized training courses.
She also wrote a play on the life of St Margaret of Hungary, canonized on 19
November 1943.
Her boundless energy was misunderstood
by the other sisters as an attempt to draw attention to herself. Her superiors
doubted her vocation and refused to allow her to renewal her temporary vows,
nor permit her to wear the habit for a year. She considered leaving.
Nevertheless she continued to live the life of a Sister of Social Service
without vows. The Hungarian Benedictines in Brazil were asking for Sisters to
work there in mission, and Sara was eager to go, but World War II intervened.
World War II
Sister Sára opened the Working Girls'
Homes to provide safe haven for Jews persecuted by the Hungarian Nazi Party. In
1943 she smuggled a Jewish refugee from Slovakia, disguised in the habit of the
"gray sisters, and the woman's son, out of the Sisters' house in Kassa,
which was being searched by the Gestapo, and brought them temporarily to
Budapest. During the final months of World War II, she helped shelter hundreds
of Jews in a building belonging to the Sisters of Social Service in Hungary's
capital, Budapest. About 100 were aided by Salkahazi herself, who was the
national director of Hungarian Catholic Working Women's Movement. As the sister
responsible for the house, she secretly made a formal pledge to God in presence
of her superior to be prepared to sacrifice herself if only the other sisters
were not harmed during the war. The fact and text of the pledge have been
preserved in her journals.
Martyrdom
Betrayed to the authorities by a woman
working in the house, the Jews she had sheltered were taken prisoner by members
of the Hungarian pro-Nazi
Arrow Cross Party. Salkaházi was not in the house
when the arrests took place and could have fled, yet she chose to return. The
prisoners were lined up on the bank of the Danube
River on December 27, 1944 and shot, together with four Jewish women and a
Christian co-worker who was not a member of her religious institute. Her body
was never recovered. The killings came to light in 1967, during the trial of
some Arrow Cross members.
In 1969, her deeds on behalf of
Hungarian Jews were recognized by Yad Vashem after she was nominated by the
daughter of one of the Jewish women she was hiding, who was killed alongside
her.
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Beatification of Blessed Sára Salkaházi in
Budapest on September 17, 2006.
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Beatification
On September 17, 2006, Sister Sára was
beatified in a proclamation by Pope
Benedict XVI, read by Cardinal Péter
Erdő during a Mass outside St. Stephen's Basilica in Budapest, which
said in part, "She was willing to assume risks for the persecuted ... in
days of great fear. Her martyrdom is still topical ... and presents the
foundations of our humanity." This is the first beatification to take
place in Hungary since that of King Stephen in 1083 along with his son Imre and the Italian Bishop Gerard
Sagredo, who were instrumental in converting Hungary to Christianity. If
Salkaházi is canonized, she will be the first non-royal Hungarian
female saint.
Speaking at the Mass, Rabbi József Schweitzer said of Sister Sára, "I know from personal experience ... how dangerous and heroic it was in those times to help Jews and save them from death. Originating in her faith, she kept the commandment of love until death."
Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National
Director said, "The honor bestowed by Pope
Benedict XVI on Sister Sara Salkahazi for risking and eventually giving her
life to save Jews in peril is an important statement by the church. It is
unfortunate that there were not more individuals like Sister Sara, but her
example must be held up to demonstrate how lives can be saved when good people
take action to confront evil." Foxman, a Holocaust survivor had
been saved by his Polish Catholic nanny.
Blessed Sára Salkaházi took as her
motto "Here I am; send me!
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