Budapest: Stephen Nagy was nine and a half in September 1944:

I contracted scarlet fever, at that time a very serious illness. You had to go to an isolation hospital for six weeks. On October 14th I got a phone call from my father saying to get my clothes together: the next day I'd go home. But the next day was October 15, when the right-wing fascist Hungarians under Ferenc Szálasi took over.

So, I was stuck in hospital. At first, I felt reasonably safe. I had a friend there who called me, in Hungarian, büdös zsidó, which means “smelly Jew” which the Jews were called. I wasn't pleased. But he wasn't very nasty about it. 

I didn't understand why I was still in the hospital. I later learned that first of all no one could come for me because the Germans blew up the bridge. Also, my family arranged through connections with the hospital director that they keep me there until further notice. 

I heard guns. The Russians were getting nearer. Then on December 21, suddenly this gentleman called Mr. Bujdosi, I remember the name, a lovely gentleman, came with a car. And I was taken to an International Red Cross house.

There were a lot of Jewish children there. Conditions were reasonably normal. There was food. I was quite ignorant of what was going on except I knew there was a war. I knew the Russians were coming nearer. I knew that there were daily air raids, the siren sounded. 

We had to go down to the shelter. The house escaped because there was obviously a Red Cross marked on the roof. I was pretty frightened. I wasn't a happy bunny. But I was 9½ & reasonably streetwise. I was already on my own for nearly two months. I was fending for myself. I found it a relatively normal thing.

There were 2 or 3 adults in charge. One woman was a rather old battle axe, not very pleasant to us. Then, soon after Christmas, suddenly, the adults disappeared. I was curious what was happening & went down in the shelter. I found lots of old Jewish people, including my father's second cousin. When she saw me, she just said, 'My God. What are you doing here? Don't go back upstairs. Stay downstairs with me. We've still got some food.' So I stayed.

"Then on January 18, after weeks of awful bombing suddenly there was eerie silence. I woke up on a straw mattress next to the lady. She said 'Don't go outside!' but I did & found we were 'free'. The same day, my relative’s daughter came for her & found me there & took me back to their flat.

I had my first decent meal there. A potato dish. What happened after that—I never forgave her—was that the daughter took me to a Yellow Star house, saying she didn't know anything about my parents but that my uncle & aunt were there, which they weren't. So I was stuck there alone for another 4 weeks.

The remaining Germans tried to dig a tunnel & escape but were all annihilated. So there was lots of bombs. Sadly, my older relative, who was at the International Red Cross house, was in the street & was killed by a shrapnel.

Eventually my uncle & aunt arrived. It was ice cold. The Danube was frozen over. My job was to go down with a saucepan & bring up water from the ground floor because there was no pressure. I carried this water up, stopping after each floor because by this stage I was quite weak. One day, February 1, I was carrying water, I heard a strange voice, which I thought may have been my brother's but it's gone a bit deeper than what I remembered. I went up there & found my mother & brother in the flat.

They'd escaped from Old Buda. They were in a house where Germans moved into the lower ground floor. But on the 31st of January, suddenly these Germans disappeared. So next day, my mother & brother went down to the Danube, where it narrows & was thick ice. 

They had taken the dog, who was very close to my 7-year-old cousin. Several times, my brother gave it a kick to go back but it wouldn't. They managed to cross the Danube & decided to write a little note, “We crossed the Danube at Ujpest. Come after us.” And my brother gave the dog a huge big kick & it found a way all the way back to the house. And as my cousin put her arms around the dog & kissed the dog she found this note. So the next day, my aunt, with my father & my cousin, came the same way & arrived at my uncle & aunt's yellow star house, where we all were. So that was the family reunion.