Judita Ilkovics was born on September 26, 1924, in Cergov (Csorgo), a little village on the Hungarian border in what was then Czechoslovakia. Her father used to say that when she was born she raised the town’s census to 102. She lived in an estate on a large farm that lacked electricity and running water. Her family was the only Jewish family in the village; Judita recalls growing up in a kosher household and lighting the Shabbat candles. Though she remembers seeing some anti-Semitism as a child, it did not escalate beyond the occasional cry of “stinky Jew.” She also noted that her family was well assimilated; she spoke Hungarian, was raised on Hungarian fairy tales, and felt at home in Hungary.
Her father (Otto Ilkovics) was a non-practicing lawyer who rented the farm on which they lived, and her mother (Marta Rosenberg) was a housewife. Judita described her mother as a “tower of strength” who was able to “find something good in every situation.” Even as their world crumbled around them, Marta made Judita “feel safe and loved and hopeful.”
Her childhood was happy and full of vivid memories: taking care of her younger brother; making friends at camp; teaching herself how to knit; telling herself stories while sitting in her family’s garden; reading literature and philosophy; and falling in love for the first time. Since her village only had two classrooms, she attended grade school about 60 kilometers away in Presov, where she lived with her grandparents.
When she entered high school life began to change for Judita and for Jews throughout Hungary. Jews were banned from city parks and from obtaining jobs, and later from attending school and owning property. For Judita, it meant that she could not plan for higher education beyond high school and that her family’s economic existence became uncertain. Soon enough, Jews would lose their right to life. When word of the death camps reached Judita’s parents, her father began wearing black ties to mourn the Jewish people. Any hope that the situation would improve shattered on March 19, 1944 when Germany occupied Hungary.
